Matchup file

Botswana vs South Africa

121 shared metrics.

BotswanaLeads in 40

vs121 shared

South AfricaLeads in 81

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South Africa leads by 41 metrics. Use the same instinct in a quick real-data brawl.

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Country briefing

What matters for both sides

Short real-world notes so the comparison reads like more than a stat strip.

Botswana

Quick notes before you compare the numbers.

Identity

Formal name: Republic of Botswana.

CIA 2026

Curated stat

Botswana's Okavango Delta floods during the dry season and never reaches the sea.

UNESCO

South Africa

Quick notes before you compare the numbers.

Identity

Formal name: Republic of South Africa.

CIA 2026

Curated stat

South Africa splits its capitals three ways: Pretoria runs administration, Cape Town legislates, and Bloemfontein anchors the judiciary.

Gov.za

Analysis

South Africa leads in 81 of 121 shared metrics, while Botswana leads in 40.

Botswana's Firms Making Informal Payments is 4.8x that of South Africa (8.6% of firms vs 1.5% of firms).

Botswana's FDI Inflows (% GDP) is 3.1x that of South Africa (2.4% of GDP vs 0.58% of GDP).

Botswana's Military Spending is 3.0x that of South Africa (2.8% of GDP vs 0.70% of GDP).

Botswana's Firms Asked for Bribes is 3.0x that of South Africa (6.1% of firms vs 1.5% of firms).

Botswana's Protected Land (%) is 2.1x that of South Africa (29.1% vs 9.5%).

