The colophon
How this atlas was made
The African Tax Observatory reads two public sources, computes a small set of standard ratios from them, checks the result with fixed rules, and shows every step.
Edition 1, October 2026
This is the first dated edition of the atlas, released on 15 October 2026 and built from the data pull of 14 October 2026. The pages may move on with later pulls; the edition stays fixed, and its data package is being deposited on Zenodo for a permanent DOI. Cite the edition, and the ATAF Databank as the source of the figures.
Kaijamahe, W. H. (2026). African Tax Observatory (Edition 1, October 2026) [Data set and atlas]. TaxIntellilytics Stories. https://www.taxintellilyticsstories.com/africa
Sources
- ATAF Databank (African Tax Administration Forum, ato.ataftax.org/atafdatabank): the 23 indicators anyone can export, for every member and every year from 2010 to 2025. 10,185 observations in the current pull. Required citation: "ATAF Databank, the African Tax Administration Forum."
- World Bank World Development Indicators: population (SP.POP.TOTL) for per-person figures; central-government tax revenue as a share of GDP (GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS) for each member as a cross-check and for these benchmarks: World, OECD members, Africa Eastern and Southern, Africa Western and Central, Low income, Lower middle income, Upper middle income; and each country's income group.
How the data is pulled
The Databank's export form returns its results as a web table. The pull script (scripts/africa/pull_ataf.mjs, run with npm run africa:refresh) sends the same request the form sends, for all members, years and free indicators, and parses that table. ATAF marks a missing value with "/"; those cells are dropped, never stored as zero. Country names are mapped by hand to ISO codes and African Union regions, and the mapping is kept in version control. Each pull records its date and what changed since the previous one.
Units, and why the ratios are valid
ATAF publishes revenue and GDP in US dollars at purchasing-power parity. Because a country's tax and its GDP are converted with the same factor, the factor cancels in their ratio: tax-to-GDP from these figures equals tax-to-GDP in local currency. Growth in PPP-dollar levels is not the same as growth in local currency, so this site reports ratios and buoyancy (an elasticity, which the conversion also leaves intact) rather than revenue growth rates.
The measures
| Measure | Computed as |
|---|---|
| Tax revenue, % of GDP | Total Tax Revenues (PPP) divided by Nominal GDP (PPP) |
| Domestic tax revenue, % of GDP | Domestic Tax Revenues (PPP) divided by Nominal GDP (PPP) |
| Customs tax revenue, % of GDP | Customs Tax Revenues (PPP) divided by Nominal GDP (PPP) |
| Non-tax revenue, % of GDP | Non-Tax-Revenues (PPP) divided by Nominal GDP (PPP) |
| VAT (domestic and on imports), % of GDP | Domestic VAT Revenues (PPP) + VAT On Import Revenues (PPP) divided by Nominal GDP (PPP). Gross of refunds: ATAF publishes VAT refunded separately and not every country reports it. |
| Personal income tax, % of GDP | PIT Revenues (PPP) divided by Nominal GDP (PPP) |
| Corporate income tax, % of GDP | CIT Revenues (PPP) divided by Nominal GDP (PPP) |
| Customs share of tax revenue | Customs Tax Revenues (PPP) divided by Total Tax Revenues (PPP) |
| Tax revenue per person (PPP dollars) | Total Tax Revenues (PPP) divided by population |
| Registered taxpayers per 1,000 people | Total Number Of Registered Taxpayers per 1,000 population. ATAF counts registered taxpayers, which include companies, so this is a measure of register size, not of the share of adults who pay. |
- A ratio that needs several indicators is left blank if any one is missing; a partial sum would understate it.
- Medians and percentiles use linear interpolation (the R and NumPy default). The pooled ratio sums numerators and denominators across countries, so large economies weigh more.
- Beta convergence: the annual change in tax-to-GDP regressed on its starting level, across countries observed in both years, by ordinary least squares.
- Sigma convergence: the cross-country standard deviation, over a balanced panel (the same countries every year) so that countries joining or leaving cannot create a trend.
- Tax buoyancy: the slope of log tax revenue on log GDP across all years a country reports, shown only with four or more years.
- Every calculation has a unit test with a hand-checked answer (lib/africa/metrics.test.ts).
