- Gabon’s youth (aged 18-35) are more educated than older generations. Nearly all (94%) of Gabonese youth have attained at least secondary education, including 39% who have post-secondary qualifications.
- But youth are also more likely to be unemployed. Half (50%) of young Gabonese say they are not employed and are actively looking for work, compared to 27%-36% of middle-aged respondents. o In addition to general economic conditions, young Gabonese cite inadequate training and a mismatch between educational qualifications and job requirements as key barriers to youth employment. o Given their choice of employment, a slim majority (51%) of youth say they would start their own business, while 33% would prefer public-sector work. o If the government were to increase spending to support young people, youth would prioritise job creation (63%) above all else.
- Unemployment ranks as the top issue that young Gabonese want their government to address, followed by health, education, crime and security, water supply, and infrastructure/roads.
- Young people offer mixed evaluations of the government’s performance on their top priorities. A majority (69%) approve of its maintenance of roads and bridges, and nearly half (47%) say it is doing a good job of improving basic health services. But only 39% are satisfied with its efforts to create jobs. o Even so, these assessments reflect huge improvements on most key priorities compared to 2021.
- Majorities of young people see their country as moving in “the right direction” (87%) and describe the country’s economic condition as “fairly good” or “very good” (56%). Fewer than half (43%) say the same about their personal living conditions. o Almost six in 10 (58%) say the economy has improved over the past year, and a striking majority of 85% express optimism that things will get better during the coming 12 months. o These assessments of economic performance also reflect enormous gains compared to 2021.
- Almost six in 10 young Gabonese (58%) say they have considered emigrating, mostly for better professional and economic opportunities. The share of youth who have thought “a lot” about emigration has increased since 2017, from 24% to 28%.
About half of Gabon’s 2.3 million people are less than 20 years old, and more than 80% live in urban areas (World Bank, 2025). Despite the country’s considerable natural resource wealth, about one-third of the population lives in poverty (Africa Briefing, 2023). Although youth literacy rates are high (91%), so is youth unemployment (estimated at 37%-40%), reflecting a mismatch between the heavily theory-based Gabonese education system and the needs of the labour market (World Bank, 2024; Africa24, 2025; United Nations Development Programme, 2023). Many graduates lack the practical skills needed in key sectors such as agriculture, construction, and extractive industries, and companies often report shortages of skilled labour (World Bank, 2024).
In response to high youth unemployment, the government and development partners have launched initiatives aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and private-sector development (World Bank, 2019). The World Bank-funded Investment Promotion and Competitiveness Project, for instance, established the National Investment Promotion Agency and supported youth entrepreneurship through competitions and training in sectors such as information and communications technology, livestock, and services.
Youth employment and diversification of the country’s heavily oil-dependent economy are stated priorities of the administration of General Brice Oligui Nguema, which ended the Bongo family’s 55-year dynastic rule in a military coup in 2023 and won election in a landslide in 2025 (Africanews, 2025; Al Jazeera, 2025).
This dispatch reports on a survey module included in the Afrobarometer Round 10 questionnaire to explore the experiences and perspectives of Gabonese youth on key issues affecting their lives.
Findings show that while youth have more education than their elders, they are also more likely to be unemployed. In their view, key obstacles to employment include inadequate training, a mismatch between educational qualifications and job requirements, and a lack of work experience. By a wide margin, they rank unemployment as the most important problem that their government must address.
While youth assessments of the government’s performance on key priorities are mixed, they show enormous improvement compared to 2021, perhaps reflecting a burst of optimism after the overthrow of the Bongo regime.
Similarly, positive assessments of the government’s economic performance have skyrocketed, with youth perceptions that the country is heading “in the right direction” increasing almost tenfold.
Although a large majority of young people are optimistic that things will improve in the near future, more than half say they have considered emigrating, mostly in search of better job and economic opportunities.
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