Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income): Travel services (% of service exports, BoP)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2025, Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)'s travel services (% of service exports, BoP) rose 0.82 percentage points on 2024 (from 35.25% to 36.07%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1995 to 2024), the average change was −0.18 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 4.27 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.2 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 9.37 percentage points in 2022 and the biggest yearly fall was 17.15 percentage points in 2020. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2016 to 2025 there is no clear straight-line trend: a straight line explains 13% of the movement over 10 observed years, so the value is moving around more than it is heading anywhere.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

How it compares

See how every economy compares in the full ranking.

What this measures

Travel services cover goods and services for own use or to give away acquired from an economy by nonresidents during visits to that economy, or acquired from other economies by residents during visits to these other economies. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of service exports which are services provided by residents to non-residents.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 49 values

Travel services (% of service exports, BoP) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — 9.23% (2020)
• Algeria — 3.84% (2025)
• Bahrain — 33.49% (2025)
• Djibouti — 4.42% (2024)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 53.53% (2025)
• Iraq — 71.39% (2025)
• Israel — 3.56% (2025)
• Jordan — 76.5% (2024)
• Kuwait — 16.71% (2025)
• Lebanon — 68.29% (2023)

More economic policy & debt data for Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)

• Charges for the use of intellectual property, payments (BoP, current US$) — US$3.07 billion (2025)
• Portfolio equity, net inflows (BoP, current US$) — −US$472.27 million (2025)
• GDP (current US$) — US$2.21 trillion (2025)
• GDP (constant 2015 US$) — US$2.13 trillion (2025)
• GDP per capita (current US$) — US$1,671 (2025)
• GDP per capita (constant 2015 US$) — US$1,614 (2025)
• GDP (annual % growth) — 4.14% (2025)
• GDP per capita (annual % growth) — 1.64% (2025)

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Questions people ask

What is Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)'s travel services (% of service exports, BoP)?

36.07% in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1977?

It is up 0.5 percentage points from 35.57% in 1977. The highest value was 49.61% in 2005 and the lowest 21.67% in 2020.

Is the latest change in travel services (% of service exports, BoP) unusual for Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)?

In 2025, Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)'s travel services (% of service exports, BoP) rose 0.82 percentage points on 2024 (from 35.25% to 36.07%). Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1995 to 2024), the average change was −0.18 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 4.27 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.2 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator BX.GSR.TRVL.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook and data files, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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