The United States Department of State has released the statistical breakdown of prospective applicants registered for the DV-2026 Diversity Visa programme, commonly known as the Green Card Lottery.

According to the department, the Kentucky Consular Center registered about 129,516 prospective applicants, including selected entrants and their spouses and children, from 20,822,624 qualified entries submitted during the 2024 application period.

The Diversity Visa programme makes up to 55,000 permanent resident visas available annually to people from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. However, the effective DV-2026 limit is approximately 51,850 visas after deductions required under US law.

The State Department said visa numbers are distributed across six geographic regions, with no more than seven percent allocated to applicants chargeable to any single country.

Selected applicants must complete the required process quickly. Those who do not receive a visa or adjustment of status by September 30, 2026 will lose the benefit of their DV-2026 selection.

Full list of African countries and prospective applicants
The State Department recorded prospective applicants from the following African countries:

Algeria — 5,457
Angola — 763
Benin — 1,064
Botswana — 7
Burkina Faso — 252
Burundi — 1,616
Cabo Verde — 35
Cameroon — 3,533
Central African Republic — 19
Chad — 482
Comoros — 12
Democratic Republic of the Congo — 2,210
Republic of the Congo — 448
Côte d’Ivoire — 926
Djibouti — 204
Egypt — 5,527
Equatorial Guinea — 12
Eritrea — 206
Eswatini — 3
Ethiopia — 3,287
Gabon — 62
The Gambia — 198
Ghana — 1,642
Guinea — 1,051
Guinea-Bissau — 10
Kenya — 3,949
Lesotho — 6
Liberia — 1,593
Libya — 276
Madagascar — 48
Malawi — 159
Mali — 268
Mauritania — 261
Mauritius — 2
Morocco — 3,670
Mozambique — 4
Namibia — 3
Niger — 109
Rwanda — 1,252
Senegal — 478
Sierra Leone — 639
Somalia — 1,554
South Africa — 187
South Sudan — 72
Sudan — 5,226
Tanzania — 404
Togo — 2,473
Tunisia — 202
Uganda — 1,513
Western Sahara — 2
Zambia — 236
Zimbabwe — 327