The Gross County Product measures wealth and welfare in the counties. It is derived by dividing the GCP by the population of the county.
Counties with higher GCPs per capita tend also to have higher living standards and lower poverty levels.
Quick Facts
- Kenya’s GDP per capita in 2023 was Ksh 293,229.
- Nairobi County had the highest GCP per capita of Ksh 802,344.
- Mombasa had the second-highest GCP per capita of Ksh 507,337.
- The county with the lowest GCP per capita in 2023 was Mandera at Ksh 72,376.
Understanding the Gross County Per Product per capita
The Gross County Product per capita is arrived at by dividing a county's Gross County Product – or its GDP, by its population.
For instance, in 2023, Kenya's GDP was Ksh 15.1 trillion, which, when divided by the country's total population in that year, yielded a GDP per capita of Ksh 293,229.[1] [2]
We arrive at county GDPs in the same way. Nairobi's GDP was Ksh 3.8 trillion in 2023, and its population was 4,750,056 in the same year. The resulting GCP per capita for Nairobi County in 2023 was Ksh 802,344.
Nairobi, Mombasa, and Nakuru had the highest nominal GCP per capita
Nairobi County had the highest GCP per capita in 2023 at Ksh 802,344. Mombasa County followed it with a GCP per capita of Ksh 507,337.[3]
Nakuru County was third with a GCP per capita of Ksh 334,667. Others include Nyeri at Ksh 317,459, Lamu at Ksh 304,024, Nyandarua at Ksh 302,965, Embu at Ksh 300,392, Machakos at Ksh 299,637, and Meru at Ksh 297,650.
The counties with the lowest GCP per capita were Mandera, at Ksh 72,376; Wajir, at Ksh 79,376; Garissa, at Ksh 81,775; Samburu, at Ksh 113,073; and Isiolo, at Ksh 119,139.
Other counties with low GCP per capita were Tana River at Ksh 122,779, Busia at Ksh 127,811, Migori at Ksh 130,912, Siaya at Ksh 136,191, Makueni at Ksh 144,991, and Baringo at Ksh 145,575.
Counties with a higher GCP per capita also have lower poverty levels
The GCP per capita can be used to measure wellbeing in the same way GDP per capita is used. As a result, it serves as a strong subnational indicator of living standards and inequality in the counties.
The first panel of the chart below shows the relationship between the overall poverty rate of a county and its GCP per capita. Counties with lower levels of GCP per capita had higher levels of poverty. Similarly, counties with higher GCPs per capita had lower levels of poverty. This suggests that counties become more prosperous as their GCP per capita increases.
Counties with high GCP per capita had high standards of living as measured by HDI.
The lower panel from the chart above further shows the relationship between GCP and another measure of wellbeing: HDI.
The Human Development Index (HDI) measures a population's quality of life across three indicators: health, education, and standard of living.
The health dimension is measured by life expectancy, education by mean years of schooling, and standard of living by the gross national income per capita.
The closer values on the HDI scale get to one, the higher the standard of living of that county. The closer the values are to zero, the lower the quality of life.
In the chart above, counties with higher HDI values also had higher GCPs per capita. Those with lower HDI values had lower GCPs per capita. This suggests that as counties get wealthy, so do their living standards.
See Also
- Gross County Product – County GDP
- Kenya's Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- Kenya's Gross National Income (GNI)
- The population of Kenya by county in 2025