As of 2024, around **** million people in South Africa are living in extreme poverty, with the poverty threshold at **** U.S. dollars daily. This means that ******* more people were pushed into poverty compared to 2023. Moreover, the headcount was forecast to increase in the coming years. By 2030, over **** million South Africans will live on a maximum of **** U.S. dollars per day. Who is considered poor domestically? Poverty is measured using several matrices. For example, local authorities tend to rely on the national poverty line, assessed based on consumer price indices (CPI) of a basket of goods of food and non-food components. In 2023, the domestic poverty line in South Africa stood at ***** South African rand per month (around ***** U.S. dollars per month). According to a survey, social inequality and poverty worried a significant share of the South African respondents. As of September 2024, some ** percent of the respondents reported that they were worried about the state of poverty and unequal income distribution in the country.   Eastern Cape residents received more grants South Africa’s labor market has struggled to absorb the country’s population. In 2023, almost a third of the economically active population was unemployed. Local authorities employ relief assistance and social grants in an attempt to reduce poverty and assist poor individuals. In 2023, almost ** percent of South African households received state support, with the majority share benefiting in the Eastern Cape.

As of 2024, an individual living in South Africa with less than 1,109 South African rand (roughly 62.14 U.S. dollars) per month was considered poor. Furthermore, individuals having 796 South African rand (approximately 44.60 U.S. dollars) a month available for food were living below the poverty line according to South African national standards. Absolute poverty National poverty lines are affected by changes in the patterns of household consumers and fluctuations in prices of services and goods. They are calculated based on the consumer price indices (CPI) of both food and non-food items separately. The national poverty line is not the only applicable threshold. For instance,13.2 million people in South Africa were living under 2.15 U.S. dollars, which is the international absolute poverty threshold defined by the World Bank. Most unequal in the globe A prominent aspect of South Africa’s poverty is related to extreme income inequality. The country has the highest income Gini index globally at 63 percent as of 2023. One of the crucial obstacles to combating poverty and inequality in the country is linked to job availability. In fact, youth unemployment was as high as 49.14 percent in 2023.

South Africa ZA: Poverty Headcount Ratio at National Poverty Lines: % of Population data was reported at 55.500 % in 2014. This records an increase from the previous number of 53.200 % for 2010. South Africa ZA: Poverty Headcount Ratio at National Poverty Lines: % of Population data is updated yearly, averaging 58.800 % from Dec 2005 (Median) to 2014, with 4 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 66.600 % in 2005 and a record low of 53.200 % in 2010. South Africa ZA: Poverty Headcount Ratio at National Poverty Lines: % of Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank.WDI: Poverty. National poverty headcount ratio is the percentage of the population living below the national poverty lines. National estimates are based on population-weighted subgroup estimates from household surveys.; ; World Bank, Global Poverty Working Group. Data are compiled from official government sources or are computed by World Bank staff using national (i.e. country–specific) poverty lines.; ; This series only includes estimates that to the best of our knowledge are reasonably comparable over time for a country. Due to differences in estimation methodologies and poverty lines, estimates should not be compared across countries.

In 2025, nearly 11.7 percent of the world population in extreme poverty, with the poverty threshold at 2.15 U.S. dollars a day, lived in Nigeria. Moreover, the Democratic Republic of the Congo accounted for around 11.7 percent of the global population in extreme poverty. Other African nations with a large poor population were Tanzania, Mozambique, and Madagascar. Poverty levels remain high despite the forecast decline Poverty is a widespread issue across Africa. Around 429 million people on the continent were living below the extreme poverty line of 2.15 U.S. dollars a day in 2024. Since the continent had approximately 1.4 billion inhabitants, roughly a third of Africa’s population was in extreme poverty that year. Mozambique, Malawi, Central African Republic, and Niger had Africa’s highest extreme poverty rates based on the 2.15 U.S. dollars per day extreme poverty indicator (updated from 1.90 U.S. dollars in September 2022). Although the levels of poverty on the continent are forecast to decrease in the coming years, Africa will remain the poorest region compared to the rest of the world. Prevalence of poverty and malnutrition across Africa Multiple factors are linked to increased poverty. Regions with critical situations of employment, education, health, nutrition, war, and conflict usually have larger poor populations. Consequently, poverty tends to be more prevalent in least-developed and developing countries worldwide. For similar reasons, rural households also face higher poverty levels. In 2024, the extreme poverty rate in Africa stood at around 45 percent among the rural population, compared to seven percent in urban areas. Together with poverty, malnutrition is also widespread in Africa. Limited access to food leads to low health conditions, increasing the poverty risk. At the same time, poverty can determine inadequate nutrition. Almost 38.3 percent of the global undernourished population lived in Africa in 2022.

