Eritrea

The country card for Eritrea: the growth identity’s three terms, population and output, external debt by creditor and the data-quality flag, each with its source.
ERI Asmara · East Africa Confidence: not yet computable
Growth-pole chapters
no growth-pole chapter
Pole types
none assigned
Regional communities
IGAD, COMESA, CEN-SAD
Currency
ERN (Nfk), fixed
Official languages
ti, ar, en

Reports almost nothing to WDI; expect low confidence

VintagesWEO April 2026WDI pulled 25 October 2026IDS 2025 (December 2025 release)WPP 2024, medium variantLast refreshed 25 October 2026About the data

The identity

GDP growth is output-per-worker growth plus growth in the employment-to-working-age ratio plus working-age population growth. All three are annual growth rates, so the bar adds.

0Output per worker: -2.31% a yearEmployment-to-working-age ratio: -0.12% a yearWorking-age population (15-64): +1.98% a yearimplied: -0.45% a yearimplied -0.45%= 0.5 percentage points a year
Growth accounting over 2014-2024. Terms stack away from zero and add to the implied growth rate, which is marked against observed GDP growth on the same scale. A hatched block is a term not yet on the card: it is parked at the right, carries no width, and holds the sum back rather than letting a missing number pass as zero.
  • Output per worker-2.31%
  • Employment-to-working-age ratio-0.12%
  • Working-age population (15-64)+1.98%
  • Observed GDP growthnot yet fetched
  • Implied (the three terms summed)-0.45%
Overlay (beside the bar, never inside it) Value
Wage employment share 47.4%
Non-agricultural employment share 44.0%
Employment rate, women 68.0%
Employment rate, men 79.7%
Youth not in employment, education or training not yet fetched
Productivity growth, within-sector not yet fetched
Productivity growth, between-sector not yet fetched
Wage employment source ILO-modelled-employees

Generative-AI exposure: not yet fetched. The share of employment in the occupations the ILO's index places in the automation band sits beside the bar, never inside it: it is a share, not a growth rate.

Population path

3.5m20245.7m20508.4m2100
Total population, three WPP 2024 medium-variant anchor years. The cards carry totals only, not age structure, so this is a path and not a pyramid.
  • Population, 20243.5 million
  • Population, 20505.7 million
  • Population, 21008.4 million
  • Median age18.9 years
  • Total fertility rate3.68 births per woman
  • Dependency ratio73.4 per 100 of working age

Output

Levels are the IMF’s April 2026 estimates for 2025, with the World Bank’s most recent published year standing in where the IMF publishes no figure for this country. Observed growth is over the same window as the identity above, and the forecast runs five years out.

Field Value
GDP $2.1bn
GDP per capita $689
GDP at PPP not yet fetched
Observed GDP growth not yet fetched
GDP growth, five-year forecast not yet fetched
Urban share 34.5%
Informal employment share not yet fetched
Largest city Asmara
Largest city population 543 thousand
Largest city population, 2050 958 thousand

External debt

Multilateral: $0.52bnOther bilateral: $0.06bnNot split by the IDS creditor classes: $0.09bn$0bn$0.7bn
External debt by creditor class, IDS 2025. The classes shown cover $0.58bn of a $0.67bn stock; the grey remainder is debt the IDS creditor split does not assign here. A creditor class with no bar is one not yet on the card; it is not a zero. The bar stacks the three classes that divide publicly guaranteed debt by type of creditor and add up to it. The three lines below the rule cut the same total a different way, so they belong inside it and never beside it.
  • Multilateral$0.5bn
  • Other bilateral$0.1bn
  • Other privatenot yet fetched
  • Eurobonds, of which bonds, inside other privatenot yet fetched
  • Paris Club, of which owed to Paris Club members, across all three$0.1bn
  • China, of which owed to China, across all three$0.0bn
  • Total external debt stock$0.7bn
IDS 2025, debt owed to China$0.0bnBU CLA, cumulative commitments$0.7bn
Commitments exceed the recorded debt stock by $0.71bn, the usual wedge between what was promised, what was drawn, and what has been repaid.
  • IDS 2025, owed to China$0.0bn
  • BU CLA, cumulative commitments$0.7bn
Field Value
Debt service due 2026-2030 $0.2bn
Eurobonds outstanding not yet fetched
Restructuring status none
Collateralized or resource-backed debt not yet fetched
S&P rating not yet fetched
Moody's rating not yet fetched
Fitch rating not yet fetched

Exports and the balance sheet

Field Value
Top three exports Ores and concentrates of base metals, n.e.s. (SITC 287): 22.1%; Vegetables (SITC 054): 20.0%; Copper ores and concentrates; copper mattes, cemen (SITC 283): 14.3%
Commodity dependence 92.1%
Remittances received not yet fetched
Foreign direct investment $0.1bn
Official development assistance $0.1bn
AfCFTA status not yet fetched
PAPSS member no
Afrobarometer lived poverty index not yet fetched

Data quality

Last census not recorded. Last GDP rebase not recorded. Last labour-force survey 2015. SPI not recorded. Subscribes to no IMF dissemination standard. Confidence: not yet computable.The rule: high means a census within fifteen years, an SPI score of 70 or better and a labour-force survey within five years; one failure is medium, two or more failures or a census before 2000 is low, and the flag is left uncomputed when one of the three inputs is itself missing (the rule, and the reasons to argue with it, on the About the data page).

