Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan: strong, sustained growth, 1990–2025

Caspian Sea oil and gas wealth, developed intensively from the late 1990s with major Western investment, has dominated growth, with limited diversification into the non-energy economy. Between 1990 and 2025, Azerbaijan's GDP per capita grew from $1,238 to $7,411 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 5.2% — strong, sustained growth. Annual GDP growth averaged 3.8% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 11.7 points, reflecting considerable volatility and periodic crises. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 26.5% to 5.9% of GDP (a classic decline as the economy industrialized/modernized), while services rose from 34.8% to 45.3% of GDP, underscoring a shift toward a services-driven economy. On human development, life expectancy rose from 61.4 to 74.6 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 19.8% to 41.3%, while the urban population share grew from 53.2% to 58.6%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions fell from 6.54 to 3.81 tonnes CO2e per person; income inequality (Gini index) narrowed from 34.6 to 26.6; the poverty headcount ratio fell from 19.7% to 0.0%.