In 2025, around ***** million people in Africa were living in extreme poverty, with the poverty threshold at **** U.S. dollars a day. The number of poor people on the continent dropped slightly compared to the previous year. Poverty in Africa is expected to decline slightly in the coming years, even in the face of a growing population. The number of inhabitants living below the extreme poverty line would decrease to around *** million by 2030.

Over the past 30 years, there has been an almost constant reduction in the poverty rate worldwide. Whereas nearly ** percent of the world's population lived on less than 2.15 U.S. dollars in terms of 2017 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in 1990, this had fallen to *** percent in 2022. This is even though the world's population was growing over the same period. However, there was a small increase in the poverty rate during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when thousands of people became unemployed overnight. Moreover, the rising cost of living in the aftermath of the pandemic and spurred by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 meant that many people were struggling to make ends meet. Poverty is a regional problem Poverty can be measured in relative and absolute terms. Absolute poverty concerns basic human needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and clean drinking water, whereas relative poverty looks at whether people in different countries can afford a certain living standard. Most countries that have a high percentage of their population living in absolute poverty, meaning that they are poor compared to international standards, are regionally concentrated. African countries are most represented among the countries in which poverty prevails the most. In terms of numbers, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have the most people living in poverty worldwide. Inequality on the rise How wealth, or the lack thereof, is distributed within the global population and even within countries is very unequal. In 2022, the richest one percent of the world owned almost half of the global wealth, while the poorest 50 percent owned less than two percent in the same year. Within regions, Latin America had the most unequal distribution of wealth, but this phenomenon is present in all world regions.

Over the past 30 years, there has been an almost constant reduction in the poverty rate worldwide. Whereas nearly ** percent of the world's population lived on less than 2.15 U.S. dollars in terms of 2017 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in 1990, this had fallen to *** percent in 2022. This is even though the world's population was growing over the same period. However, there was a small increase in the poverty rate during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when thousands of people became unemployed overnight. Moreover, the rising cost of living in the aftermath of the pandemic and spurred by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 meant that many people were struggling to make ends meet. Poverty is a regional problem Poverty can be measured in relative and absolute terms. Absolute poverty concerns basic human needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and clean drinking water, whereas relative poverty looks at whether people in different countries can afford a certain living standard. Most countries that have a high percentage of their population living in absolute poverty, meaning that they are poor compared to international standards, are regionally concentrated. African countries are most represented among the countries in which poverty prevails the most. In terms of numbers, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have the most people living in poverty worldwide. Inequality on the rise How wealth, or the lack thereof, is distributed within the global population and even within countries is very unequal. In 2022, the richest one percent of the world owned almost half of the global wealth, while the poorest 50 percent owned less than two percent in the same year. Within regions, Latin America had the most unequal distribution of wealth, but this phenomenon is present in all world regions.

