brief Β· period 2026-09-28

Africa Data Brief, 2026-09-28

South Africa leads continental GDP, Mali leads research impact, and Northern Africa is the largest regional economy.

Research Organization Registry Β· last successful retrieval 28 September 2026Report an error
Sep 28, 2026
  • Largest economy: πŸ‡ΏπŸ‡¦ South Africa ($427.2B)
  • Highest research volume: πŸ‡ΏπŸ‡¦ South Africa (1.2M works)
  • Highest research impact: πŸ‡²πŸ‡± Mali (49.57)
  • Fastest growth: πŸ‡±πŸ‡Ύ Libya (13.37%)

This brief is generated automatically from the latest World Bank macro-economic series and OpenAlex research records covering all 54 African countries.

Economic weight: South Africa remains the largest economy on the continent at $427.2B, followed by Egypt ($365.3B) and Nigeria ($290.8B). By regional output, Northern Africa accounts for the largest share of continental GDP.

Research: South Africa publishes the highest volume of indexed research (1.2M works), while Mali achieves the strongest citation impact per publication (49.57). On institutional strength, University of Cape Town leads the continental university research table.

Momentum: Libya records the fastest GDP growth in the latest reporting year at 13.37%.

All 54 countries are re-scored and re-ranked on each automated run. Ranking positions are recomputed for the continent, for each of the five regions, and within each country.

Figures used in this report

countries tracked
54
universities tracked
1,225
continental gdp usd
3,158,181,163,617
ranking sets published
67
continentalgdpresearchautomated

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