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A social media posts sarcastically blamed “the king” for turning Sri Lanka into Asia’s second-poorest country, with only Afghanistan below it. The claim spread easily because many Sri Lankans are still feeling the cost of living, and poverty here remains higher than it was in 2019. But do the latest figures from the IMF, the World Bank and the United Nations support that ranking? Here are the posts that carried it.
Social Media Posts:
A series of posts carried the lines “The king who made Sri Lanka Asia’s 2nd poorest country” and “1 Afghanistan, 2 Sri Lanka”. None of them cited a data source or linked to any ranking.
Claim examined: “Sri Lanka has become Asia’s second-poorest country, and Afghanistan is Asia’s poorest.” We checked where Sri Lanka and Afghanistan rank among Asian countries on several indicators: income, poverty, and human development.
Fact Check:
No single measure decides whether a country is poor. We therefore examined separate indicators: economic output, income classification, poverty, and living standards. Links to the relevant data repositories and reports are included in each section.
IMF data places Yemen and Afghanistan at the bottom in Asia
Checking the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) October 2026 World Economic Outlook data here, the Asian economy with the lowest nominal GDP per capita in 2025 is Yemen (US$418), and the second lowest is Afghanistan (US$450). Timor-Leste is third at US$1,464. Sri Lanka’s value is US$5,004. Among the 48 Asian economies with data, Sri Lanka ranks 18th from the bottom (31st from the top) by our calculation. That means 30 Asian economies have a higher value than Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka holds a similar position on purchasing power parity (PPP). The two lowest are Yemen (international $1,589) and Afghanistan ($2,269), and Sri Lanka ($17,063) is 18th from the bottom. The PPP data is available here.
| Position from bottom | Nominal, US$ (2025) | PPP, international $ (2025) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yemen: 418 | Yemen: 1,589 |
| 2 | Afghanistan: 450 | Afghanistan: 2,269 |
| 3 | Timor-Leste: 1,464 | Myanmar: 5,039 |
| 4 | Myanmar: 1,501 | Timor-Leste: 5,058 |
| 5 | Nepal: 1,536 | Tajikistan: 6,165 |
| 6 | Tajikistan: 1,693 | Nepal: 6,174 |
| 7 | Pakistan: 1,697 | Pakistan: 7,016 |
| 8 | Laos: 2,171 | Cambodia: 8,426 |
| 18 | Sri Lanka: 5,004 | Sri Lanka: 17,063 |
Source: IMF World Economic Outlook, October 2026 (DataMapper: NGDPDPC and PPPPC). The rankings exclude North Korea, Syria, and Palestine, which have no data.
So even the claim that Afghanistan is “first” is incorrect by IMF data. The lowest value belongs to Yemen.
The World Bank classifies Sri Lanka as an upper-middle-income country
The World Bank classifies countries by gross national income (GNI) per capita, calculated using the Atlas method. The classification from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 is available here. Sri Lanka is an upper-middle-income economy. Its 2025 GNI per capita was US$4,670, which exceeds the lower threshold of the upper-middle category (US$4,636) by only US$34.
In the World Bank’s data repository, Sri Lanka ranks 15th from the bottom among the 41 Asian economies with a 2025 value. Countries below it includes Myanmar (US$1,320), Pakistan (US$1,500), Timor-Leste (US$1,510), Nepal (US$1,570), India (US$2,760), and Bangladesh (US$2,840). The World Bank has not published a 2025 value for Afghanistan or Yemen.
Our investigation into Sri Lanka’s return to upper-middle-income status is available here. Income classification is not a ranking of countries by poverty.
Sri Lanka’s poverty is high, but nowhere near Afghanistan’s level
The World Bank revised Sri Lanka’s poverty estimates in October 2026 using labour force survey data. Under US$4.20 a day line (2021 PPP), poverty was 11.5% in 2019. The 2024 estimate was revised to 18.4% (previously 25.0%). The 2025 figure of 16.9% is a nowcast.
As the World Bank itself notes, this revised series is not official statistics. The official benchmark is the Household Income and Expenditure Survey of the Department of Census and Statistics (2019: 14.3%, here). The widely quoted 24.5% (US$3.65, 2017 PPP) can therefore no longer be treated as the latest figure.
