Improvement isn't the same as recovery
Across 38 nations and nearly 51,000 voices, a continent speaks with uncommon clarity about the distance between governance and daily survival. The Afrobarometer surveys of 2024 and 2025 reveal that while Africa has stepped back from the pandemic's sharpest edge, the ground beneath most households remains thin — marked by hunger, unaffordable care, and governments widely seen as failing their most basic economic obligations. Recovery, where it exists, is modest enough to be mistaken for stillness, and the gap between where things stand today and where they stood a decade ago remains a quiet indictment of the years between.
- Eight in ten Africans say their governments are failing to hold prices steady — a verdict that spans borders, languages, and political systems.
- The deprivation is not statistical abstraction: nearly four in five people went without cash income, two-thirds skipped medical care, and more than half faced hunger or water shortages in a single year.
- Unemployment leads the public's list of demands, followed closely by the cost of living — a pairing that signals not crisis fatigue but a precise, urgent diagnosis of what is broken.
- Modest improvements since the pandemic's peak offer a fragile thread of hope, but current conditions still trail those of a decade ago, leaving 59% describing their economies as bad or very bad.
- A continent is neither in freefall nor in recovery — it is suspended, breathing more easily than in 2020, but not yet breathing freely.
A survey of nearly 51,000 people across 38 African countries, conducted through face-to-face interviews in 2024 and 2025, reveals a continent where economic strain has become the defining texture of ordinary life. The findings from the Afrobarometer research network are not marginal — they are overwhelming. Eighty-two percent of respondents rate their governments poorly on price stability. Seventy-nine percent see little effort to close the gap between rich and poor. Three-quarters give failing marks on job creation, and nearly two-thirds assess their national economies negatively.
When Africans name what they want their governments to fix, unemployment rises to the top, cited by a third of all respondents and trailing only health care. The cost of living follows closely, alongside poverty, mismanagement, and stagnant wages — a constellation of concerns that reflects not despair but a clear-eyed accounting of what has gone unaddressed.
The material reality behind these numbers is harder still. Nearly four in five people reported going without cash income at some point in the past year. Two-thirds skipped medical care they needed. More than half faced food shortages, lacked clean water, or ran out of cooking fuel. These are the daily negotiations of households deciding which necessity must wait.
The report does carry a thread of cautious improvement. Across 28 countries tracked consistently since 2014, public ratings of government economic performance have edged upward since the pandemic's worst years. But the recovery is narrow. Conditions today remain weaker than they were a decade ago, and nearly six in ten Africans still describe their country's economic situation as bad or very bad. The continent has stepped back from the precipice — but for millions, the ground ahead still feels uncertain.
Across 38 African countries, a sweeping survey of nearly 51,000 people paints a portrait of a continent still struggling under the weight of economic strain. The Afrobarometer research, conducted through face-to-face interviews in 2024 and 2025, reveals that while some modest improvements have emerged since the worst of the pandemic, the lived experience of most Africans remains one of scarcity, uncertainty, and disappointment in their governments' ability to manage basic economic life.
The numbers are stark. Eight in ten Africans say their governments are failing to keep prices stable. Nearly as many—79 percent—believe their leaders are doing nothing meaningful to narrow the chasm between rich and poor. Three-quarters rate their governments poorly on job creation. When asked about the overall health of their economies, 64 percent of respondents offered a negative assessment. These are not marginal complaints. They reflect a widespread, deeply held conviction that the people in power are not delivering on the most fundamental economic promises.
What troubles Africans most, when asked to name their top priorities, is the absence of work. Unemployment ranks second only to health care among the issues citizens want their governments to address, cited by a third of all respondents. The rising cost of living—the relentless squeeze on household budgets—comes in third. Poverty itself, economic mismanagement, and stagnant wages round out the list of concerns that dominate public conversation across the continent.
Beneath these headline figures lies a harder reality: the material deprivation that has become routine for millions. Nearly four in five Africans reported going without cash income at some point in the year before the survey. Two-thirds skipped medical care they needed because they could not afford it. More than half went hungry at times, lacked access to clean water, or ran out of cooking fuel. These are not abstract economic indicators. They are the daily calculations of families deciding which necessity to forgo.
There is a thread of cautious improvement woven through the report. When researchers compared results across 28 countries surveyed consistently since 2014, they found that public ratings of government economic performance have ticked upward slightly in this latest round. The pandemic's deepest disruptions have begun to fade. But this modest recovery masks a larger truth: conditions today remain weaker than they were a decade ago. Nearly six in ten Africans describe their country's economic situation as bad or very bad. Close to half say their own living standards are poor.
The Afrobarometer, a pan-African research network that conducts nationally representative surveys on democracy and governance, has documented a continent at an inflection point. The worst appears to be behind. But the best remains out of reach. Millions of Africans are breathing easier than they were in 2020 or 2021, yet they are still holding their breath.
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Unemployment ranks second only to health care among issues citizens want governments to address, cited by 33 percent of respondents— Afrobarometer survey findings
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
What strikes you most about these numbers—is it the scale of the dissatisfaction, or something else?
The scale matters, but what gets to me is the consistency. Eighty-two percent on price stability, seventy-nine on inequality, seventy-six on jobs. These aren't scattered complaints. They're a chorus.
And yet the report says things have improved modestly since the pandemic. So why does it still feel so bleak?
Because improvement isn't the same as recovery. You can move up from rock bottom and still be in a hole. These people aren't comparing themselves to 2020. They're comparing themselves to ten years ago, and they're worse off.
The material deprivation figures—nearly eighty percent without cash income. How do people even function?
They don't function. They survive. They skip meals, they don't go to the doctor, they ration water. It's not a crisis in the news sense. It's just Tuesday for them.
Do the surveys suggest what governments could actually do?
The priorities are clear: jobs, then cost of living. But the survey is a diagnosis, not a prescription. It tells you what's broken, not how to fix it.