African regions have recorded the world’s fastest improvements in people’s ability to withstand and recover from disasters since 2023, according to a major global study.
North Africa’s resilience score rose five points, the largest regional increase. In comparison, Southern Africa gained four points, Lloyd’s Register Foundation said in its latest World Risk Poll report, published on Tuesday.
Eastern Africa and Central and Western Africa each recorded three-point increases.
The gains were linked to expanding internet access, stronger household preparedness and improved financial resilience in countries including Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda.
Inequalities
The findings do not mean Africa is now the world’s most resilient continent. Instead, they show that its regions made the fastest progress during the period examined.
The fourth edition of the World Risk Poll was conducted by Gallup and surveyed more than 143,000 people in 140 countries and territories in 2025.
Its Resilience Index measures people’s capacity to absorb and recover from major shocks on a scale of 0 to 100. It assesses individual resilience, household preparedness, community support and wider societal conditions.
Despite Africa’s progress, the research revealed major inequalities in access to disaster warnings. In Central and Western Africa, only 47% of adults affected by a disaster said they received a warning.
Protective action
Globally, about 1.1 billion adults experienced a disaster during the five years preceding the survey, but nearly 220 million received no warning, according to the foundation.
Those in low-income countries were almost twice as likely to have experienced a disaster as those in wealthy nations. Nearly one-third of adults in low-income countries reported being affected, compared with 16% in high-income countries.
Only 64% of disaster-affected adults in low-income countries received warnings, compared with 84% in high-income countries.
Receiving a warning also did not necessarily mean people were able to act. Fewer than half of adults warned in low- and lower-middle-income countries took protective action before a disaster, compared with 71% in high-income countries.
Mobile phone’s power
The report identified mobile phones as an important opportunity to close the warning gap. Of those who received no warning, 77%, more than 170 million people, owned a mobile phone.
People were also more likely to act when alerts reached them through multiple sources. Just 37% of those warned through a single channel took action. That number rose to 51% for those reached through two channels, and 64% among those receiving warnings through three.
Possible channels included mobile messages, television, social media, radio, and direct community communication.
The research found that societal resilience, including trust in national institutions, rose globally from 63 points in 2021 to a record 66 in 2025.
Investment in preparedness
Individual resilience, however, declined from 46 to 42 points, the lowest recorded by the index.
The foundation said the results showed that wider warning coverage must be accompanied by investment in household preparedness and community response capacity, ensuring people have the information, time and resources needed to act before disaster strikes.
