Prosperity: Algeria alone above the threshold, while Morocco and Tunisia remain at the bottom

Thibault Renard — Paris, France — 2026-09-24

An international ranking has just placed Algeria on a tier that no other Maghreb country reaches. And it is not a ranking of raw wealth: it is a ranking of what actually remains for people.

The international fintech HelloSafe has published its Global Prosperity Index 2026, which ranks 186 countries. Its distinguishing feature comes down to one sentence: it refuses to measure the wealth produced, and measures instead what that wealth leaves to households.

Six indicators, weighted:

The data comes from the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme.

In other words: a country can have a shining economy and a bad score. That is exactly what happens in this ranking.

What the figures say

Algeria scores 40,36 points. On the HelloSafe scale, the 40-point mark is the entry into the category of countries with "intermediate prosperity" — while 60 points designates countries with a very high level of prosperity.

And here is how that looks against the neighbours. First at the scale of the continent — then, because that is where the comparison becomes telling, among the five North African countries:

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Global Prosperity Index 2026 — the five North African countries (HelloSafe)

!Algeria | 40,36 | points

Libya | 33,84 | points

Egypt | 33,24 | points

Tunisia | 32,25 | points

Morocco | 30,02 | points

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The 40-point bar runs between Algeria and the other four. The gap with Libya, second in the group, is 6,5 points; with Morocco, last, more than 10 points.

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Global Prosperity Index 2026 — the African continent (for context)

Mauritius | 41,05 | points

Seychelles | 40,77 | points

!Algeria | 40,36 | points

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Algeria is third on the continent, behind two islands — Mauritius and the Seychelles. But it is the only African country ranked in the "intermediate prosperity" category, and it is far ahead of the rest of North Africa.

Morocco, eighth in Africa, is at 30,02 points. Ten points behind. Tunisia at 32,25. Egypt at 33,24. Libya at 33,84. All of them in the lower category, that of countries with "low prosperity".

The second ranking, and it says the same thing

A single index proves nothing. It is the convergence of two independent indices that makes a demonstration.

The United Nations Development Programme publishes its Human Development Index every year — life expectancy, education, income. Here are the five North African countries in the UNDP report whose coverage is for 2026:

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Human Development Index 2026 — North Africa (UNDP)

!Algeria | 0,763 | (96th worldwide)

Egypt | 0,754 | (100th worldwide)

Tunisia | 0,746 |

Libya | 0,721 |

Morocco | 0,710 | (last of the Arab countries of Africa)

[[/BAR]]

The conclusion is the same, in the same order, almost country by country. Algeria ahead of Egypt, Egypt ahead of Tunisia, Morocco last.

And there is one fact to retain about this ranking: Algeria gained eighteen places in one year, to reach 96th in the world. The UNDP classifies Algeria in the high human development category.

Two different institutions — a fintech and a UN agency — two different methods, and the same result. This is no longer an opinion, it is a convergence.

Why Algeria clears the threshold — and it is not oil

This is where the ranking becomes interesting, because the explanation is not the one you would expect.

It is not GDP that makes the difference. It is the sharing. And here is the proof, in a single table.

Let us first look at the wealth produced per capita, as measured by the World Bank:

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GDP per capita — North Africa (World Bank, 2025, in dollars)

Libya | 6 449 | $

Algeria | 6 051 | $

Morocco | 4 672 | $

Tunisia | 4 657 | $

Egypt | 3 086 | $

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Libya is first. Algeria is second. If prosperity came down to GDP per capita, Libya would be at the top of the HelloSafe ranking.

It is fourth. At 33,84 points, six and a half points behind Algeria.

That is the whole demonstration in one line: the richest country per capita in the region is not the most prosperous, because prosperity is not measured by what is produced, but by what trickles back down.

Then let us look at how wealth is distributed — this is the famous Gini coefficient, which, it should be recalled, weighs 15 % of the HelloSafe score. The lower it is, the more equal the distribution:

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Gini coefficient — income inequality (World Bank)

!Algeria | 27,6 | (the lowest in the region)

Egypt | 28,5 |

Tunisia | 33,7 |

Morocco | 39,5 |

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Algeria shows 27,6, the lowest in the group. Morocco is at 39,5 — nearly twelve points apart, which concretely means that the gap between the wealthiest and the most modest households there is more than twice as wide as it is in Algeria.