What is not here
Egypt returned no observations from the free export. ATAF releases 20 further indicators only on request, listed here exactly as ATAF's request form names them. None is used on this site, and nothing is estimated in their place:
- Revenues From Large Taxpayers (PPP)
- Cost Indicators (Total costs of TA)
- Operating Costs (PPP)
- VAT Taxpayers
- CIT Taxpayers
- PIT Taxpayers (Employers)
- PIT Taxpayers (Employees)
- Total Number Of Active Tax Accounts
- Taxpayer Per Auditor
- Staff Per Auditor
- Customs Clearance
- Number Of Seizures For Customs Enforcement
- Revenue per staff
- Labour force per tax administrator
- Core To Support Staff
- Number of staff in the core department
- Number of support staff
- Total number of staff
- Total number of male staff
- Total number of female staff
Data-quality checks
Run on every pull, across all 44 members and all years. 120 flags in the current pull. Each country sheet lists its own flags.
| Check | Rule | Flags |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic plus customs differs from total | Domestic tax revenue plus customs tax revenue differs from total tax revenue by more than 5%. | 0 |
| Domestic heads do not add up | Where all six domestic tax heads are reported, their sum differs from reported domestic tax revenue by more than 10%. | 45 |
| Sudden jump | Total tax revenue (PPP) more than doubles or more than halves from one year to the next. | 8 |
| Disagrees with the World Bank | ATAF tax-to-GDP differs from the World Bank's central-government tax revenue (% of GDP) by more than 5 points. The two can differ legitimately (coverage, fiscal versus calendar years, GDP revisions); a flag says where to look, not who is right. | 67 |
Every flag
| Country | Year | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Angola | 2011 | ATAF gives 7.9% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 14.3%. |
| Angola | 2012 | ATAF gives 6.5% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 13.2%. |
| Angola | 2013 | ATAF gives 7.3% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 12.6%. |
| Angola | 2018 | Total tax revenue (PPP) moves ×0.47 from 2017. |
| Angola | 2019 | Total tax revenue (PPP) moves ×2.40 from 2018. |
| Angola | 2020 | ATAF gives 9.4% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 20.6%. |
| Botswana | 2011 | ATAF gives 13.1% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 24.0%. |
| Botswana | 2012 | ATAF gives 14.4% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 28.0%. |
| Botswana | 2013 | ATAF gives 12.8% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 26.7%. |
| Botswana | 2014 | ATAF gives 13.4% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 27.1%. |
| Botswana | 2015 | ATAF gives 15.1% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 26.3%. |
| Botswana | 2016 | ATAF gives 11.6% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 21.6%. |
| Botswana | 2017 | ATAF gives 13.6% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 23.9%. |
| Botswana | 2018 | ATAF gives 13.0% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 21.7%. |
| Botswana | 2019 | ATAF gives 12.5% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 21.1%. |
| Botswana | 2020 | ATAF gives 13.3% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 22.3%. |
| Botswana | 2021 | ATAF gives 13.0% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 22.2%. |
| Botswana | 2023 | ATAF gives 13.8% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 22.4%. |
| Burundi | 2012 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 86% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Burundi | 2013 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 73% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Burundi | 2014 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 72% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Burundi | 2015 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 70% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Burundi | 2016 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 70% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Burundi | 2017 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 69% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Burundi | 2020 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 74% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Burundi | 2022 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 75% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Burundi | 2023 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 82% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Burundi | 2024 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 84% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Burundi | 2025 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 80% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Chad | 2017 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 75% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Chad | 2019 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 81% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Chad | 2024 | Total tax revenue (PPP) moves ×0.47 from 2023. |
| Chad | 2025 | Total tax revenue (PPP) moves ×2.30 from 2024. |
| Congo | 2020 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 110% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Côte d'Ivoire | 2012 | Total tax revenue (PPP) moves ×2.33 from 2011. |
| Côte d'Ivoire | 2012 | ATAF gives 16.7% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 10.6%. |
| Côte d'Ivoire | 2013 | ATAF gives 16.2% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 10.6%. |
| Côte d'Ivoire | 2014 | ATAF gives 15.4% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 10.1%. |
| Democratic Republic of Congo | 2020 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 89% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Eswatini | 2010 | ATAF gives 10.3% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 16.3%. |
| Eswatini | 2011 | ATAF gives 11.2% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 16.6%. |
| Eswatini | 2012 | ATAF gives 11.0% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 29.1%. |
| Eswatini | 2014 | ATAF gives 12.1% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 29.8%. |
| Eswatini | 2015 | ATAF gives 12.3% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 27.4%. |
| Eswatini | 2016 | ATAF gives 12.5% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 23.9%. |
| Eswatini | 2017 | ATAF gives 14.2% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 26.3%. |
| Eswatini | 2018 | ATAF gives 14.8% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 24.3%. |
| Eswatini | 2019 | ATAF gives 15.1% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 24.5%. |
| Eswatini | 2020 | ATAF gives 15.4% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 27.1%. |
| Eswatini | 2021 | ATAF gives 15.2% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 24.3%. |
| Guinea-Bissau | 2022 | ATAF gives 19.6% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 8.7%. |
| Lesotho | 2011 | ATAF gives 15.5% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 30.2%. |
| Lesotho | 2012 | ATAF gives 16.5% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 38.1%. |
| Lesotho | 2013 | ATAF gives 15.4% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 35.9%. |
| Lesotho | 2014 | ATAF gives 15.0% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 36.3%. |
| Lesotho | 2015 | ATAF gives 15.9% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 33.8%. |