To download the 2004 dataset go to: http://sds.ukzn.ac.za/default.php?11,0,0,0,0 The third round of the KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study (KIDS) dataset contains information on the socio-economic circumstances of households. This third round conducted in 2004 re-interviewed households contacted in 1993 and 1998. It is based on the Project for Statistics on Living Standards and Development (PSLSD). The 2004 questionnaire is based on the original 1993. It includes the collection of anthropometric data from children aged 6 years or less. New modules include the administration of a literacy test to children aged 7-9 years, a module on employment histories, and a module on the Child Support Grant (CSG). Also, several existing modules have been expanded or amended, including the information on deaths in the household, the module on health and caring, that on social capital and the information collected on children. The third round of the study interviewed 867 households containing core members from 760 of the households contacted in 1993. For 180 of these 760 ‘dynasties’, information was also collected on next generation households that had split off from them. Between 1993 and 2004, attrition rates appear to be within acceptable limits, although young adults and smaller, and perhaps poorer, households are underrepresented. The age distribution of the resident members of th e core and next generation households matches that of the African and Indian population of KwaZulu-Natal reported by Census 2001. The mortality results suggest that the proportion of people at ages 20-44 dying between the second and third rounds was nearly three times the proportion dying between the first two rounds. The pattern of income distribution is one of increasing poverty and inequality since 1993, although the partial reversal of these trends in the post-1998 period is hopeful as are signs of relative prosperity among those that established independent next-generation households. In addition, access to services has generally improved. The 2004 data collection was administered by researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The funding for the project was provided by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) through Department of Social Development (DSD), the National Research Foundation, the Norwegian Research Council, USAID, and the Mellon Foundation. The South Africa: KwaZulu-Natal I ncome Dynamics Study (KIDS), 2004 was a collaborative project of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), and the Norwegian Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (NIBR).

The youth unemployment rate of South Africa was over 60 percent in 2024, the highest of any G20 country. Italy followed with a youth unemployment rate of 21.8 percent. In contrast, Japan's youth unemployment rate was the lowest at only 3.93 percent. Economic crisis in Argentina At 21.19 percent, youth unemployment in Argentina falls third out of the G20 nations. The Argentinian economy was hit by a recession beginning in 2022, with an average inflation rate of nearly 72 percent that year, jumping to over 130 percent in 2023. Such staggering inflation has hit Argentinian consumers hard, with the average consumer price index going from nearly 918 in 2021 to 1,584 in 2022, before increasing to nearly 3,700 in 2023. While youth unemployment has fallen in Argentina since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, factors such as skyrocketing inflation make getting by difficult for many. Inequality in South Africa With a youth unemployment rate of just over 60 percent, South Africa stands out from the rest of the G20 nations. Thirty years after the end of Apartheid, South Africa is considered one the most unequal country in the world. Using the Gini Index, which measures income inequality with zero representing totally equal distribution and one representing unequal distribution, South Africa has a score of 0.63, higher than any other nation. Poverty and inequality are a major concern for South Africans, with over 30 percent of survey respondents expressing worry over the issue in January 2024, a slight decrease from a recent peak of 38 percent in August 2023.

The 2012 GHI report focuses particularly on the issue of how to ensure sustainable food security under conditions of water, land, and energy stress. Demographic changes, rising incomes and associated consumption patterns, and climate change, alongside persistent poverty and inadequate policies and institutions, are all placing serious pressure on natural resources. In this report, IFPRI describes the evidence on land, water, and energy scarcity in developing countries and offers two visions of a future global food system—an unsustainable scenario in which current trends in resource use continue, and a sustainable scenario in which access to food, modern energy, and clean water improves significantly and ecosystem degradation is halted or reversed. Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe provide on-the-ground perspectives on the issues of land tenure and title as well as the impacts of scarce land, water, and energy on poor people in Sierra Leone and Tanzania and describe the work of their organizations in helping to alleviate these impacts. See other formats of data here: Linked Open Data (LOD) -- [OWL Version] and [RDF Version] See visual data at: Data Visualization

