Yemen profile

Demography and Health

Yemen’s population was about 40.6 million in 2024, reflecting a large base that, in combination with a very high birth rate of 35.2 births per 1,000 people (2023), points to rapid natural population growth. Life expectancy at birth stands at 69.3 years (2023), while mortality among children under five remains severe at 39.3 per 1,000 live births, signaling substantial ongoing health challenges for mothers and children. A large portion of the population—about 39.5% in 2022—faces undernutrition, underscoring widespread food insecurity and vulnerabilities to shocks like conflict and price volatility. In 2024, net migration is negative (-10,482), indicating more people leaving than entering the country, which can reduce the available labor force and potential remittances while increasing reliance on internal resources for households remaining behind. Health financing indicators show current health expenditure at 6.19% of GDP (2022) and domestic general government health expenditure per capita, PPP, of 5.4 international US$ (2022), suggesting limited fiscal capacity to expand health services despite a large population and high need. Taken together, the demography and health indicators depict a youthful yet burdened population facing acute nutrition and child health gaps, with constrained public funding and outward migration influencing the structure of households and demand for essential services.

Economy

Economically, Yemen remains at a low income level, with GDP per capita at 433 current US$ in 2024, signaling a very modest average standard of living despite a large population. The country’s demographic heft amplifies the challenge of translating limited per-person income into broad shared prosperity. Health expenditure as a share of GDP is around 6.19% (2022), indicating a modest commitment of national resources to health relative to many peers, consistent with ongoing fiscal strain in a conflict-affected context. Domestic health spending per capita, at PPP terms, is about 5.4 international US$ (2022), underscoring constrained government investment in health infrastructure and services. The combination of a very low GDP per capita, significant nutritional need, and limited fiscal space helps explain persistent poverty and vulnerability to external shocks in Yemen’s economy, even before considering the economic disruption caused by conflict. Innovation signals are weak, with the resident patent activity showing only 20 applications in 2021, indicating a small domestic knowledge economy and limited capacity to translate ideas into commercial products or attract higher-value investment. The overall economic portrait is one of structural fragility: a large population living with very low per-capita income, constrained public finance, and limited innovative capacity, all of which hamper resilience and growth potential.

Trade and Investment

Yemen’s trade and investment environment is reflected in a very low logistics standing, with the Logistics Performance Index at 1.9 (2022) on a 1 to 5 scale (1 being the lowest). This suggests substantial bottlenecks in the quality of trade and transport-related infrastructure, which raise the costs and time associated with moving goods domestically and crossing borders. Alongside weak logistics, domestic innovation signals are sparse, given only 20 resident patent applications in 2021, a figure that points to a small, nascent innovation ecosystem and limited ability to compete through new technologies or protect intellectual property. Taken together, these indicators imply that Yemen faces high trade costs and limited capacity to attract investment that relies on efficient logistics and technological upgrading, constraining export diversification and productivity gains in the near term.

Governance and Institutions

Governance indicators paint a picture of weak institutions and high political risk. Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism score -2.56 in 2023, Regulatory Quality sits at -1.84, Rule of Law at -1.84, Control of Corruption at -1.65, and Government Effectiveness at -2.28. These broadly negative values reflect persistent instability, weak regulatory frameworks, compromised rule of law, corruption challenges, and limited administrative effectiveness. In combination, they signal a fragile governance environment that undermines predictable policy making, undermines investor confidence, complicates public service delivery, and constrains capacity to implement reforms in critical areas such as security, economy, and social protection. The cumulative effect is a challenging operating climate for both domestic institutions and international partners seeking to support stabilization, governance improvement, and humanitarian and development outcomes.

Infrastructure and Technology

In infrastructure and technology terms, Yemen shows constrained capacity across several dimensions. The relatively small patent activity (20 resident applications in 2021) points to a weak domestic innovation base and limited technological spillovers from the global knowledge economy. Renewable energy contributes only 3.7% of total final energy consumption in 2021, highlighting dependence on traditional energy sources or imports and signaling challenges for energy diversification and resilience. Together, these indicators suggest that Yemen’s physical and intellectual infrastructure remains underdeveloped, limiting productivity gains, digital adoption, and the capacity to adopt new technologies without external support, investment, or reform. The combination of weak governance, limited innovation, and modest energy diversification translates into a fragile productive base that is highly sensitive to external shocks and humanitarian crises.

Environment and Sustainability

Environment and sustainability metrics reveal severe vulnerabilities. About 39.5% of the population faced undernourishment in 2022, illustrating the deep food-security crisis driven by conflict, disruption of agriculture, and price volatility. Water scarcity is extreme: the level of water stress, defined as freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available resources, is reported at 170.0 in 2021, indicating that Yemen withdraws far more water than its renewable resources can sustainably provide—an unsustainable trajectory likely to worsen agriculture, health, and livelihoods absent significant management and investment. Per capita greenhouse gas emissions are relatively low at 0.819 t CO2e (2023), reflecting limited industrial activity and energy consumption, yet this should not obscure climate vulnerability and growing environmental pressures from population and urbanization. Renewable energy shares and water-resource stress collectively point to urgent needs for infrastructure investments in water management, agriculture, and energy systems, alongside resilience-building to mitigate climate and conflict-related shocks. The combined environmental profile underscores that Yemen’s sustainability challenges are intertwined with food security, water availability, and climate risk, requiring integrated policy responses and substantial external support.