Facts in Q&A format

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living. Long and healthy life is measured by life expectancy.

South Africa’s HDI value for…

No. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in the first quarter of 2015, some 17.7 million Nigerians were unemployed, with the unemployment rate at 7.5%.

No. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2019 edition of the Global Competitiveness Report, which measures road connectivity across 141 economies, Ghana was ranked 79th. When compared with the other nine West African countries ranked in the report, Ghana is 6th in the sub-region.

About 28.6% of the population (17.1 million people) was aged 14 or younger in 2020.

See figures for other age groups here.

An estimated 59.6 million people lived in South Africa in 2020.

In 2018, the World Bank estimated that South Africa’s Gini coefficient was 0.63 in 2015. This was based on individual consumption – one of the ways to measure income inequality. 

It put South Africa at the top of a list of 164 countries.

However, some countries do not have the data…

More than half of the population – 51.1% or 30.5 million people – was estimated to be female in 2020.

No, they are considered employed, as long as they did that activity (e.g. trade) for at least one hour in the week before the Quarterly Labour Force Survey interview.

South Africa’s official unemployment rate was 29% in the second quarter (April to June) of 2019.

It means that 29% of the labour force, aged 15 to 64, was without work, available for work and looking for work or trying to start a business. This is also known as the narrow definition of…