Severe poverty is surging in many African homes, new Afrobarometer Pan-Africa Profile shows

The proportion living under severe material deprivation has risen to its highest average level of the past 25 years. Most countries surveyed by Afrobarometer have lost the gains in poverty reduction they achieved in the first decade and a half of the 21st century.

The report, based on data from 39 African countries surveyed in 2021/2023, also suggests that increased corruption may play a role in resurgent lived poverty, though further research is required to identify factors driving this trend.   

Key findings

• Majorities report going without a cash income (81%), medicine or medical care (66%), and sufficient food (59%), clean water (57%), and cooking fuel (51%) at least once during the previous year (Figure 1).
• On average across 30 countries surveyed consistently since 2011/2013, about three-quarters or more of respondents have reported that they went without a cash income at least once during the previous year, with a 7-percentage-point increase since 2014/2015 (Figure 2).
  • Deprivation also shows increases, on average, for the other four basic necessities: Compared to 2014/2015, “going without” is up by 15 points for medical care, 13 points for food, 12 points for cooking fuel, and 9 points for clean water.
• Rates of severe lived poverty, or the experience of “going without” basic necessities on a frequent basis, have also risen to a new high, affecting 24% of citizens (Figure 3).
• Lived poverty varies widely across the continent in extent, intensity, and trajectory. For example, over the past decade, severe material deprivation has fallen in Liberia, Burkina Faso, Togo, Gabon, and Morocco (Figure 4) while increasing sharply in Nigeria, Namibia, Mali, Zimbabwe, and South Africa (Figure 5).

Afrobarometer surveys

Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan survey research network that provides reliable data on African experiences and evaluations of democracy, governance, and quality of life. Nine survey rounds in up to 42 countries have been completed since 1999. Round 9 surveys (2021/2023) cover 39 countries.

Afrobarometer’s national partners conduct face-to-face interviews in the language of the respondent’s choice that yield country-level results with margins of error of +/-2 to +/-3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

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