- Malawian youth (aged 18-35) are more educated than their elders. Four in 10 (40%) have secondary or post-secondary education, compared to 13%-29% among older cohorts.
- Only one in three youth (33%) see their personal living conditions as “fairly good” or “very good,” and even fewer (23%) describe the country’s economic condition as good.
- More than half (53%) of young Malawians say they are not employed and are looking for work, compared to 46%-48% among middle-aged respondents. Fewer than one in 10 youth say they full-time (3%) or part-time (5%) jobs. o Aside from the country’s general economic situation and scarcity of jobs, young people cite a lack of adequate training, a mismatch between education and job requirements, and a lack of experience as the main barriers to youth employment. o Starting their own business is the most preferred job option among youth (61%), followed by employment in the public sector (18%). o For youth-focused initiatives, young citizens would like the government to prioritise investment in job creation (26%), education (25%), and access to business loans (23%).
- Food shortage is the most important problem that young Malawians say their government must address, followed by the increasing cost of living.
- A majority of youth say the government has performed well on education (64%) and health services (63%), but far fewer say the same about job creation (33%) and economic management (22%).
- About half (51%) of youth say they have considered emigrating, mostly to find better job opportunities and escape economic hardship.
- When it comes to citizen engagement, more than six in 10 youth (62%) say community leaders and organisations are doing a good job of nurturing young leaders. About two-thirds (65%) of youth see elections as the best method for choosing the country’s leaders, and a slim majority (52%) favour reducing the voting age from 18 to 16 years. Eight in 10 youth (81%) say they will “definitely” vote in Malawi’s national elections in September 2025.
Malawi’s strategic development blueprint, titled “Malawi 2063,” envisions the country as an inclusively prosperous and self-reliant nation (National Planning Commission, 2020). Central to this vision is the role of the youth. The document states, “Our greatest resource and source of wealth is our young people.” It declares that the nation “aspires to foster youth-centric inclusive wealth creation and self-reliance” and that “MW2063 will not be a success unless it is owned by the youth and based on the ideals of youth inclusiveness and shared prosperity” (National Planning Commission, 2020, pages 1, 11, and 5). Malawi 2063 mentions “youth” or “young people” 69 times – more than three times as often as children, four times as often as women, seven times as often as the elderly, and 17 times as often as men.
As might be expected, Malawi 2063 aims high and faces significant challenges on its ambitious path. According to the Global Youth Development Index 2023, which tracks progress on Sustainable Development Goals associated with youth development, Malawi ranks 168th out of 183 countries (Commonwealth, 2024). On its “youth-focused multi dimensional deprivation indicators,” the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that more than one in five Malawian youth suffer multiple deprivations in education, employment, and health (OECD Development Centre, 2018; UNICEF, 2021), while Malawi’s Fifth Integrated Household Survey 2019-2020 reported that 38% of young women and 23% of young men are not in employment, education, or training (World Bank, 2020; UN Women, 2022).
More than eight in 10 employed 15- to 24-year-olds work in low-quality jobs and in the informal sector, and more than one in four are underemployed (National Youth Council of Malawi, 2024).
Malawian youth also encounter challenges in securing roles in public affairs and politics. The prevailing cultural context favours the wisdom of older individuals over fresh ideas from younger people (Alfonso & Chunga, 2022). As the National Youth Council of Malawi (2024, Page 8) reports, “Traditionally, youth have been expected to passively receive services from adults, lacking active and meaningful involvement in decision-making processes and interventions addressing their issues as a distinct demographic and the broader national community.”
This dispatch on Afrobarometer Round 10 survey findings presents a picture of the state of the youth in Malawi.1 Survey results show that youth have more education than their elders, though a majority do not reach secondary school. Like their elders, most youth see their personal living conditions and the country’s economic situation as bad. Fewer than one in 10 have jobs. Among youth-oriented programmes, young citizens would prefer that the government prioritise spending on job creation, education, and improved access to business loans.
But youth see food shortages and the increasing cost of living as the most important problems their government must address.
About half of younger citizens say they have considered emigrating, mainly in pursuit of employment and economic opportunity.
Youth see their community leaders and organisations as making efforts to promote young leaders. Solid majorities support elections as the best way of selecting leaders and say they intend to vote in the September elections, although youth trail older cohorts on both counts.
