International Day of Democracy: Demand for democracy weakens across Africa, new Afrobarometer report shows

Africans are becoming less insistent on democracy and increasingly open to authoritarian forms of government, especially military rule, the latest Afrobarometer Pan-Africa Profile (https://apo-opa.co/4yBXvrp) reports.

Over the past decade, Afrobarometer findings have consistently shown popular demand for democracy outstripping its perceived supply, laying bare a persistent gap between how Africans want to be governed and what their political regimes provide. But new data from 38 African countries reveal a shift: The gap between demand for and supply of democracy is narrowing, not because democratic performance has improved significantly, but because popular demand for democracy is weakening.

The report shows that while a majority of Africans say they support democracy, only about one-third express a full “demand for democracy,” meaning they prefer democracy over any other regime and also reject three authoritarian alternatives.

Fewer than half of citizens describe their countries as democracies, and far fewer are satisfied with the way democracy works in their country.

The analysis, based on 50,961 face-to-face interviews in 2024/2025, suggests that demand for democracy is declining because of increasingly negative citizen evaluations of government performance.

Key findings

Support for democracy and opposition to alternatives

• Strong majorities say they prefer democracy (64%) and reject three types of authoritarianism: one-person rule (79%), one-party rule (76%), and military rule (65%) (Figure 1).
  • But all four indicators of democratic support have weakened over the past decade, including an 11-percentage-point drop in opposition to military rule (Figure 2).
• Only slightly more than one-third (36%) of Africans express a full “demand for democracy,” meaning they prefer democracy over any other regime and also reject all three authoritarian alternatives (Figure 3). This share of “committed democrats” varies widely by country, from just 8% in Mali to 64% in Zambia.
• On average across 29 countries surveyed consistently over the past decade, demand for democracy has declined by 10 percentage points, with drops ranging up to 37 points in Gabon (Figure 4).
• Fewer than half of Africans consider their country a democracy (47%) and say they are satisfied with the way democracy works in their country (38%) (Figure 5).
• While demand for democracy still exceeds its perceived supply, the gap has narrowed from 11 to 4 percentage points since 2014/2015 (Figure 6).
• Analysis of the data reveals that increasingly negative evaluations of government performance are a key factor associated with the decline in popular commitment to democracy.

Afrobarometer surveys

Afrobarometer is a pan-African, nonpartisan survey research network that provides reliable data on African experiences and evaluations of democracy, governance, and quality of life. Ten survey rounds in up to 45 countries have been completed since 1999. Round 10 surveys (2024/2025) cover 38 countries.

Afrobarometer’s National Partners conduct face-to-face interviews with nationally representative samples of adults 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. For more on the sampling methodology, click here (https://apo-opa.co/46sb54z).
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Afrobarometer.

For more information, please contact:
Josephine Appiah-Nyamekye Sanny
Afrobarometer director of communications
Email: jappiah@afrobarometer.org
Telephone: +233243240933

Visit us online at www.Afrobarometer.org.

Social Media:
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
YouTube
Instagram
Whatsapp
Bluesky

Follow our releases on #VoicesAfrica.

Media files

Download logo

About