Gross County Product per capita

The Gross County Product per capita measures wealth and welfare in the counties. It is derived by dividing the GCP of a county by its population. Counties with higher GCPs per capita also have higher living standards and lower poverty levels.

The county with the highest GCP per capita is Nairobi at Ksh 723,335. Mombasa follows it with a GCP per capita of Ksh 439,390, Nyeri at Ksh 293,944, Embu at Ksh 292,827, Nyandarua at Ksh 290,577, and Kiambu at Ksh 277,147. ^[1] These were the only counties with a GCP per capita higher than the national GDP per capita of Ksh 264,077 in 2022. 

The map below shows the spatial distribution of GCP per capita by county. 

Counties with the lowest GCPs per capita include Mandera at Ksh 67,518, Wajir at Ksh 73,021, and Garissa at Ksh 75,662.

GCP per capita and poverty

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.

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.

GCP per capita and 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 the quality of life of a population 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.^[2]

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 wealthier, so do their living standards.

Ranking from highest GCP per capita to lowest

The table below shows the GCP per capita by county from the highest to the lowest.

 See Also

1. County GDP
2. Manufacturing by county
3. Agriculture by county
4. Kenya population by county 2024

References 

1. KNBS 2023. Gross county product 2023. Nairobi, Kenya. (p. 29). 
   
2. UNDP. Human Development Index (HDI). Online