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Every year, World Population Day gives us a moment to reflect on the people behind the numbers. This year’s theme, “Realising the hopes and aspirations of young people – today and for the future,” comes at a time when many African countries continue to look to their youthful populations as a key to harnessing a demographic dividend. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) defines the demographic dividend as the economic growth potential that can result from changes in a population’s age structure, particularly when the share of the working-age population, those aged 15 to 64, becomes larger than the non-working-age population, those aged 14 and younger and 65 and older. But for this potential to become a reality, countries must make deliberate investments in the health, education, skills, and wellbeing of young people.

The recently released UNFPA report, Lives, Choices and Futures, offers a timely evidence base for asking whether countries can truly aspire to a demographic dividend while ignoring young people’s needs. Drawing on responses from 108,926 Internet-connected young adults aged 18 to 39 across 73 countries and territories, the report explores what young people want for their lives, relationships, parenthood and futures. It shows that young people’s decisions are not made in isolation, but are shaped by the social, economic and institutional conditions around them.

The findings speak to a tension that policymakers cannot ignore. Many young people still aspire to meaningful relationships, marriage or living with a partner, having children, and a future that feels secure. However, the choices they are making today, including delaying partnership or parenthood, are shaped by whether they can afford the lives they aspire to. In that sense, the report moves the conversation beyond assumptions about young people’s values and points instead to the conditions that make their aspirations possible or difficult to realise.

The report shows that economic security is one of the highest-rated life goals, considered important by about 90 per cent of respondents. Financial security was also the highest-rated consideration for partnership formation, cited as important by 81 per cent of respondents, while economic and housing constraints were the most commonly reported barriers to partnership. When it comes to parenthood, the highest-rated preconditions for feeling ready to become a parent were being financially secure, cited by 88 per cent of respondents, having stable employment, cited by 87 per cent, and feeling emotionally ready, cited by 85 per cent.

These choices are shaped by whether young people can find decent work, afford housing, access health services, feel safe, and imagine a future they can realistically plan for. This is why discussions on fertility, family formation, youth populations and the demographic dividend cannot be separated from the everyday realities young people are facing. If financial security, employment, housing and wellbeing are shaping decisions about relationships and parenthood, then these are not side issues. They are central to how demographic change unfolds.

For African countries, the demographic dividend remains a powerful development opportunity. But the potential can only become a reality when the working-age population is healthy, educated, skilled and productively employed. The World Bank notes that countries can exploit the window of opportunity for rapid economic growth when timely policies and investments are made in health, education, governance and the economy, and when labour market reforms ensure that young people can find well-paying jobs rather than remain unemployed or trapped in low-productivity work.

This point is also reinforced in Africa-focused demographic dividend research. A UNFPA synthesis report on the demographic dividend in Africa notes that the dividend is strengthened through sustained investments in education, skills development, health, job creation and improved governance. It also cautions that a large labour pool will only be beneficial for development if it is healthy, well educated, highly skilled and has access to quality job opportunities. Similarly, a systematic literature review on sub-Saharan Africa found that countries need complementary investments in governance, family planning, maternal and child health, education, women’s empowerment and labour markets to generate and capitalise on the demographic dividend.

Investing in young people, therefore, cannot be treated as a slogan. It must show up in budgets, policies, institutions and services. It means strengthening education systems so that young people are not only enrolled in school, but are actually learning and gaining skills that are relevant to the world they are entering. It means investing in health and wellbeing, including sexual and reproductive health services, mental health support and preventive care. It means creating pathways to decent work, supporting entrepreneurship, improving social protection and addressing the gender inequalities that continue to shape young people’s opportunities.

It also means listening to young people not only as beneficiaries of policy, but as people with agency. Population policy should not be about pressuring young people into particular choices about marriage, parenthood or family size. It should be about creating the conditions that allow them to make informed, voluntary and dignified choices about their lives.

This is perhaps the most important message of the 2026 World Population Day theme; young people already have hopes and aspirations, the real question is whether societies are doing enough to make those aspirations possible. If African countries want to realise a demographic dividend, they must go beyond celebrating the size of their youthful populations. They must invest in the quality of life, capabilities and opportunities of those young people. They must ensure that young people are healthy enough to thrive, educated enough to compete, skilled enough to innovate, economically secure enough to plan, and supported enough to make choices about their futures.

The demographic dividend will not come from numbers alone. It will come from people, and more specifically, from young people whose needs are recognised, whose rights are protected, and whose aspirations are taken seriously.The time to invest in their health, education, skills, wellbeing and economic security is now.