Burundi Is The Poorest Country With A Cost Of Living Of Only 1.2 Dollars Per Day

Burundi is the poorest country with a cost of living of only 1.2 dollars per day. Burundi is a country in East Africa surrounded by Ruanda to the north, Tanzania to the east, Congo to the west, and Lake Tanganyika. However, this country originates from the Bantu language, namely Kirundi. The area of ​​the country is only 27,834 km.

Burundi is one of the countries in Africa whose land borders are not determined by the regulations of the colonialists who visited the African continent. Although the country has no maritime borders, many of its land borders are adjacent to Lake Tanganyika. Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world. According to Global Finance magazine, 82.1% of people in Burundi meet their living needs with just 1.25 US dollars per day.

This country experienced an economic crisis 7 years ago and is still ongoing today. So life in Burundi becomes very difficult. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Burundi’s economy worsened. The standard of living and level of welfare is very low, resulting in food scarcity, low economic growth and high economic inflation.

From the government’s population census, 65% of Burundi’s population is under 25 years old, 32% is under 15 years old, and only 3% is over 65 years old. Burundi is the country with the highest number of children experiencing malnutrition in the world. According to Global Hanger Index or GHI data, the level of hunger in Burundi continues to increase and gets worse every year. It is recorded that 65% of children under the age of 5 suffer from hunger and malnutrition.

This small country has a fairly large population, but most of them live below the poverty line. They have difficulty feeding themselves and their families. That is what causes Burundi to be nicknamed hell on earth.

About 80% of Burundians work in the agricultural sector and are highly dependent on this sector. So most of them work as farmers, but this apparently cannot make them prosperous. Only a small number of residents can access electricity at home, and because of this limitation, there are even shops that offer services to charge cellphones. The majority of cellphones used are still old products. Most work in Burundi still relies on human labor. Compared to technology.

The technology they have is still minimal and has not developed like in other countries in general. So they still rely heavily on people’s energy. The meat they consume is only two percent of the total food they usually consume. This is one of the reasons why many children in Burundi die before the age of 5. Apart from that, many of them end up lacking important substances and this results in problems with IQ and other physical development.

Sadly, most children prefer to work rather than go to school. Only 32% of the population successfully completes high school, and less than one percent goes on to university. This happens because they think that school will not have a positive impact on supporting the family’s economy. So most of the children there prefer to help their parents in earning money.

Burundians also prefer to own cows rather than money. Because cows are considered a luxury item. This is different from India which makes cows a sacred animal. However, not all residents have cows because the price of this animal is very expensive in Burundi.