Country explorer: Brunei

Brunei has maintained a relatively high GDP per capita compared to its high-income peers, coupled with a generally low but gradually increasing unemployment rate and consistently low inflation rates, highlighting its economic stability amidst global economic fluctuations.

Brunei has experienced a gradual population growth, declining fertility rates nearing those of high-income countries, a complex trajectory of net migration, and improvements in life expectancy, reflecting broad demographic trends common in financially prosperous states but within a distinctly smaller national context.

Brunei has consistently ensured universal access to clean cooking fuels, electricity, and, by implication, advanced basic needs infrastructure, positioning itself comparably to high-income countries and distinctively ahead of many peers in ensuring basic needs are met for its entire population.

Brunei has seen noteworthy advancements in human development as reflected by steady increases in the Human Development Index, significant reductions in child mortality, gradual improvements in literacy rates, and progress in achieving learning-adjusted years of schooling, signaling continuous enhancements in quality of life, education, and health outcomes, distinguishing it as a nation achieving consistent human development growth akin to its high-income peers.

Brunei has maintained high per capita CO₂ emissions, heavily reliant on fossil fuels for electricity, with negligible investment in renewable energy, contrasting with a global trend towards renewables, but has preserved its rich forest resources and high renewable internal freshwater availability per capita, highlighting a unique balance between industrial energy use and natural resource conservation.

Brunei has made significant strides in technology and innovation, evidenced by a substantial rise in internet usage among its population, an increase in mobile phone subscriptions, modest research and development spending, and a notable growth in scientific and technical publications, aligning its digital and innovative landscape more closely with high-income countries.

In the past two decades, Brunei has experienced a notable stabilization in its age dependency ratio, a slight decline in the share of population born abroad compared to a steady increase in many high-income countries, and a significant improvement in gender equality, though its Gender Inequality Index scores remain higher than those of Singapore but show marked progress towards reducing inequalities.

Brunei has shown moderate improvement in fighting corruption as reflected by its Corruption Perception Index scores, but it has experienced restrictions in press freedom, aligning it more closely with countries that maintain tight governmental control over media rather than with high-income peers which generally boast higher levels of press freedom.