Dakar, Senegal, September 22, 2025/ — Africans lead the way – in some cases by wide margins – in working together for change, a new Afrobarometer (www.Afrobarometer.org) flagship report (http://apo-opa.co/
Perhaps reflecting the continent’s long history of participatory/local democracy, they are far ahead of other regions when it comes to attending community meetings and joining with others to raise an issue.
The new report, which compares Afrobarometer data from 39 African countries with findings (where available) from other regional survey organisations, offers a glimpse of the variation in levels of political and civic engagement around the world.
The analysis focuses on key indicators of citizen engagement: Voting, political party affiliation, political discussion, attending community meetings, joining with others to raise an issue, contacting leaders, and protesting.
Compared to Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East/North Africa (MENA), Africans are more likely to attend community meetings and join with others to raise an issue. They are also more likely than Asians to contact their local government councillors and traditional leaders.
When it comes to self-reported voting and political party affiliation, Africa is second to Asians, while the MENA countries dominate the other regions when it comes to hitting the streets in protest.
The new flagship report is accompanied by country scorecards (http://apo-opa.co/
Afrobarometer survey
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 were completed between 1999 and 2023.
Afrobarometer’s national partners conduct face-to-face interviews in the language of the respondent’s choice. National samples of 1,200-2,400 yield country-level results with margins of error of +/-2 to +/-3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
Key findings
- Africans outpace other regions when it comes to attending community meetings and joining with others to raise an issue. On average across 39 African countries, almost half (48%) of citizens say they attended at least one community meeting during the previous year, compared to 26% across 17 Latin American countries.
- Similarly, 42% of Africans say they joined with others to raise an issue during the preceding 12 months, vs. 12%-17% across the Asian, Latin American, and MENA countries.
- Africans are also ahead of Asians with regard to contacting their traditional and elected local leaders, while Asians are slightly ahead on contacting members of Parliament (MPs).
- In self-reported voter turnout during their country’s most recent national election, Africa (72%) trails Asia (81%), matches Latin America (71%), and is well ahead of the MENA countries (55%).
- Similarly, Africa comes second to Asia in party affiliation (41% vs. 53%), ahead of the other two regions (24% each).
- When it comes to participation in a protest or demonstration, the MENA countries lead the other regions (20% vs. 8%-10%).