Interviews were conducted with multiple stakeholders in South Africa so as to investigate barriers and opportunities for energy services delivery to informal settlements in the country during the 2010s, although account was also taken of the historical and political context that impacts on energy delivery in South Africa. The interviews were conducted in South Africa, and took place in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Polokwane. The interviews are with multiple categories of stakeholders, namely: 1.) the electricity supply industry; 2.) the national government; 3.) the provincial government; 4.) the municipal government; 5.) academics; and 6.) NGO/civil society actors. The range of interviewee categories was aimed at constructing a rounded and in-depth qualitative picture of barriers and opportunities for energy service delivery in situations of housing and settlement informality.Energy is a critical enabler of development. Energy transitions, involving changes to both systems of energy supply and demand, are fundamental processes behind the development of human societies and are driven by technical, economic, political and social factors. Historical specificities and geography influence the character of energy transitions. In a world that is experiencing unprecedented urban growth, modern urbanised societies are highly dependent on energy. By 2030, more than 50% of people in developing countries are expected to live in cities, which is a figure set to grow to 66% by 2050. This urbanisation trend is even more prominent in South Africa, where 64% of its population already live in urban areas and is expected to rise to 70% by 2030. South African cities are highly dependent on energy, and access to and the provision of energy services affects urban energy transitions. Furthermore, access to affordable and reliable energy services is fundamental to reducing poverty and advancing economic growth. In response to this, many cities in South Africa and beyond have adopted sustainable energy provision strategies and solutions as a way of promoting economic development and greening of urban economies. However, Sustainable Energy Africa (SEA)'s State of the Energy in South African Cities report (2015) identifies that much remains to be done in order to transform South African cities towards a more sustainable urban energy profile, which is in turn aimed at improving welfare, supporting economic activity, creating 'green collar' and other jobs, and reducing carbon emissions. The project's focus on urban energy transitions is therefore both timely and necessary. Cities in South Africa are notable for their central role in the governance of energy. Municipalities are constitutionally mandated to serve as electricity distributors and are responsible for maintaining infrastructure, providing new connections and setting minimum service level standards as well as pricing and subsidies levels for poor consumers. Therefore, municipalities have become major actors in urban energy infrastructures. Nonetheless, systemic change is hampered by: a.) the lack of integrated energy strategies; b.) the declining performance of energy supply networks in South Africa; c.) the high carbon intensity of South Africa's energy supply, at a time when South Africa is actively seeking to decarbonize the economy; d.) a stalled level of electrification in certain poor urban areas in South African cities; and e.) the continued prevalence of energy poverty, even in grid-connected South African urban households. A key issue is the continued prevalence of a focus on energy supply, as opposed to the broader and more complex notion of energy services. It is clear that municipal processes and systems will have to change in order for energy transitions to occur. This project investigates the dynamics and co-evolution of municipal processes so as to create pathways to new, greener and fairer urban energy configurations. The project establishes a dialogue between work on socio-technical transitions and on energy geographies to analyze and identify energy transition pathways towards municipal-scale energy services regimes. The project's embeddedness in ongoing urban energy transition work will provide an evidence-base for co-designing pathways for energy services provision in South Africa's cities, alongside exploring opportunities in new energy configurations for transformations to urban green economies. This research project consists of SA research partners (the University of Cape Town's Energy Research Centre) and UK partners (King's College London; the University of Manchester; Plymouth University and the University of Sussex), together with the local energy transition expertise of Sustainable Energy Africa. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were carried out, with a mixture of face-to-face individual interviews, and interviews of pairs of respondents on occasions when both interviewees worked in the same office or unit. Due to the nature of the research topic and of the universe of potential interviewees, purposive sampling was utilised so as to select interviewees from across a range of interviewee categories (the electricity supply industry (4 interviews), national government (5 interviews), provincial government (3 interviews), municipal government (10 interviews), academics (7 interviews), and NGO/civil society actors (11 interviews)). All interviews were conducted in South Africa, and in English.

Abstract

In an environment where the Bank must demonstrate its impact and value, it is critical that the institution collects and tracks empirical data on how its work is perceived by clients, partners and other stakeholders in our client countries.

In FY 2013, the Country Opinion Survey Program was scaled up in order to: - Annually assess perceptions of the World Bank among key stakeholders in a representative sample of client countries; - Track these opinions over time, representative of: regions, stakeholders, country lending levels, country income/size levels, etc. - Inform strategy and decision making: apply findings to challenges to ensure real time response at several levels: corporate, regional, country - Obtain systematic feedback from stakeholders regarding: - The general environment in their country; - Value of the World Bank in their country; - World Bank's presence (work, relationships, etc.); - World Bank's future role in their country. - Create a feedback loop that allows data to be shared with stakeholders.

Geographic coverage

The data from the 41 country surveys were combined in this review. Although individual countries are not specified, each country was designated as part of a particular region: Africa (AFR), East Asia (EAP), Europe/Central Asia (ECA), Latin America (LAC), Middle East/North Africa (MNA), and South Asia (SAR).

