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GREEN CARD | UNITED STATES

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.

Years201920202021
Number of African registrants7 832 8948 145 3903 100 982
Total registration files14 352 01314 722 7986 741 128
Share of African registrants55%55%46%
Share of Africans registered for the Green Card lottery

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 countries201920202021
Congo Kinshasa617 573924 918593 917
Ethiopia781 945775 252401 661
Egypt525 593525 717327 401
Ghana2 010 5311 905 520298 151
Sudan276 827327 475232 832
Algeria227 019252 684221 212
Morocco203 581253 336161 349
Cameroon310 373310 802150 970
Kenya322 307398 959102 018
Benin128 911150 38692 847
Liberia438 333459 00571 724
Togo231 564259 81968 994
Sierra Leone1 005 370947 80357 779
Guinea179 735142 00847 607
Ivory Coast160 790145 91335 090
Uganda33 46037 07926 852
Rwanda41 52650 71126 612
Congo Brazzaville21 79325 59221 958
Senegal44 78533 06316 920
Eritrea26 12117 87216 610
Top African countries in terms of number of participants in the US green card lottery

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 countries20182019202020212022
Morocco1011113271911262559
Algeria134616497838142380
Egypt3466331212974472147
Cameroon162616614606531705
Sudan168015484032491704
Kenya122012073932781157
Congo Kinshasa28743096478592903
Togo664757208186838
Rwanda277338115155661
Ethiopia2106169633967621
Liberia12496538946531
Ivory Coast38642476144383
Guinea1553003841377
Ghana777640111229355
Angola2060917293
Benin2373649258266
South Africa17518038106266
Sierra Leone1191721370207
Uganda1771336469206
Libya47722459192
Number of visas issued by the Diversity Visa Program for major African countries