Tax revenue (% of GDP) in Maldives
Maldives: Tax revenue (% of GDP) was 19.5% in 2021. ▲ Rising
Tax revenue in Maldives, 1979–2021
Source: Government Finance Statistics Yearbook and data files, International Monetary Fund (IMF). Measured in % of GDP.
Analysis
In 2021, tax revenue in Maldives stood at 19.5%.
The figure is down 3.3% on the previous year and up 61.1% over ten years.
Over the whole period, tax revenue in Maldives peaked at 20.7% in 2017 and was at its lowest, 2.5%, in 1979.
That places Maldives 56th out of 157 countries with data for 2021, putting it in the middle of the range.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 40 years of available data.
Tax revenue (% of GDP) in Maldives, year by year
| Year | % of GDP | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1979 | 2.5% | — |
| 1980 | 5.1% | +105.0% |
| 1981 | 6.9% | +34.7% |
| 1982 | 12.2% | +77.3% |
| 1983 | 12.6% | +3.4% |
| 1984 | 9.3% | -26.7% |
| 1985 | 10.0% | +7.9% |
| 1986 | 10.3% | +3.0% |
| 1987 | 12.3% | +19.4% |
| 1988 | 13.6% | +10.5% |
| 1990 | 14.0% | +2.9% |
| 1991 | 14.6% | +4.7% |
| 1992 | 15.0% | +2.4% |
| 1993 | 13.7% | -8.2% |
| 1994 | 13.0% | -5.3% |
| 1995 | 13.6% | +4.6% |
| 1996 | 13.5% | -1.1% |
| 1997 | 14.4% | +7.4% |
| 1998 | 14.2% | -1.7% |
| 1999 | 14.1% | -0.8% |
| 2000 | 13.8% | -2.1% |
| 2001 | 9.8% | -28.8% |
| 2002 | 9.5% | -3.2% |
| 2003 | 9.4% | -0.9% |
| 2004 | 10.5% | +11.3% |
| 2005 | 11.6% | +10.3% |
| 2006 | 11.8% | +1.6% |
| 2007 | 12.1% | +3.3% |
| 2008 | 11.6% | -4.7% |
| 2009 | 9.1% | -21.4% |
| 2010 | 8.8% | -2.8% |
| 2011 | 12.1% | +36.5% |
| 2014 | 19.3% | +60.0% |
| 2015 | 19.7% | +1.7% |
| 2016 | 20.0% | +1.7% |
| 2017 | 20.7% | +3.6% |
| 2018 | 20.1% | -2.6% |
| 2019 | 19.9% | -1.0% |
| 2020 | 20.1% | +0.9% |
| 2021 | 19.5% | -3.3% |
Maldives compared with similar countries
- Maldives's 19.5% is above the median for upper middle income countries, which is 17.0%, 1.1× the median. (48 countries reporting)
- Maldives's 19.5% is above the median for South Asia, which is 11.1%, 1.8× the median. (6 countries reporting)
Biggest year-on-year movements
Years where Tax revenue (% of GDP) in Maldives changed far more than this series normally does. A large move can be a real event or a change in how the figure was measured — the source note below says who published it.
| Year | Change | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | +105.0% | 2.5% | 5.1% |
| 1982 | +77.3% | 6.9% | 12.2% |
| 2014 | +60.0% | 12.1% | 19.3% |
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 2.5% | 2.5% | 2.5% | 1 |
| 1980s | 10.3% | 5.1% | 13.6% | 9 |
| 1990s | 14.0% | 13.0% | 15.0% | 10 |
| 2000s | 10.9% | 9.1% | 13.8% | 10 |
| 2010s | 17.6% | 8.8% | 20.7% | 8 |
| 2020s | 19.8% | 19.5% | 20.1% | 2 |
Countries ranked near Maldives
More public sector data for Maldives
- Democracy, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Chief executive of the government is elected, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Elected parliament, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Men's universal right to vote, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Universal right to vote, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Universal right to vote in practice, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Arms imports 11.00 million SIPRI trend indicator values (2025)
- Arms imports (SIPRI trend indicator values), per capita 13.26 SIPRI trend indicator values per person (2024)
- Arms imports (SIPRI trend indicator values), per unit of GDP 0.001 SIPRI trend indicator values per US$ of GDP (2024)
- Arms imports (SIPRI trend indicator values), gaps filled 7.00 million SIPRI trend indicator values (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is tax revenue in Maldives?
- Tax revenue in Maldives was 19.5% in 2021, according to Government Finance Statistics Yearbook and data files, International Monetary Fund (IMF).
- What is the highest tax revenue recorded in Maldives?
- The highest recorded value was 20.7% in 2017.
- What is the lowest tax revenue recorded in Maldives?
- The lowest recorded value was 2.5% in 1979.
- How does Maldives rank for tax revenue?
- Maldives ranks 56th out of 157 countries with data for 2021.
- Is tax revenue rising or falling in Maldives?
- Over the last ten years it is up 61.1%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this Maldives data come from?
- The figures come from Government Finance Statistics Yearbook and data files, International Monetary Fund (IMF), published as part of Tax revenue (% of GDP). Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 40 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data).
About this data
Taxes are compulsory, unrequited payments, in cash or in kind, made by institutional units to government units. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the total income earned through the production of goods and services in an economic territory during an accounting period.