Key Comparisons

Firms Making Informal PaymentsBotswana leads

Botswana

8.6% of firms

South Africa

1.5% of firms

FDI Inflows (% GDP)Botswana leads

Botswana

2.4% of GDP

South Africa

0.58% of GDP

Military SpendingBotswana leads

Botswana

2.8% of GDP

South Africa

0.70% of GDP

Firms Asked for BribesBotswana leads

Botswana

6.1% of firms

South Africa

1.5% of firms

Protected Land (%)Botswana leads

Botswana

29.1%

South Africa

9.5%

Nurses & MidwivesBotswana leads

South Africa

Botswana

2.52M

South Africa

61.09M

96% lower

Comparison of Botswana and South Africa across 121 metrics
				Winner
Firms Making Informal Payments	8.6% of firms	1.5% of firms	480% higher	Botswana
FDI Inflows (% GDP)	2.4% of GDP	0.58% of GDP	315% higher	Botswana
Military Spending	2.8% of GDP	0.70% of GDP	305% higher	Botswana
Firms Asked for Bribes	6.1% of firms	1.5% of firms	299% higher	Botswana
Protected Land (%)	29.1%	9.5%	206% higher	Botswana
Nurses & Midwives	3.1 per 1k	1.0 per 1k	194% higher	Botswana
Renewable Energy (%)	27.4%	9.7%	182% higher	Botswana
Informal Employment Share	75.58% of employed people	34.81% of employed people	117% higher	Botswana
Milk Consumption per Person	117.74 kg/person/yr	55.75 kg/person/yr	111% higher	Botswana
Foreign Patents	2.0	9.2K	100% lower	South Africa
Domestic Patents	3.0	1.8K	100% lower	South Africa
Irrigated Land	25 km²	16.7K km²	100% lower	South Africa
Air Passengers	172.7K	15.45M	99% lower	South Africa
Water Withdrawal	0.21 B m³	21.11 B m³	99% lower	South Africa
Electric Generating Capacity	758.0K kW	65.99M kW	99% lower	South Africa
Electricity Generation	2.6 TWh	244.81 TWh	99% lower	South Africa
Scientific Publications	392.69	16.7K	98% lower	South Africa
Total CO2 Emissions	6.9 Mt CO2e	440.17 Mt CO2e	98% lower	South Africa
Railway Length	888 km	30.4K km	97% lower	South Africa
Population	2.52M	61.09M	96% lower	South Africa
Solar Electricity Share	0.29%	8.0%	96% lower	South Africa
Railway Network	886 km	21.0K km	96% lower	South Africa
All-Time Olympic Gold Medals	1.0 gold medals	28 gold medals	96% lower	South Africa
All-Time Olympic Medals	4.0 medals	95 medals	96% lower	South Africa
GDP (Nominal)	$19,402,063,512.91	$401,144,998,373.59	95% lower	South Africa
Population Density	4.4 /km²	52.11 /km²	92% lower	South Africa
Tourism Revenue	$217,000,000	$2,716,000,000	92% lower	South Africa
Official Languages Count	1.0	12	92% lower	South Africa
High-Tech Exports (%)	0.54%	5.7%	91% lower	South Africa
Armed Forces Personnel	9.0K	89.0K	90% lower	South Africa
Forest Coverage (%)	26.29%	13.97%	88% higher	Botswana
UNESCO World Heritage Sites	2.0 sites	12 sites	83% lower	South Africa
Water Stress (%)	8.9%	47.12%	81% lower	South Africa
Women in Parliament (%)	8.7%	44.7%	81% lower	South Africa
Airports	127	583	78% lower	South Africa
Government Debt (% GDP)	19.6% of GDP	79.45% of GDP	75% lower	South Africa
Homicide Rate	11.37 per 100k	43.72 per 100k	74% lower	South Africa
Seafood Consumption per Person	2.4 kg/person/yr	6.5 kg/person/yr	63% lower	South Africa
Suicide Rate	8.3 per 100k	22.3 per 100k	63% lower	South Africa
Mobile Money Accounts	51.62% of adults	31.62% of adults	63% higher	Botswana
Political Corruption Index	0.20	0.54	62% lower	South Africa
Meat Consumption per Person	24.44 kg/person/yr	60.03 kg/person/yr	59% lower	South Africa
Infant Mortality	38.2 per 1k births	24.4 per 1k births	57% higher	Botswana
CO2 Per Capita	3.0 t/person/yr	6.9 t/person/yr	57% lower	South Africa
Highest Elevation	1.5K m	3.5K m	57% lower	South Africa
Land Area	566.7K km²	1.21M km²	53% lower	South Africa
Electricity Use (Per Capita)	1.5K kWh/person	3.2K kWh/person	53% lower	South Africa
Doctors (per 1,000)	0.38 per 1k	0.79 per 1k	52% lower	South Africa
Border Neighbors	3.0	6.0	50% lower	South Africa
Insufficient Physical Activity	22.67% of adults	44.8% of adults	49% lower	South Africa
Imports (% GDP)	43.71% of GDP	29.85% of GDP	46% higher	Botswana
Agricultural Land (%)	45.63%	79.42%	43% lower	South Africa
Obesity Rate	17.46%	30.03%	42% lower	South Africa
Corruption Perceptions Index	58 pts	41 pts	41% higher	Botswana
Energy Use (Per Capita)	1.2K kg oil eq/person	1.9K kg oil eq/person	40% lower	South Africa
Elderly Population (%)	4.0%	6.7%	40% lower	South Africa
Firms with Female Top Manager	22.97% of firms	38.51% of firms	40% lower	South Africa
Inflation Rate	2.8%	4.4%	36% lower	South Africa
