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Economic wellbeing topped a list of concerns in sub-Saharan Africa, a new Gallup survey found. Anxiety about the cost of food and other basic needs supersede worries about political, governance, and security issues.
Almost a quarter of residents in sub-Saharan Africa ranked the economy as their country’s biggest national concern, reflecting a broader global trend that emerged from a survey of 107 nations conducted last year.
Seven of the 10 countries where people were most concerned about affording food or shelter were in sub-Saharan Africa. The other three were Australia, Canada, and Ireland, highlighting that housing struggles could color residents’ perceptions of their economy even in high-income countries: “People judge a nation’s economic health by how well they feel they are able to live, not by whether its GDP is growing,” the report said.
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Work-related issues were also more prominent in sub-Saharan Africa than in the Asia-Pacific and Europe, where political dissatisfaction was more prevalent.
Despite a wave of military coups and disputed election results in parts of the continent in recent years, economic challenges faced by Africans outweighed concerns over democratic norms and the rule of law. Only 6% of people in sub-Saharan Africa ranked political and governance issues as their most important problem, Gallup found, echoing “a hierarchy of needs.”
Overriding concerns about the economy correlate with data that points to the continent’s poverty challenge. Madagascar and Malawi are two of the world’s 10 poorest countries on the basis of GDP per capita, while Nigeria has the largest number of poor people globally.
Some concerns reflected in Gallup’s survey overlapped with the impact of recent economic policies. Nigeria’s reforms to stabilize its economy, including eliminating fuel and electricity subsidies, has fueled inflation, sparking a cost-of-living crisis that is still hurting Nigerians. Zambians, whose government defaulted on sovereign debt in 2020, are facing a similar challenge, with more than six in 10 residents living below the poverty line.
Economic concerns in Africa are more pressing for women than men, Gallup found. Women were at least 10 percentage points more likely than men to say that economic concerns were their country’s main problem in Benin, Libya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Niger, and Togo.
Notable
- Africa’s economic growth this year is forecast to outpace Asia’s for the first time, according to the International Monetary Fund, though experts warned that Africa needs major investment.