In crisis

0-19

Highly restricted

20-39

Restricted

40-59

Less restricted

60-79

Open

80-100

Countries per expression category

People per expression category

115m

350m

499m

243m

Freedom of expression in Sub-Saharan Africa is stagnant. The region has an Expression Score of 43 and a Human Score of 45, both of which have held steady over the last 2 decades.

The majority of countries in the region belong to the middle 3 expression categories, and there are no countries in the top category: Sub-Saharan Africa’s last remaining Open country, Ghana, dropped out of the category in 2019.

Over the past decade, there has been a combined score decline of 210 points for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a combined advance of 138 among countries in the region.

However, there have been significant advances in the scores of a number of Sub-Saharan African states over the last decade, including The Gambia, Angola, Malawi, and Zambia.

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Over the last 10 years, there were more countries in advance in Sub-Saharan Africa than in any other region, and some of those advances have been substantial. The Gambia’s score increased by 60 points between 2012 and 2022 – the biggest increase recorded over any timeframe.

Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are also proportionately over-represented in terms of countries in advance over each of our key timeframes. Countries in the region constitute more than half (57%) of advances over the last year, 36% over the last 5 years, and 43% over the last decade.

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