Health Spending (% GDP)	5.7% of GDP	8.8% of GDP	35% lower	South Africa
Education Spending (% GDP)	8.1% of GDP	6.0% of GDP	34% higher	Botswana
GDP Per Capita (PPP)	$20,538.13	$15,456.2	33% higher	Botswana
Road Traffic Death Rate	16.5 per 100k	24.5 per 100k	33% lower	South Africa
Life Evaluation Score	3.5 pts	5.0 pts	31% lower	South Africa
Unemployment Rate	23.14%	33.17%	30% lower	South Africa
Firms Hit by Power Outages	64.16% of firms	92.02% of firms	30% lower	South Africa
ATMs per 100,000 Adults	35.62 per 100k	50.46 per 100k	29% lower	South Africa
GNI Per Capita	$7,750	$6,110	27% higher	Botswana
Capital Elevation	1.0K m	1.4K m	27% lower	South Africa
Tobacco Use Prevalence	17.7% of adults	23.6% of adults	25% lower	South Africa
Youth Population (%)	32.13%	25.88%	24% higher	Botswana
Credit Card Ownership	7.3% of adults	9.7% of adults	24% lower	South Africa
Youth Unemployment Rate	46% of youth labor force	59.93% of youth labor force	23% lower	South Africa
Birth Rate	21.16 per 1k	17.21 per 1k	23% higher	Botswana
Women in Senior Management	48.21% of managers	39.27% of managers	23% higher	Botswana
Fertility Rate	2.7 children/woman	2.2 children/woman	22% higher	Botswana
Electricity Carbon Intensity	851.31 gCO2/kWh	699.29 gCO2/kWh	22% higher	Botswana
Coal Electricity Share	98.25%	81.36%	21% higher	Botswana
Air Pollution (PM2.5)	18.91 µg/m³	23.75 µg/m³	20% lower	South Africa
Median Age	22.9 years	28.2 years	19% lower	South Africa
Beer Consumption	2.6 L/person/yr	3.1 L/person/yr	18% lower	South Africa
Liberal Democracy Index	0.52	0.63	18% lower	South Africa
Dependency Ratio	56.66% of working-age pop.	48.31% of working-age pop.	17% higher	Botswana
Land Border Length	4.3K km	5.2K km	17% lower	South Africa
Women's Political Empowerment	0.70	0.83	16% lower	South Africa
Health Spending Per Capita	$477.83	$569.84	16% lower	South Africa
Can Raise Emergency Money	78.75% of adults	68.2% of adults	15% higher	Botswana
Digital Payments Used	56.95% of adults	67.17% of adults	15% lower	South Africa
Child Mortality	39.6 per 1k births	34.7 per 1k births	14% higher	Botswana
Exports (% GDP)	27.39% of GDP	31.79% of GDP	14% lower	South Africa
Electricity Access (%)	76%	87.7%	13% lower	South Africa
Forest Area	149.0K km²	169.4K km²	12% lower	South Africa
Tax Revenue (% GDP)	22.49% of GDP	25.4% of GDP	11% lower	South Africa
Smoking Rate	18.7%	20.7%	10% lower	South Africa
Electoral Democracy Index	0.67	0.74	10% lower	South Africa
University Enrollment Rate	21.41%	23.49%	9% lower	South Africa
Internet Users (%)	81%	76%	7% higher	Botswana
Safe Drinking Water (%)	63.29%	68.01%	7% lower	South Africa
Sanitation Access (%)	72.12%	77.38%	7% lower	South Africa
Spirits Consumption	1.0 L/person/yr	1.1 L/person/yr	6% lower	South Africa
Urban Population (%)	67.46%	63.69%	6% higher	Botswana
Life Expectancy	69.2 years	66.1 years	5% higher	Botswana
Freedom of Expression Index	0.80	0.84	5% lower	South Africa
Teen Birth Rate	53.8 per 1k	51.56 per 1k	4% higher	Botswana
Death Rate	6.8 per 1k	6.6 per 1k	4% higher	Botswana
Food Waste per Person	96.68 kg/person/yr	93.36 kg/person/yr	4% higher	Botswana
Mobile Subscriptions (%)	164 per 100 people	167 per 100 people	2% lower	South Africa
Alcohol Consumption	7.3 L/adult/yr	7.1 L/adult/yr	2% higher	Botswana
Human Development Index	0.73	0.74	1% lower	South Africa
Average Weekly Work Hours	42.92 hrs/week	42.39 hrs/week	1% higher	Botswana
Time Zones Count	3.0 time zones	3.0 time zones	equal	Botswana
Minimum Paid Vacation Days	15 days/yr	15 days/yr	equal	Botswana
Coastline Length	0 km	2.8K km	ranked lower	South Africa
Wind Electricity Share	0%	4.7%	ranked lower	South Africa
Hypertension Prevalence	44.4% of adults	44.4% of adults	equal	Botswana
Broadband Access (%)	3.0 per 100 people	3.0 per 100 people	equal	Botswana
GDP Growth Rate	-2.99%	0.53%	ranked lower	South Africa
Nobel Laureates Born per Million People	0 per 1M people	0.15 per 1M people	ranked lower	South Africa
Lowest Elevation	513 m	0 m	ranked higher	Botswana
Current Account Balance (% of GDP)	3.7% of GDP	-0.5% of GDP	ranked higher	Botswana
EV Chargers per 100,000 PeopleSource: © OpenStreetMap contributors - Open Database License (ODbL)	0 per 100k people	0.01 per 100k people	ranked lower	South Africa
McDonald's Outlets per Million PeopleSource: © OpenStreetMap contributors - Open Database License (ODbL)	0 per 1M people	3.5 per 1M people	ranked lower	South Africa