| Lesotho | 2016 | ATAF gives 16.3% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 29.3%. |
| Lesotho | 2017 | ATAF gives 15.9% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 33.0%. |
| Lesotho | 2018 | ATAF gives 15.7% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 31.8%. |
| Lesotho | 2019 | ATAF gives 18.4% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 32.5%. |
| Lesotho | 2020 | ATAF gives 23.3% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 36.0%. |
| Lesotho | 2021 | ATAF gives 15.7% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 31.9%. |
| Lesotho | 2022 | ATAF gives 20.8% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 30.4%. |
| Lesotho | 2023 | ATAF gives 20.1% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 40.0%. |
| Lesotho | 2024 | ATAF gives 21.3% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 35.4%. |
| Liberia | 2025 | Total tax revenue (PPP) moves ×2.58 from 2024. |
| Malawi | 2023 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 90% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Mauritius | 2015 | ATAF gives 16.6% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 8.6%. |
| Mozambique | 2019 | ATAF gives 18.7% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 26.7%. |
| Namibia | 2010 | ATAF gives 15.9% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 25.5%. |
| Namibia | 2011 | ATAF gives 16.6% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 29.6%. |
| Namibia | 2012 | ATAF gives 16.4% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 32.9%. |
| Namibia | 2013 | ATAF gives 17.0% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 33.0%. |
| Namibia | 2014 | ATAF gives 17.3% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 34.6%. |
| Namibia | 2015 | ATAF gives 20.1% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 33.4%. |
| Namibia | 2016 | ATAF gives 21.0% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 29.7%. |
| Namibia | 2017 | ATAF gives 21.1% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 31.3%. |
| Namibia | 2019 | ATAF gives 41.4% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 30.4%. |
| Namibia | 2023 | ATAF gives 26.2% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 32.7%. |
| Niger | 2011 | Total tax revenue (PPP) moves ×26.56 from 2010. |
| Seychelles | 2019 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 76% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Sierra Leone | 2023 | Total tax revenue (PPP) moves ×989.07 from 2022. |
| South Africa | 2010 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 112% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| South Africa | 2021 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 110% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| South Africa | 2023 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 112% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| South Africa | 2024 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 112% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| South Africa | 2025 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 113% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Tanzania | 2017 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 90% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Tanzania | 2018 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 89% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Tanzania | 2019 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 87% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Tanzania | 2021 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 90% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Togo | 2010 | ATAF gives 15.7% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 10.5%. |
| Togo | 2011 | ATAF gives 16.4% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 11.4%. |
| Togo | 2012 | ATAF gives 16.5% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 11.4%. |
| Togo | 2013 | ATAF gives 19.5% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 12.1%. |
| Togo | 2014 | ATAF gives 20.7% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 13.2%. |
| Togo | 2015 | ATAF gives 21.4% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 13.8%. |
| Togo | 2016 | ATAF gives 21.8% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 13.9%. |
| Togo | 2017 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 89% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Togo | 2018 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 88% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Togo | 2019 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 88% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Togo | 2020 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 87% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Togo | 2021 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 88% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Togo | 2023 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 89% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Uganda | 2018 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 89% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Uganda | 2019 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 89% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Uganda | 2021 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 89% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Uganda | 2022 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 89% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Uganda | 2023 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 90% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Uganda | 2024 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 90% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Zambia | 2010 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 123% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Zambia | 2011 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 124% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Zambia | 2012 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 128% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Zambia | 2013 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 121% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Zambia | 2015 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 120% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Zambia | 2016 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 131% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Zambia | 2018 | The six domestic tax heads sum to 122% of reported domestic tax revenue. |
| Zimbabwe | 2010 | ATAF gives 25.4% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 17.4%. |
| Zimbabwe | 2011 | ATAF gives 28.1% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 17.9%. |
| Zimbabwe | 2012 | ATAF gives 27.5% of GDP; the World Bank's central-government series gives 17.8%. |
Breaks in the series
GDP in purchasing-power dollars moves slowly. When a country's level grows by more than half, or loses more than a third, in a single year, the figures were compiled differently on either side: GDP was rebased, the currency changed, or the earlier years were never restated. A gap of four years or more between reported years counts as a break too. The rule finds 13 breaks in 10 countries. Each country sheet carries a note where it applies. Tax to GDP is the safer figure across a break, because tax and GDP are converted alike; levels are not comparable across one.