Field Value
WPP estimate basis not recorded
Climate vulnerability high
Fragility FCS: institutional and social fragility

Census: no population and housing census has ever been enumerated on Eritrean territory. The first post-independence census was scheduled for 1998 and abandoned when the war with Ethiopia began, and Ethiopia's own first census, in 1984, excluded the province of Eritrea on security grounds, so there is no earlier enumeration to fall back on either (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Eritrea). Population estimates for the country range roughly 3.6 to 6.7 million. The field is left null because nothing was ever held, not because the year is unknown. LFS: the Ministry of Labour and Human Welfare national labour force survey was conducted in 2015/16 (ages 14-64), reported by the state newspaper; recorded as 2015, single-source. Rebase and dissemination standard: not sourced; dsbb.imf.org is blocked from this environment and no World Bank SPI score is published for Eritrea, so the card's confidence flag cannot be computed whatever is entered here.

The shelf

The latest reports on this country from the Fund and the Bank. Each line under “what it argued” is the publisher's own summary, quoted, not a paraphrase; where a summary says nothing the line is blank. A country with no Article IV consultation in the last three years says so, with the report that establishes it.

Report What it argued
IMF Article IVNo Article IV consultation since 2003IMF The latest Article IV consultation the IMF Staff Country Reports series carries for this country was published in July 2003; the url is that report. See the record.

Sources

Numbers on this card were last refreshed on 25 October 2026.

Release behind this card Last pulled
Africapolis 2025 25 October 2026
Boston University Chinese Loans to Africa database, 2000-2024 25 October 2026
ILO modelled estimates, November 2025 25 October 2026
ND-GAIN Country Index, 2026 release 25 October 2026
PAPSS Payments Network Coverage sheet 25 October 2026
UN World Population Prospects 2024, medium variant Not recorded
UNCTADstat merchandise trade matrix 25 October 2026
World Bank Group FY26 list of fragile and conflict-affected situations 25 October 2026
World Bank International Debt Statistics 2025 25 October 2026
World Bank World Development Indicators 25 October 2026
World Bank World Development Indicators, cross-border flows 25 October 2026
hand-entered Not pulled
derived here from the three identity terms Not pulled
Field on this page Where the number comes from
Chinese loan commitments, cumulative Boston University Chinese Loans to Africa database, 2000-2024
Climate vulnerability ND-GAIN Country Index, 2026 release, 2024 observation
Commodity dependence UNCTADstat merchandise trade matrix, 2025 observation
Debt service due 2026-2030 World Bank International Debt Statistics 2025 (2026-2030)
Dependency ratio UN World Population Prospects 2024, medium variant
Employment rate, men ILO modelled estimates, November 2025, 2024 observation
Employment rate, women ILO modelled estimates, November 2025, 2024 observation
Employment-to-working-age growth ILO modelled estimates, November 2025, 2024 observation
External debt stock World Bank International Debt Statistics 2025
Foreign direct investment World Bank World Development Indicators, cross-border flows, 2025 observation
Fragility World Bank Group FY26 list of fragile and conflict-affected situations
GDP World Bank World Development Indicators, 2011 observation
GDP per capita World Bank World Development Indicators, 2011 observation
Identity window UN World Population Prospects 2024, medium variant
IMF dissemination standard Hand-entered, cited to absent from https://dsbb.imf.org/sdds/subscriptio…
Implied GDP growth derived here from the three identity terms
Largest city Africapolis 2025, 2025 observation
Largest city population Africapolis 2025, 2025 observation
Largest city population, 2050 Africapolis 2025, 2050 observation
Last labour-force survey Hand-entered, cited to shabait.com/2018/11/03/eritreas-labor-force-surve…
Median age UN World Population Prospects 2024, medium variant
Non-agricultural employment share ILO modelled estimates, November 2025, 2024 observation
Official development assistance World Bank World Development Indicators, cross-border flows, 2023 observation
Output per worker growth ILO modelled estimates, November 2025, 2024 observation
Owed to China World Bank International Debt Statistics 2025, 2024 observation
Owed to multilaterals World Bank International Debt Statistics 2025
Owed to other bilaterals World Bank International Debt Statistics 2025
Owed to Paris Club creditors World Bank International Debt Statistics 2025, 2024 observation
PAPSS member PAPSS Payments Network Coverage sheet (June 2026)
Population, 2024 UN World Population Prospects 2024, medium variant
Population, 2050 UN World Population Prospects 2024, medium variant
Population, 2100 UN World Population Prospects 2024, medium variant
Restructuring status Hand-entered, cited to clubdeparis.org/en/sites/clubdeparis/accueil/pays…
Top three exports UNCTADstat merchandise trade matrix, 2025 observation
Total fertility rate UN World Population Prospects 2024, medium variant
Urban share World Bank World Development Indicators, 2025 observation
Wage employment share ILO modelled estimates, November 2025, 2024 observation
Wage employment source ILO modelled estimates, November 2025, 2024 observation
Working-age population growth (15-64) UN World Population Prospects 2024, medium variant

Card schema african-economic-future/country_card/v1, built 2026-10-25. The release behind each key, and the day each was last pulled, are listed on the About the data page, and the record behind this page is one of the fifty-four in cards.csv and cards.json.

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