African countries in the U.S. Green Card lottery
Every year, millions of applicants take part in the American Green Card lottery. We’ve compiled the statistics published by the State Department on travel.state.gov to bring you the key figures for African citizens’ participation in the Green Card lottery.
How many Africans take part in the lottery?
Around 50% of applicants to the Green Card lottery have been citizens of an African country in the last few years for which statistics are available.
Years | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
Number of African registrants | 7 832 894 | 8 145 390 | 3 100 982 |
Total registration files | 14 352 013 | 14 722 798 | 6 741 128 |
Share of African registrants | 55% | 55% | 46% |
What are the main African countries from which candidates come?
Here is the number of applications for the Green Card lottery for the top 20 African countries. The latest figures released by the State Department cover the years from 2019 to 2021:
African countries | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
Congo Kinshasa | 617 573 | 924 918 | 593 917 |
Ethiopia | 781 945 | 775 252 | 401 661 |
Egypt | 525 593 | 525 717 | 327 401 |
Ghana | 2 010 531 | 1 905 520 | 298 151 |
Sudan | 276 827 | 327 475 | 232 832 |
Algeria | 227 019 | 252 684 | 221 212 |
Morocco | 203 581 | 253 336 | 161 349 |
Cameroon | 310 373 | 310 802 | 150 970 |
Kenya | 322 307 | 398 959 | 102 018 |
Benin | 128 911 | 150 386 | 92 847 |
Liberia | 438 333 | 459 005 | 71 724 |
Togo | 231 564 | 259 819 | 68 994 |
Sierra Leone | 1 005 370 | 947 803 | 57 779 |
Guinea | 179 735 | 142 008 | 47 607 |
Ivory Coast | 160 790 | 145 913 | 35 090 |
Uganda | 33 460 | 37 079 | 26 852 |
Rwanda | 41 526 | 50 711 | 26 612 |
Congo Brazzaville | 21 793 | 25 592 | 21 958 |
Senegal | 44 785 | 33 063 | 16 920 |
Eritrea | 26 121 | 17 872 | 16 610 |
Which lottery winners are from African countries?
The State Department also publishes the number of visas obtained each year through the diversity program. These lottery results are published by geographical area and detailed by country.
Here is the number of visas obtained through the Green Card lottery for the top 20 African countries between 2018 and 2022:
African countries | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Morocco | 1011 | 1132 | 719 | 1126 | 2559 |
Algeria | 1346 | 1649 | 783 | 814 | 2380 |
Egypt | 3466 | 3312 | 1297 | 447 | 2147 |
Cameroon | 1626 | 1661 | 460 | 653 | 1705 |
Sudan | 1680 | 1548 | 403 | 249 | 1704 |
Kenya | 1220 | 1207 | 393 | 278 | 1157 |
Congo Kinshasa | 2874 | 3096 | 478 | 592 | 903 |
Togo | 664 | 757 | 208 | 186 | 838 |
Rwanda | 277 | 338 | 115 | 155 | 661 |
Ethiopia | 2106 | 1696 | 339 | 67 | 621 |
Liberia | 1249 | 653 | 89 | 46 | 531 |
Ivory Coast | 386 | 424 | 76 | 144 | 383 |
Guinea | 155 | 300 | 38 | 41 | 377 |
Ghana | 777 | 640 | 111 | 229 | 355 |
Angola | 20 | 60 | 9 | 17 | 293 |
Benin | 237 | 364 | 92 | 58 | 266 |
South Africa | 175 | 180 | 38 | 106 | 266 |
Sierra Leone | 119 | 172 | 13 | 70 | 207 |
Uganda | 177 | 133 | 64 | 69 | 206 |
Libya | 47 | 72 | 24 | 59 | 192 |