Educational gains have not translated into jobs for young citizens.
Key findings
- While young Africans (aged 18-35) enjoy greater access to formal education than their elders, post-secondary attainment levels remain highly uneven by country and gender.
- Younger youth (aged 18-25) face the most severe employment challenges: 45% say they are unemployed and actively seeking work.
- Young people in rural areas are substantially more likely to be outside of education and employment than urban youth (66% vs. 45%).
- African youth identify inadequate training and a lack of required experience as the leading barriers to youth employment.
- Given a choice of employment sectors, a majority (52%) of 18- to 35-year-olds would prefer to start their own business, while those seeking employment favour the public sector (25%) over the private sector (13%) and non-governmental organisations (6%).
- Interest in entrepreneurship varies widely across countries, with stronger interest in East and West African countries (56%-57% on average) than Southern Africa (43%), perhaps reflecting differences in formal labour-market opportunities.
- Respondents aged 18-35 are more likely than older cohorts to consider moving to another country (55% vs. 36%), though interest in emigration varies substantially across countries.
- Although economic factors are the primary drivers of young people's interest in emigration, we find a relatively modest relationship between negative perceptions of the economy and greater interest in moving abroad.
- Job creation is young people's top priority for greater government investment to help youth (48%), followed by education (16%), jobs training (13%), access to business loans (13%), and social services (8%), highlighting the dominance of employment related concerns over other policy areas.
- Two-thirds (66%) of respondents aged 18-35 assess community leaders and organisations as performing "fairly badly" or "very badly" on building and promoting youth leadership.
- But six in 10 respondents oppose lowering the voting age to 16, with consistent patterns across age groups - suggesting that young people do not view expanding the franchise as the solution to their representation concerns.
- Over the past decade, both support for democracy and rejection of military rule have declined among 18- to 35-year-olds (by 4 and 12 percentage points, respectively).
- The youngest citizens (aged 18-25) are about as likely as their elders to join others to request government action, to contact a member of Parliament, to participate in a protest, and to use social media to share their political views. But they are far less likely to vote (50%, compared to 71% of 26- to 35-year-olds and 80% of citizens over age 35).
- nterestingly, we find differences in the drivers of civic engagement among younger (aged 18-25) and older (aged 26-35) youth: o Among younger youth, dissatisfaction with government performance on job creation and education are associated with greater participation in protests, as is weaker rejection of military rule. Negative evaluations of government performance also correspond with increased political engagement on social media.
- For older youth, support for democracy and rejection of military rule are strong predictors of civic engagement, increasing the likelihood of contact with elected representatives. At the same time, these democratic dispositions reduce the likelihood of protest participation.
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Africa has the world's youngest population, with more than 400 million people between the ages of 15 and 35 - a number projected to rise above 830 million by 2050. This sustained youth bulge will keep the continent demographically young for decades, bringing significant challenges as well as opportunities, especially in areas such as jobs, education, and entrepreneurship (African Union, 2025).
In this context, Africa's development trajectory increasingly depends on its ability to participate in the global knowledge economy, where human capital (education and skills) drives productivity, innovation, and competitive advantage (United
Nations Economic Commission for Africa & Oxford Economics Africa, 2023). Access to quality education is therefore a critical pathway to employment that provides purpose, dignity, and personal fulfilment - in addition to material security - for the continent's youth.
The transition to knowledge-based economies places a premium on post secondary education, vocational or technical training, and specialised skills that enable workers to adapt to rapidly changing labour markets (International Labour Organization, 2025).
Yet across Africa, young people navigate a complex landscape where education access, employment opportunities, and personal aspirations often diverge. Understanding these dynamics - who has access to education, what types of work young people seek, and what obstacles stand in their way - is essential for policy makers, development partners, and community leaders working to unlock the potential of Africa's youth dividend.
Young people also play a crucial role in ensuring peace, stability, and democratic governance on the continent. Democratic progress in Africa has achieved notable gains, but it has also faced serious setbacks in recent years, particularly in the form of military coups (Resnick & Signé, 2025).
Young people, often at the forefront of political action, have played a prominent role in contentious politics, from street protests to support for coups, raising concerns about the resilience of democratic norms on the continent (Bartlett & Akinwotu, 2025).
Previous Afrobarometer findings indicate that both support for democracy and opposition to military rule have weakened over time, highlighting potential vulnerabilities in the political engagement of younger citizens (Afrobarometer, 2024, 2025).
Findings from Afrobarometer's latest round of public-opinion surveys in 38 African countries show that young Africans (aged 18-35) enjoy greater access to formal education than older generations, although post-secondary attainment remains highly uneven by country and gender.
We continue to find that educational gains have not translated into commensurate employment opportunities, with younger youth (aged 18-25) facing the most severe difficulties in entering the labour market.
These challenges are compounded by stark inequalities across urban and rural areas. African youth identify inadequate training opportunities, lack of required work experience, and mismatches between available training and employer skill demands as the primary barriers to employment - highlighting both supply-side constraints and coordination failures in youth labour markets.
Young Africans' aspirations reveal complex and sometimes contradictory preferences. While a majority would prefer entrepreneurship, those seeking employment favour secure public sector positions, exposing tensions between desires for independence and stability. We also find that youth express considerably higher interest in emigration than older cohorts, driven primarily by economic factors, though the relationship between negative perceptions of the national economy and actual emigration interest proves surprisingly modest.
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Prospects for youth empowerment across the continent appear mixed. Unsurprisingly, young people prioritise job creation far above other policy areas. However, they are largely critical of current efforts to promote youth leadership in their communities. Despite widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo, majorities oppose lowering the voting age, indicating that youth do not view expanded franchise as the solution to their social and economic problems.
This highlights the importance of economic opportunity and meaningful leadership development, rather than formal political inclusion alone, in empowering young people.
When it comes to political dispositions, youth attitudes broadly mirror those of older age groups, including weakening support for democracy and declining rejection of military rule, with regional patterns reflecting recent political developments such as coups.
Younger youth (aged 18-25) are far less likely to vote than their elders, and their civic and political engagement is driven in part by dissatisfaction with government performance on jobs and education, manifesting through protest and social media activity.
In contrast, older youth (26-35) appear to be motivated more by democratic norms than grievances. Participation levels also vary substantially across countries, reflecting differences in political freedoms and opportunities for civic involvement.
Rorisang Lekalake Rorisang Lekalake is Afrobarometer senior analyst/methodologist.
Sophie Sunderland Sophie Sunderland is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University.
Komi Amewunou Komi Amewunou is an editor at Afrobarometer.
