Country explorer: Zambia

Zambia's economic trajectory, as evidenced by GDP per capita growth, fluctuating unemployment rates, and a challenging battle with inflation, mirrors the broader struggles and incremental progress of lower-middle-income countries, highlighting a gradual economic evolution amidst persistent challenges in poverty reduction and price stability.

Zambia has experienced significant population growth, moderate net migration, a substantial decrease in fertility rates, and a remarkable improvement in life expectancy, highlighting trends similar to those observed in many lower-middle-income countries but with distinctive advances in life expectancy and population demographics.

Zambia has seen incremental improvements in basic needs such as access to clean fuels for cooking and electricity, yet its progress, especially in clean cooking fuels, lags behind the average for lower-middle-income countries, indicating a mixed pace of societal transformation in addressing essential services.

Zambia has made substantive progress in human development, evidenced by improvements in its Human Development Index, a reduction in child mortality rates, increased literacy among adults, and enhanced quality and quantity of education, mirroring trends seen in other lower-middle-income countries but with distinctive national advancements in educational quality.

Zambia has made notable strides in increasing its forest area and renewable freshwater resources per capita, contrasting with the global trend of environmental degradation, while also diversifying its electricity production sources with significant growth in hydroelectric power, marking its commitment to sustainable environmental practices.

Zambia has undergone substantial digital transformation, evident from the significant increase in internet usage among its population and mobile subscriptions, yet its investment in research and development remains considerably low, reflecting a common trajectory among its lower-middle-income peers but highlighting a challenge in bolstering its innovation ecosystem.

Zambia has experienced a relatively stable but decreasing age dependency ratio alongside a slight fluctuation in the share of its population born abroad, a decline in self-reported life satisfaction, and moderate improvements in gender inequality, reflecting a complex interplay of demographic stability, migration dynamics, subjective well-being, and gradual social progress akin to trends observed in some lower-middle-income countries.

Zambia has experienced notable transformations in governance, as indicated by improvements in rule of law and political civil liberties, despite facing challenges in reducing corruption and maintaining press freedom, illustrating a mixed but gradually enhancing trajectory towards governance reforms and societal openness not uniformly seen across its lower-middle-income peers.