Gallup Poll: Young Arabs Poised to Maximize Their Potential

Gallup Poll, a member of the Youth Knowledge Consortium with the Middle East Youth Initiative and other founding partners, surveyed 15-29 year olds in 11 predominantly Arab countries about their personal hopes for a better future, their ability to meet their basic needs (food, shelter, and health), their perceptions of their physical and emotional health, and their sense of life purpose or mission. Results point to optimism for the future and high sense of mission or purpose among youth in the region.

Some noted findings:

• When asked to rate their life on a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being the worst possible life and 10 the best possible life, respondents across the 11 countries surveyed gave the following mean ratings:
  • Their lives five years ago: 4.9
  • Their present situation: 5.2
  • Where they expect to be five years from now: 6.6.
• The highest gap between past and present perceptions was in Tunisia, where youth gave a rating of 4.9 for where they stood 5 years ago and a 7.0 for where they predict they will stand in 5 years.
• The lowest rating by youth of their current situation came from youth in the Palestinian Territories (4.4), however they projected that in 5 years they would be at a 7.0 rating.

• Young Palestinians (36%), Yemenis (26%), and Moroccans (22%) are far more likely than other young respondents in the region are to say they at times lacked enough money to buy food.

• Having nothing interesting to do presents serious challenges for youth development, but boredom is not restricted to young Arabs.

Youth were polled in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. A summary by Gallup and the full report are available here.