Analysis unit

Client Country

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

In FY 2013 (July 2012 to July 1, 2013), 26,014 stakeholders of the World Bank in 41 different countries were invited to provide their opinions on the Bank's assistance to the country by participating in a country survey. Participants in these surveys were drawn from among senior government officials (from the office of the Prime Minister, President, Minister, Parliamentarian; i.e., elected officials), staff of ministries (employees of ministries, ministerial departments, or implementation agencies, and government officials; i.e., non-elected government officials, and those attached to agencies implementing Bank-supported projects), consultants/contractors working on World Bank-supported projects/programs; project management units (PMUs) overseeing implementation of a project; local government officials or staff, bilateral and multilateral agency staff, private sector organizations, private foundations; the financial sector/private banks; non-government organizations (NGOs, including CBOs), the media, independent government institutions (e.g., regulatory agencies, central banks), trade unions, faith-based groups, members of academia or research institutes, and members of the judiciary.

Mode of data collection

Mail Questionnaire [mail]

Research instrument

The Questionnaire consists of the following sections:

A. General Issues facing a country: Respondents were asked to indicate whether the country is headed in the right direction, what they thought were the top three most important development priorities, and which areas would contribute most to reducing poverty and generating economic growth in the country.

B. Overall Attitudes toward the World Bank: Respondents were asked to rate their familiarity with the World Bank, the Bank's effectiveness in the country, the extent to which the Bank meets the country's needs for knowledge services and financial instruments, and the extent to which the Bank should seek or does seek to influence the global development agenda. Respondents were also asked to rate their agreement with various statements regarding the Bank's work and the extent to which the Bank is an effective development partner. Furthermore, respondents were asked to indicate the sectoral areas on which it would be most productive for the Bank to focus its resources, the Bank's greatest values and greatest weaknesses in its work, the most and least effective instruments in helping to reduce poverty in the country, with which groups the Bank should collaborate more, and to what reasons respondents attributed failed or slow reform efforts.

C. World Bank Effectiveness and Results: Respondents were asked to rate the extent to which the Bank's work helps achieve sustainable development results in the country, and the Bank's level of effectiveness across thirty-five development areas, such as economic growth, public sector governance, basic infrastructure, social protection, and others.

D. The World Bank's Knowledge: Respondents were asked to indicate the areas on which the Bank should focus its research efforts, and to rate the effectiveness and quality of the Bank's knowledge/research, including how significant of a contribution it makes to development results, its technical quality, and the Bank's effectiveness at providing linkage to non-Bank expertise.

E. Working with the World Bank: Respondents were asked to rate their level of agreement with a series of statements regarding working with the Bank, such as the World Bank's "Safeguard Policy" requirements being reasonable, the Bank imposing reasonable conditions on its lending, disbursing funds promptly, and increasing the country's institutional capacity.

F. The Future Role of the World Bank in the country: Respondents were asked to rate how significant a role the Bank should play in the country's development in the near future, and to indicate what the Bank should do to make itself of greater value in the country.

G. Communication and Information Sharing: Respondents were asked to indicate where they get information about economic and social development issues, how they prefer to receive information from the Bank, their access to the Internet, and their usage and evaluation of the Bank's websites. Respondents were asked about their awareness of the Bank's Access to Information policy, past information requests from the Bank, and their level of agreement that they use more data from the World Bank as a result of the Bank's Open Data policy. Respondents were also asked to indicate their level of agreement that they know how to find information from the Bank and that the Bank is responsive to information requests.

H. Background Information: Respondents were asked to indicate their current position, specialization, whether they professionally collaborate with the World Bank, their exposure to the Bank in the country, and their geographic location.

Response rate

A total of 9,279 stakeholders (36% response rate) participated and are part of this review.

