By Crystal Ugoeze
Nigeria has emerged as the country with the most optimistic young people in West Africa, ranking seventh globally in a new international survey examining how young people view their personal futures, the economy, the environment, politics and society.
The study, conducted by Oxford Scholastica Academy, placed Nigeria among the world’s 10 most optimistic countries, with a score of 4.08 out of five.
The findings were based on responses from 1,433 students across 41 countries, drawn from a wider dataset covering 100 countries.
Nigeria ranked ahead of several countries, including Indonesia, Russia, Malaysia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France.
Across West Africa, Nigeria recorded the highest overall score, outperforming Ghana, which ranked 32nd globally with 3.63 points.
The survey assessed students’ optimism across five key areas: personal prospects, economic opportunities, environmental conditions, political developments and the future of society.
Nigerian students recorded 4.43 points for personal optimism, 4.18 for economic optimism, 3.92 for environmental optimism, 3.69 for political optimism and 4.16 for the future of society.
The country’s strongest performance was in personal optimism, indicating that young Nigerians remain hopeful about their individual prospects despite prevailing economic and social challenges.
Nigeria also recorded a relatively strong environmental optimism score of 3.92, while its political optimism score of 3.69 was lower than its ratings in other categories.
Globally, Sri Lanka emerged as the country with the most optimistic young people, scoring 4.32 points, narrowly ahead of Kenya, which recorded 4.31.
Nepal came third with 4.24 points, followed by Kazakhstan with 4.17, while Cyprus ranked fifth with 4.09.
Canada occupied sixth position with 4.08 points, placing Nigeria seventh with the same overall score.
Indonesia, Russia and Armenia completed the top 10, recording 4.07, 4.07 and 4.06 points respectively.
Kenya was particularly notable for recording the highest political optimism score in the survey at 3.96, alongside a strong 4.43 score for confidence in the future of society.
At the other end of the rankings, Kuwait had the least optimistic young people, scoring 2.92 points overall. Rwanda ranked 40th with 3.20, while Turkey occupied 39th position with 3.22.
The survey also revealed that young people globally are considerably more optimistic about their personal futures than political developments.
Personal optimism recorded the highest global average of 4.40 out of five, while political optimism had the lowest average of 3.29.
Commenting on the findings, Co-Director of Oxford Scholastica Academy, Lavinia Abell, said young people had several reasons to be anxious about the future, including the rise of artificial intelligence, wars and increasing cost-of-living pressures.
She noted that such uncertainties could be particularly worrying for young people preparing to enter the workforce.
Abell explained that the study highlighted how young people from different countries perceive these challenges and their prospects for the future.
Among Western countries, Canada ranked highest at sixth position, followed by the United States in 13th place with 3.99 points.
The United Kingdom ranked 33rd with 3.61 points, while Germany occupied 28th position with 3.73 points. France ranked 38th with 3.22 points.
British students recorded particularly low scores in political optimism (3.04) and environmental optimism (3.06).
According to the methodology, participants rated their optimism in the five categories on a scale of one to five, with the overall country scores calculated as the average of the five assessments.
Only countries with at least five student respondents were included in the final rankings.
Oxford Scholastica Academy, which conducted the research, has organised educational programmes for young people since 2013, bringing together students from different parts of the world to develop their academic abilities and prepare for future opportunities.
The findings place Nigeria among the leading countries in youth optimism globally, although the survey reflects the views of participating students rather than the entire youth population in each country.