Countries by Official exchange rate (LCU per US$, period average)
Lebanon ranks 1st with an official exchange rate of 89,500 local currency units per US dollar in 2024, the highest among 211 countries measured. At the opposite end, Kuwait ranks 211th at just 0.307 LCU per dollar. The gap between the extremes spans nearly 29.2 million percent, reflecting the enormous variation in how currencies are valued against the US dollar across the world.
Ranking 2024
Analysis
This metric tracks the official exchange rate expressed as local currency units per US dollar, averaged over the reference period. Per the source definition: 'Official exchange rate refers to the exchange rate determined by national authorities or to the rate determined in the legally sanctioned exchange market. This indicator represents the ratio of Local Currency Units relative to United States dollars. This indicator is derived as an average over the reference period.' A higher value means more local currency units are required to purchase one US dollar. The dataset covers 211 countries, with 196 of those (92.9%) reporting 2024 data and 209 of 211 (99.1%) providing data from the last seven years. All datapoints are classified as official-quality. The ranking contains 37 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, reflecting genuine dispersion rather than data error.
The top of the ranking is dominated by countries whose currencies trade at very high nominal values per dollar. Lebanon (Rank 1) records 89,500 LCU per dollar, more than double Iran (Rank 2) at 42,000. Viet Nam ranks 3rd at 24,164.9, Somalia 4th at 23,097.99, and Lao PDR 5th at 20,167.3. Indonesia ranks 6th at 15,855.4 and Uzbekistan 7th at 12,652.3. These high nominal exchange rates reflect the denomination scale of each country's currency rather than any single comparable economic condition. A striking cluster appears at Rank 31, where 14 countries — including Benin, Senegal, Cameroon, and 11 others — share an identical value of 606.35, consistent with a shared currency arrangement.
The middle of the ranking includes a wide range of major economies. Japan ranks 57th at 151.37 LCU per dollar, while India and Bhutan share Rank 72 at 83.67. South Africa and Lesotho share Rank 96 at 18.329, and Namibia ranks 95th at 18.329 as well, all three nearly identical. Sixteen countries share Rank 160 with a value of exactly 1.00, including the United States itself, Ecuador, Panama, and El Salvador, all of which use the US dollar directly. Euro-area countries cluster at Ranks 180-201 with a shared value near 0.924. At the very bottom, Kuwait ranks 211th at 0.307 LCU per dollar, Bahrain 210th at 0.376, and Oman 209th at 0.385, all reflecting currencies denominated at higher per-unit values than the dollar.
Several limitations apply to this metric. The official exchange rate may differ significantly from the rate at which transactions actually occur where parallel or black markets exist, and the source note acknowledges this by specifying rates 'determined by national authorities or in the legally sanctioned exchange market.' Countries with dual exchange rate systems or heavily managed rates may report figures that do not reflect actual transaction prices. Averaging over the reference period can obscure sharp intra-year movements. The identical values shared by multiple country groups — such as the 14 CFA franc countries at Rank 31 or the 22 euro-area economies — reflect shared currency arrangements rather than independent data points. The metric also does not adjust for purchasing power and is not comparable across different currency denominations without context.
Methodology
Data source: World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code PA.NUS.FCRF, data year 2024. The metric is defined as follows per the source note: 'Official exchange rate refers to the exchange rate determined by national authorities or to the rate determined in the legally sanctioned exchange market. This indicator represents the ratio of Local Currency Units relative to United States dollars. This indicator is derived as an average over the reference period.' The unit is absolute LCU per US dollar, period average. Rankings cover 211 countries. Of these, 196 (92.9%) report 2024 data and 209 (99.1%) have data from within the last seven years. All 211 datapoints are classified as official quality (100%). The dataset contains 37 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, consistent with the wide range of values observed (0.307 to 89,500). Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 9.5%. Higher values indicate more local currency units per dollar and are treated as higher-ranked in this index.