| Country | Between | Kind | GDP, PPP | Tax to GDP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angola | 2017 and 2018 | level falls | $218.0bn to $104.6bn | 6.3% to 6.2% |
| Angola | 2018 and 2019 | level jumps | $104.6bn to $235.7bn | 6.2% to 6.6% |
| Chad | 2022 and 2023 | level jumps | $29.0bn to $50.3bn | 14.2% to 12.4% |
| Gabon | 2024 and 2025 | level jumps | $37.6bn to $58.2bn | 18.1% to 10.1% |
| Gambia | 2012 and 2013 | level jumps | $2.7bn to $4.1bn | 16.2% to 10.5% |
| Ghana | 2012 and 2013 | level jumps | $90.9bn to $140.9bn | 17.4% to 11.3% |
| Lesotho | 2022 and 2023 | level jumps | $4.9bn to $7.5bn | 20.8% to 20.1% |
| Liberia | 2014 and 2015 | level falls | $3.9bn to $2.0bn | 19.5% to 18.5% |
| Liberia | 2024 and 2025 | level jumps | $4.8bn to $11.3bn | 12.1% to 13.2% |
| Sierra Leone | 2020 and 2021 | level jumps | $15m to $25m | 10.3% to 6.9% |
| Sierra Leone | 2022 and 2023 | level jumps | $30m to $28.5bn | 5.6% to 5.7% |
| South Sudan | 2018 and 2019 | level jumps | $1,926 to $5.9bn | n/a |
| Zimbabwe | 2012 and 2024 | 11 years missing | $22.6bn to $4.9bn | 27.5% to 12.4% |
Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe gave up its own currency in 2009 and ran on the US dollar and other foreign currencies, brought back a Zimbabwe dollar in 2019, and replaced it with the ZiG (Zimbabwe Gold) in April 2024. Converting national accounts to purchasing-power dollars across changes like these is unreliable, which is the most likely reason for the fall in the level.
Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone redenominated the leone in 2022, taking three zeros off (1,000 old leones became one new leone). The years before 2023 and the years after appear to have been converted to dollars on different bases, which is why the level jumps in 2023.
Accessibility and speed
Every kind of page in the atlas is audited with Google's Lighthouse on the live site, for accessibility against WCAG 2.2 AA, speed on a phone, good practice and findability. The scores below are the latest run, published as measured.
| Page | Accessibility | Speed | Practices | SEO | LCP · CLS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The atlas (home) | 100 | 77 | 100 | 100 | 2.6 s · 0 |
| Gazetteer | 100 | 85 | 100 | 100 | 2.9 s · 0 |
| A country sheet (Uganda) | 100 | 79 | 100 | 100 | 2.7 s · 0.011 |
| The Taxscape | 100 | 65 | 100 | 100 | 1.7 s · 0 |
| Compare | 100 | 84 | 100 | 100 | 3.0 s · 0.001 |
| The notebook | 100 | 78 | 100 | 100 | 2.9 s · 0 |
| The wire | 100 | 89 | 100 | 100 | 2.7 s · 0.021 |
| The catalogue | 100 | 83 | 100 | 100 | 2.4 s · 0 |
| The colophon | 100 | 88 | 100 | 100 | 2.1 s · 0.006 |
Lowest across these pages: accessibility 100, speed 65, practices 100, SEO 100. Lighthouse checks the parts of WCAG 2.2 AA a machine can test (contrast, names, roles, labels, tap targets, language); the colours here are also set to pass AA in the code. What a machine cannot judge, such as how a screen-reader user experiences the charts, still needs testing with people. Speed scores vary by a few points between runs; the Taxscape is slowest because it draws the continent in 3D.
Changelog
- 2026-10-14 15:14 UTC: 10,185 observations. 0 added, 0 removed, 0 revised since the previous pull.
- 2026-10-14 15:13 UTC: 10,185 observations. 0 added, 0 removed, 0 revised since the previous pull.
- 2026-10-14 14:58 UTC: 10,185 observations. First pull into this repository.