For Afghanistan, the World Bank’s latest value under the national poverty line is 47.1% for 2019 (here). Sri Lanka’s value for the same year is 14.3%. National lines differ between countries, so these values cannot be compared precisely. Even so, in the last year with data, Afghanistan’s figure was more than triple Sri Lanka’s. Because the World Bank series has no value for Afghanistan after 2019, its current poverty cannot be measured from World Bank data.
According to the 2026 update of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (here), 64.9% of Afghanistan’s population was multidimensionally poor in 2022/23. Sri Lanka’s value is 2.9%. However, that figure is older and is based on a 2016 survey, so the comparison should be treated only as a rough guide.
Human development, food security, and the least developed countries list place Sri Lanka well ahead of Afghanistan
According to the UNDP’s 2025 Human Development Report (2023 data) (here), Sri Lanka ranks 89th of 193 countries (index value 0.776, high human development). Afghanistan ranks 181st (0.496) and Yemen 184th (0.470). The 2026 Global Hunger Index value is 10.2 for Sri Lanka (here) and 28.6 for Afghanistan (here).
The UN’s list of least developed countries (LDCs) includes eight Asian countries, among them Afghanistan and Yemen, but not Sri Lanka (here).
| Indicator | Sri Lanka | Afghanistan | Yemen | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GDP per capita, nominal (2025) | US$ 5,004 | US$ 450 | US$ 418 | IMF WEO, October 2026 |
| GDP per capita, PPP (2025) | 17,063 | 2,269 | 1,589 | IMF WEO, October 2026 |
| GNI per capita, Atlas (2025) | US$ 4,670 | Not published | Not published | World Bank (WDI) |
| Human Development Index (2023) | 0.776 (89) | 0.496 (181) | 0.470 (184) | UNDP, HDR 2025 |
| Global Hunger Index (2026) | 10.2 | 28.6 | We did not check* | GHI 2026 |
| National poverty line, share of population (2019) | 14.3% | 47.1% | We did not check* | World Bank (WDI), DCS |
| Multidimensional poverty, share of population | 2.9% (2016) | 64.9% (2022/23) | We did not check* | OPHI/UNDP, MPI 2026 |
| Least developed countries list | No | Yes | Yes | UN/UNCTAD |
*“We did not check” appears because official data for Yemen is not cited in this fact check.
Sri Lanka’s recovery remains fragile
Sri Lanka’s poverty is still higher than in 2019. According to the World Bank’s revised estimate, it rose from 11.5% in 2019 to 18.4% in 2024. The country also clears the upper-middle-income threshold by only US$34. Sri Lanka became an upper-middle-income country in 2019 and fell back to the lower-middle category in 2020.
These difficulties are real, but they are not evidence that Sri Lanka is Asia’s second-poorest country. You can read our more recent investigations into poverty in Sri Lanka here and here. Our earlier investigation into the fake claim that Sri Lanka is the “world’s second-poorest country” is here, and our earlier investigation into the claim about the fastest-developing country is here.
The rankings have limits
The IMF’s 2025 values are estimates and may be revised. Data is unavailable for North Korea, Syria and Palestine, and the quality of Afghanistan’s data is limited. The IMF database has no 2026 projection for Afghanistan. Rankings also change depending on the indicator, and the rank positions above are our own calculations. Even so, none of the indicators we checked shows evidence that Sri Lanka is Asia’s second-poorest country.
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Conclusion:
Our fact check found that the claims that Sri Lanka has become Asia’s second-poorest country are false.
By the IMF’s October 2026 World Economic Outlook, the Asian economies with the lowest GDP per capita in 2025 are Yemen and Afghanistan. Sri Lanka ranks 18th from the bottom among the 48 economies with data. The World Bank classifies Sri Lanka as an upper-middle-income country. The UN Human Development Report, the Global Hunger Index and the least developed countries list also place Sri Lanka well ahead of Afghanistan. However, the World Bank’s latest estimates show that Sri Lanka’s poverty is higher than in 2019.
Note: The World Bank has not published Atlas income or international-line poverty data for Afghanistan, so that comparison rests on IMF, UNDP, and global index data.
Title: Is Sri Lanka Asia’s Second-Poorest Country? No, IMF and World Bank Data Say Otherwise
Written By: Pavithra Sandamali
Result: False