Here is the mechanical explanation. Algeria redistributes to its population a substantial share of its hydrocarbon rent — consumer subsidies, fuels, electricity, basic goods, social transfers. Public employment accounts for more than a third of formal wage employment. This model is criticised by international financial institutions for its budgetary cost and its crowding-out effect on private investment.

But it produces a measurable result, and that result has a name: the gap between the wealthiest and the most modest households is the narrowest in the region.

While others build visible fortunes and leave the majority outside, Algeria distributes. This is not an opinion: it is a coefficient, calculated by the World Bank, built into 15 % of an international score.

And what this means for people's lives

A third indicator allows us to move beyond abstract figures. Life expectancy, again according to the World Bank:

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Life expectancy at birth — North Africa (World Bank, 2024)

Tunisia | 76,71 | years

!Algeria | 76,47 | years

Morocco | 75,49 | years

Egypt | 71,81 | years

Libya | 71,12 | years

[[/BAR]]

Tunisia and Algeria are a quarter of a point apart. Then comes Morocco, one point away. Then a drop of nearly four years with Egypt and Libya.

Across the five indicators examined — prosperity, human development, inequality, life expectancy, and even GDP per capita where it is second — Algeria is never at the bottom of the table.

What this ranking does not measure — and it has to be said

An honest ranking must be read together with its limits, and this one is serious.

The reference data on Algerian inequality dates from 2011. That is the most recent year available in the standardised international databases. HelloSafe explicitly acknowledges this as one of the limits of its index.

But the study immediately provides an answer, and it is a solid one: this indicator weighs only 15 % of the final score, and the authors tested seven alternative weighting configurations — Algeria's position remains stable in all seven.

Translation: even by changing the rules of the calculation, the result does not move. This is no longer a ranking, it is a robustness.

And what about France, then?

To measure what 40,36 points are worth, one has to look at the top of the table.

The global ranking is dominated by Luxembourg (86,2), Norway (85,1) and Ireland (84,7) — countries where economic strength combines with high human development and low inequality.

France is 20th in the world and 14th in Europe, with 60,36 points. The United States is 18th, Canada 19th.

The gap between Algeria and France is therefore twenty points. It is real, it is significant, and no one claims otherwise. But one must look at where Algeria is starting from, and above all at where those who, on paper, should be doing better actually stand.

The lesson

A country that produces a great deal and distributes badly gets a bad score. A country that produces less but distributes gets a better score.

That is exactly what this ranking says about the Maghreb. Morocco has built an automotive complex, attracts Stellantis, exports phosphates, develops green hydrogen and turns Casablanca into an air hub. All these facts are true, and none of them appears in the equation — because the index measures neither growth nor international market share. It measures what the wealth produced actually leaves to households.

And on that question, only one answer stands out in North Africa.

Algeria is not crossing a threshold of wealth. It is crossing a threshold of distribution — and that is harder.

Sources: HelloSafe Prosperity Index 2026, published on 9 April 2026 — 186 countries, six weighted indicators, World Bank and UNDP data, via TSA Algérie (Prosperity index: Algeria in the African top 3, far ahead of Morocco and Tunisia), Afrik.com (HelloSafe 2026 ranking: Algeria, the only African country with intermediate prosperity), Afrik.com (Inequality and redistribution in the Maghreb: the other side of the HelloSafe 2026 ranking), Cresus.dz, MaghrebActu, Entreprises Magazine, La Nouvelle Tribune · Human Development Index: UNDP, 2025 report whose coverage is for 2026 (Algeria 0,763 — 96th worldwide, +18 places; Egypt 0,754 — 100th; Tunisia 0,746; Libya 0,721; Morocco 0,710) · Gini coefficient, GDP per capita and life expectancy: World Bank, official indicators API — Gini SI.POV.GINI (Algeria 27,6 in 2011; Egypt 28,5 and Tunisia 33,7 in 2021; Morocco 39,5 in 2013; Libya not reported); GDP per capita NY.GDP.PCAP.CD in current dollars (2025); life expectancy SP.DYN.LE00.IN (2024).