- A slim majority (53%) of Mauritians say the country is going in the wrong direction, though the share who see Mauritius as moving in the right direction has increased from 29% in 2022 to 41% in 2024 (Figure 1).
- Similarly, the proportion of citizens who rate the country’s economic condition as “fairly bad” or “very bad” has declined from 63% in 2022 to 43% (Figure 2).
- Nearly half (47%) of Mauritians say their personal living conditions are “fairly good” or “very good,” while one-quarter (25%) describe them as bad (Figure 3).
- Positive assessments of personal living conditions are twice as common among well-off citizens as among those experiencing high lived poverty (58% vs. 28%) (Figure 4).
- A plurality (41%) of citizens say their living conditions have worsened over the preceding year (Figure 5).
- Poor citizens (69%) are by far the most likely to report deteriorating living conditions.
- The cost of living is the most important problem that Mauritians want their government to address, cited by more than four in 10 respondents (44%) as one of their top three priorities (Figure 6).
- Second on the list is drugs, cited by 37% of respondents, followed by crime and security (27%) and unemployment (22%).
While a slim majority of Mauritians say the country is going in the wrong direction, the proportion who see the country as heading in the right direction has increased significantly since 2022, the most recent Afrobarometer survey indicates.
Negative ratings of the country’s economic condition have dropped by 20 percentage points compared to 2022, though pessimistic assessments of the Mauritian economy still outnumber optimistic ones.
The proportion of citizens who view their personal living conditions as good has also risen marginally compared to two years ago, but nearly half of citizens say their living conditions have worsened over the past 12 months. Poor respondents are markedly more likely to report deteriorating living conditions.
Mauritians perceive cost of living as the top priority that the government should address, followed by drugs, crime/security, and unemployment.