The youth unemployment rate of South Africa was over ** percent in 2024, the highest of any G20 country. Italy followed with a youth unemployment rate of **** percent. In contrast, Japan's youth unemployment rate was the lowest at only 3*** percent. Economic crisis in Argentina At ***** percent, youth unemployment in Argentina falls third out of the G20 nations. The Argentinian economy was hit by a recession beginning in 2022, with an average inflation rate of nearly ** percent that year, jumping to over *** percent in 2023. Such staggering inflation has hit Argentinian consumers hard, with the average consumer price index going from nearly *** in 2021 to ***** in 2022, before increasing to nearly ***** in 2023. While youth unemployment has fallen in Argentina since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, factors such as skyrocketing inflation make getting by difficult for many. Inequality in South Africa With a youth unemployment rate of just over 6* percent, South Africa stands out from the rest of the G20 nations. Thirty years after the end of Apartheid, South Africa is considered one the most unequal country in the world. Using the Gini Index, which measures income inequality with zero representing totally equal distribution and one representing unequal distribution, South Africa has a score of ****, higher than any other nation. Poverty and inequality are a major concern for South Africans, with over ** percent of survey respondents expressing worry over the issue in January 2024, a slight decrease from a recent peak of ** percent in August 2023.

In 2023, **** percent of Black people living in the United States were living below the poverty line, compared to *** percent of white people. That year, the total poverty rate in the U.S. across all races and ethnicities was **** percent. Poverty in the United States Single people in the United States making less than ****** U.S. dollars a year and families of four making less than ****** U.S. dollars a year are considered to be below the poverty line. Women and children are more likely to suffer from poverty, due to women staying home more often than men to take care of children, and women suffering from the gender wage gap. Not only are women and children more likely to be affected, racial minorities are as well due to the discrimination they face. Poverty data Despite being one of the wealthiest nations in the world, the United States had the third highest poverty rate out of all OECD countries in 2019. However, the United States' poverty rate has been fluctuating since 1990, but has been decreasing since 2014. The average median household income in the U.S. has remained somewhat consistent since 1990, but has recently increased since 2014 until a slight decrease in 2020, potentially due to the pandemic. The state that had the highest number of people living below the poverty line in 2020 was California.

In 2024, the Gini coefficient of wealth in India stood at 74. This was a slight decrease from previous years. The trend since 2005 shows rising inequalities among the Indian population. What is Gini coefficient of wealth? The Gini coefficient is a measure of wealth inequality. The coefficient of the Gini index ranges from 0 to 1 with 0 representing perfect equality and 1 representing perfect inequality. Wealth and income distribution and inequality can however vary greatly. In 2023, South Africa topped the list of the most unequal countries in the world in terms of income inequality. Why do economic inequalities persist in India? By the end of 2022, the richest citizens in the country owned more than 40 percent of the country’s wealth. Asia’s two richest men Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani are Indians. The number of high-net-worth individuals has continuously increased over the last decades. While millions of people escaped poverty in the country in the last few years, the wealth distribution between rich and poor remains skewed. Crony capitalism and the accumulation of wealth through inheritance are some of the factors behind this widening gap.

According to the forecast, Africa's total population would reach nearly 2.5 billion by 2050. In 2025, the continent had around 1.55 billion inhabitants, with Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Egypt as the most populous countries. In the coming years, Africa will experience significant population growth and will close the gap significantly with the Asian population by 2100. Rapid population growth In Africa, the annual growth rate of the population followed an overall increasing trend up to 2013, reaching nearly 2.63 percent. This was followed by a drop to 2.32 percent by 2023. Although population growth was slowing down, it was still growing faster than in all other regions. The reasons behind this rapid growth are various. One factor is the high fertility rate registered in African countries. In 2023, a woman in Somalia, Chad, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic had an average of over six children in her reproductive years, the highest rate on the continent. High fertility resulted in a large young population and partly compensated for the high mortality rate in Africa, leading to fast-paced population growth. High poverty levels Africa’s population is concerned with widespread poverty. In 2025, over 438 million people on the continent are extremely poor and live with less than 2.15 U.S. dollars per day. Globally, Africa is the continent hosting the highest poverty rate. In 2025, the countries of Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo account for over 23 percent of the world's population living in extreme poverty. Nevertheless, the share of the population living in poverty in Africa is forecast to decrease in the coming years.

