Most South Africans Optimistic About Future, Says Survey

More than two-thirds of adult South Africans are confident that all population groups in the country should enjoy a happy future, according to a new survey released this week.

The data was collected by the research company Ipsos among 3,617 randomly chosen adult South Africans who were interviewed face-to-face in their homes and home languages from mid-September to mid-October 2015.

“With the recent media coverage of expressions of racism on social media, it is easy to believe that we are slipping back into the habits that many South Africans have worked so hard to overcome,” said Mari Harris of Ipsos. “It is worth highlighting that the majority of South Africans, as shown in this data, are optimistic about a happy future for all of us, regardless of the current issues.”

The survey, it should be noted, was carried out before the spate of racially charged incidents that occurred over the New Year period and into January 2016.

Referring to the level of optimism, Ipsos said, “This sentiment is at its highest levels of optimism since around 2008, as shown in the graph below.”

According to the findings of Ipsos, the levels of optimism are at their highest since 2008. The record lows for optimism in South Africa were measured in November 2012 to November 2013.

The survey found that younger people were more optimistic, although it added that internationally younger people were generally more optimistic than their seniors. Ipsos found that females were more optimistic than males, and that the highest level of optimism was in Mpumulanga (at 83 percent), the lowest in the Western Cape (49 percent).