Africa’s World Cup Moment Is Also a Flourishing Story

By Richard G. Cowden & Tim Lomas

Nine African teams made it to the knockout round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, more than ever before. That is a major sports story. But it is also a chance to look more closely at Africa in a different way.

The 23-country Global Flourishing Study includes 5 African countries—Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania—and asks about more than income or economic development. It looks at many different parts of life that matter for well-being, including meaning, relationships, character, health, happiness, financial security, and religious/spiritual life. Many of the African countries show real strengths in some of these areas.

Although Africa sits at the center of many familiar world maps, it has typically not been at the center of global conversations about human flourishing. Scholars and leaders have been working to change that, and the Global Flourishing Study can add to this effort.

As a small step in this direction, we looked at the country-level average scores on many different well-being measures in Wave 1 of the Global Flourishing Study. We then asked a simple question: on which measures did all 5 African countries have more favorable average scores than at least half of the countries included in the study?

African countries tended to show especially consistent relative strengths in understanding one’s purpose in life, self-rated mental health, forgiveness of others, and many measures of religion and spirituality. In some cases, the pattern was particularly strong. For example, all 5 African countries had average scores placing them among the top 6 for forgiveness and for feeling connected to a religion or form of spirituality.

Africa’s strong presence in the 2026 FIFA World Cup round of 32 is more than an unprecedented sports achievement. It reminds us that the African continent deserves closer attention when it comes to human flourishing because Africa may have important lessons to offer about what it means to live a good life.