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Botswana South Africa

Analysis

South Africa leads in 81 of 121 shared metrics, while Botswana leads in 40.

Botswana's Firms Making Informal Payments is 4.8x that of South Africa (8.6% of firms vs 1.5% of firms).

Botswana's FDI Inflows (% GDP) is 3.1x that of South Africa (2.4% of GDP vs 0.58% of GDP).

Botswana's Military Spending is 3.0x that of South Africa (2.8% of GDP vs 0.70% of GDP).

Botswana's Firms Asked for Bribes is 3.0x that of South Africa (6.1% of firms vs 1.5% of firms).

Botswana's Protected Land (%) is 2.1x that of South Africa (29.1% vs 9.5%).

Key Comparisons

Firms Making Informal PaymentsBotswana leads

Botswana

8.6% of firms

South Africa

1.5% of firms

FDI Inflows (% GDP)Botswana leads

Botswana

2.4% of GDP

South Africa

0.58% of GDP

Military SpendingBotswana leads

Botswana

2.8% of GDP

South Africa

0.70% of GDP

Firms Asked for BribesBotswana leads

Botswana

6.1% of firms

South Africa

1.5% of firms

Protected Land (%)Botswana leads

Botswana

29.1%

South Africa

9.5%

Nurses & MidwivesBotswana leads

Botswana

3.1 per 1k

South Africa

1.0 per 1k

Firms Making Informal Payments

8.6% of firms

1.5% of firms

FDI Inflows (% GDP)

2.4% of GDP

0.58% of GDP

Military Spending

2.8% of GDP

0.70% of GDP

Firms Asked for Bribes

6.1% of firms

1.5% of firms

Protected Land (%)

29.1%

9.5%

Nurses & Midwives

3.1 per 1k

1.0 per 1k

Renewable Energy (%)

27.4%

9.7%

Informal Employment Share

75.58% of employed people

34.81% of employed people

Milk Consumption per Person

117.74 kg/person/yr

55.75 kg/person/yr

Foreign Patents

2.0

9.2K

Domestic Patents

3.0

1.8K

Irrigated Land

25 km²

16.7K km²

Air Passengers

172.7K

15.45M

Water Withdrawal

0.21 B m³

21.11 B m³

Electric Generating Capacity

758.0K kW

65.99M kW

Electricity Generation

2.6 TWh

244.81 TWh

Scientific Publications

392.69

16.7K

Total CO2 Emissions

6.9 Mt CO2e

440.17 Mt CO2e

Railway Length

888 km

30.4K km

Population

2.52M

61.09M

Botswana vs South Africa

Think you can spot the next winner?

What matters for both sides

Botswana

South Africa

Analysis

Key Comparisons

All Metrics

Firms Making Informal Payments

FDI Inflows (% GDP)

Military Spending

Firms Asked for Bribes

Protected Land (%)

Nurses & Midwives

Renewable Energy (%)

Informal Employment Share

Milk Consumption per Person

Foreign Patents

Domestic Patents

Irrigated Land

Air Passengers

Water Withdrawal

Electric Generating Capacity

Electricity Generation

Scientific Publications

Total CO2 Emissions

Railway Length

Population

Solar Electricity Share

Railway Network

All-Time Olympic Gold Medals

All-Time Olympic Medals

GDP (Nominal)

Population Density

Tourism Revenue

Official Languages Count

High-Tech Exports (%)

Armed Forces Personnel

Forest Coverage (%)

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Water Stress (%)

Women in Parliament (%)

Airports

Government Debt (% GDP)

Homicide Rate

Seafood Consumption per Person

Suicide Rate

Mobile Money Accounts

Political Corruption Index

Meat Consumption per Person

Infant Mortality

CO2 Per Capita

Highest Elevation

Land Area

Electricity Use (Per Capita)

Doctors (per 1,000)

Border Neighbors

Insufficient Physical Activity

Imports (% GDP)

Agricultural Land (%)

Obesity Rate

Corruption Perceptions Index

Energy Use (Per Capita)

Elderly Population (%)

Firms with Female Top Manager

Inflation Rate

Health Spending (% GDP)

Education Spending (% GDP)

GDP Per Capita (PPP)

Road Traffic Death Rate

Life Evaluation Score

Unemployment Rate

Firms Hit by Power Outages

ATMs per 100,000 Adults

GNI Per Capita

Capital Elevation

Tobacco Use Prevalence

Youth Population (%)

Credit Card Ownership

Youth Unemployment Rate