Burkina Faso — Country Profile

Burkina Faso is in Western Africa, north of Ghana. It covers 274,200 sq km. Terrain: mostly flat to dissected, undulating plains; hills in the west and southeast; occupies an extensive plateau with savanna that is grassy in the north and gradually gives way to sparse forests in the south. Climate: three climate zones including a hot tropical savanna with a short rainy season in the southern half, a tropical hot semi-arid steppe climate typical of the Sahel region in the northern half, and small area of hot desert in the very north of the country bordering the Sahara Desert.

Burkina Faso’s GDP is $60.001 billion (2024 est.) in purchasing-power-parity terms. At official exchange rates it stands at $23.25 billion (2024 est.). Real GDP grew 5% (2024 est.). See where Burkina Faso ranks among all 195 countries by GDP.

POWER --/100 — The Magna Power score is our 0–100 composite of structural national power — nine components, 135 indicators. It is the Bureau's own assessment, not a mirror of World Bank or CIA figures.

Momentum 0 — Quarterly momentum: the Bureau's read on the country's trajectory over the last quarter, from −10 (deteriorating fast) to +10 (accelerating).

Nothing in Jul–Sep 2026 moved the needle. The institutions functioned, the economy ran its course, and the world looked elsewhere.

That is the honest note: a quarter of normalcy, scored as such.

• What our model rewards: unemployment near 5.2% — work for whoever wants it
• What drags it down: a median age of 19 — a nation of children, its workforce still in the classroom; only 17% of electricity from low-carbon sources

Gold, Manganese, Zinc, Marble, Phosphates, Salt.

Energy is the physical base of economic power — what a country can generate, move and burn decides what it can build, sell and defend.

Sources: CIA World Factbook, Energy section; Our World in Data (IEA/Ember), 2023.

Trade shows what the world buys from a country and what the country must buy from the world — the balance between the two is a direct measure of economic leverage.

Source: CIA World Factbook, Economy section.

Ibrahim Traoré — Transitional President. Transitional President Capt. Ibrahim TRAORE (since 30 September 2022)

Burkina Faso maintains 34 embassies and 10 consulates abroad, hosts 33 foreign diplomatic missions, holds permanent missions to UN New York, AU Addis Ababa. The breadth of a diplomatic network is a direct measure of diplomatic power — it shows how far a country’s influence, alliances and interests reach.

Source: Consular Affairs Center, Diplomatic and Consular Networks Database and Rankings, January 2026 (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0). https://zenodo.org/records/18109976

Transport networks are economic power made physical — ports, runways, railways and pipelines decide what a country can move, sell and defend.

Major airports

Bobo Dioulasso Airport (BOY) — Bobo Dioulasso; Ouagadougou Thomas Sankara International Airport (OUA) — Ouagadougou.

Sources: OurAirports public-domain extract (2026-10-02); per-entry Wikipedia links included; CIA World Factbook via cia_factbook snapshot (2026-09-28); theodora.com CIA mirror (CIA World Factbook Transportation section), scraped 2026-10-02

POWER --/100 Ranked #-- of 195 countries in the Magna Country Rankings. Full ranking breakdown for Burkina Faso.

Historical timeline of Burkina Faso

This profile covers the population, economy, natural resources, leaders, and history of Burkina Faso — with the Bureau’s live national-power score of --/100, ranking #-- of 195 countries.