Map: Economic Growth in Africa

Africa is generally perceived as poor, and that perception has a lot of truth to it.  Certainly, many African countries rank among the poorest in the world.  But like all generalities, it also has a lot of inaccuracy.  For one thing, some African countries are far more developed than you might realize (for example, South Africa, Ghana, much of northern Africa).  Also, some countries in Africa have been experiencing economic growth.  Look at this colorful map I made using MapChart, with data from Statistic Times:

Green indicates economic growth, yellow indicates a more or less stable economy, and orange and red indicate a shrinking economy. If you are just thinking about Africa's poverty, you might expect this map to be mainly oranges and reds.  But although many countries are facing stagnant or shrinking economies, there are several which are growing, even rapidly.  Ethiopia and Guinea are actually two of the world's three fastest growing economies (Guyana in South America is the other).  Ethiopia has one of Africa's largest commercial airlines - I often fly on it going to and from Chad.  

With some of these countries growing so quickly, it will be interesting to see how they develop in the coming years.