Lesotho vs South Sudan

Lesotho and South Sudan compared on 9 key figures from official sources. Each value is the latest one published for that country, so the year is shown with it.

• South Sudan has about 5.2 times as many people as Lesotho: 12.2 million against 2.4 million in 2025.
• GDP per person is about the same in Lesotho ($1,089 in 2025) and South Sudan ($1,080 in 2015).
• The economy grew faster in Lesotho (2% in 2025) than in South Sudan (-10.8% in 2015), a difference of 12.8 percentage points.
• Consumer prices rose faster in South Sudan (91.4% in 2024) than in Lesotho (4.3% in 2025), a difference of 87.1 percentage points.
• The unemployment rate was higher in Lesotho (16.3% in 2025) than in South Sudan (12.4% in 2023), a difference of 3.9 percentage points.
• Life expectancy at birth is about the same in Lesotho (57.8 years) and South Sudan (57.7 years) in 2024.
• The population of Lesotho is older: half of its people are over 21.4 years, against 18 years in South Sudan in 2023.
• A larger share of people used the internet in Lesotho (51.8% in 2024) than in South Sudan (6.7% in 2019), a difference of 45.1 percentage points.
• Forest covers a larger share of the land in South Sudan (11.3%) than in Lesotho (1.1%), a difference of 10.2 percentage points in 2024.