Seychelles recorded the highest Gross National Income (GNI) per capita in Africa as of 2023, at 16,940 U.S. dollars. The African island was, therefore, the only high-income country on the continent, according to the source's classification. Mauritius, Gabon, Botswana, Libya, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria, and Namibia were defined as upper-middle-income economies, those with a GNI per capita between 4,516 U.S. dollars and 14,005 U.S. dollars. On the opposite, 20 African countries recorded a GNI per capita below 1,145 U.S. dollars, being thus classified as low-income economies. Among them, Burundi presented the lowest income per capita, some 230 U.S. dollars. Poverty and population growth in Africa Despite a few countries being in the high income and upper-middle countries classification, Africa had a significant number of people living under extreme poverty. However, this number is expected to decline gradually in the upcoming years, with experts forecasting that this number will decrease to almost 400 million individuals by 2030 from nearly 430 million in 2023, despite the continent currently having the highest population growth rate globally. African economic growth and prosperity In recent years, Africa showed significant growth in various industries, such as natural gas production, clean energy generation, and services exports. Furthermore, it is forecast that the GDP growth rate would reach 4.5 percent by 2027, keeping the overall positive trend of economic growth in the continent.

South Africa is expected to register the highest unemployment rate in Africa in 2024, with around ** percent of the country's labor force being unemployed. Djibouti and Eswatini followed, with unemployment reaching roughly ** percent and ** percent, respectively. On the other hand, the lowest unemployment rates in Africa were in Niger and Burundi. The continent’s average stood at roughly ***** percent in the same year. Large shares of youth among the unemployed Due to several educational, socio-demographic, and economic factors, the young population is more likely to face unemployment in most regions of the world. In 2024, the youth unemployment rate in Africa was projected at around ** percent. The situation was particularly critical in certain countries. In 2022, Djibouti recorded a youth unemployment rate of almost ** percent, the highest rate on the continent. South Africa followed, with around ** percent of the young labor force being unemployed. Wide disparities in female unemployment Women are another demographic group often facing high unemployment. In Africa, the female unemployment rate stood at roughly ***** percent in 2023, compared to *** percent among men. The average female unemployment on the continent was not particularly high. However, there were significant disparities among African countries. Djibouti and South Africa topped the ranking once again in 2022, with female unemployment rates of around ** percent and ** percent, respectively. In contrast, Niger, Burundi, and Chad were far below Africa’s average, as only roughly *** percent or lower of the women in the labor force were unemployed.

South Africa had the highest inequality in income distribution in 2024, with a Gini score of **. Its South African neighbor, Namibia, followed in second. The Gini coefficient measures the deviation of income (or consumption) distribution among individuals or households within a country from a perfectly equal distribution. A value of 0 represents absolute equality, and a value of 100 represents absolute inequality. All the 20 most unequal countries in the world were either located in Africa or Latin America & The Caribbean.

As of 2022, Seychelles was the African country with the highest estimated minimum gross monthly wage, standing at ****** U.S. dollars. It was followed by Morocco at ****** U.S. dollars and South Africa ****** U.S. dollars. Among the selected nations, only **** countries had a minimum wage above *** U.S. dollars on the continent. Minimum wage adjustments Legislations regarding minimum wages vary significantly across countries. The minimum remuneration of employees is usually proportionate to a specific area's cost of living. Determining a minimum wage aims to increase employees' living conditions while reducing poverty and inequality. Due to rising prices and inflation, governments occasionally adjust the minimum salary. In Africa, Sierra Leone experienced the highest increase in the minimum wage in recent years, with a growth of almost ** percent between 2010 and 2019. However, governments can also lower minimum wages. Liberia and Burundi reduced the lowest possible remuneration by around ** percent and ***** percent, respectively, between 2010 and 2019. Widespread informal employment Despite legislation in force, minimum wages are not always guaranteed. In fact, several forms of employment allow employers to avoid paying minimum wages. In addition, undeclared work remains a common practice in many countries worldwide. The situation is particularly critical in some African countries. According to estimates, over ** percent of the working population in Niger, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Benin, and Madagascar engaged in informal employment between 2019 and 2023. In Egypt and South Africa, the share stood at ** percent and ** percent, respectively. Seychelles had the lowest rate on the continent at around ** percent.