Afrobarometer Survey 2016-2018, Merged 34 Country
Africa, 2016 - 2018
Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in South Africa (IJR), Institute for Empirical Research in Political Economy (IREEP), Institute for Development Studies (IDS), Michigan State University (MSU), University of Cape Town (UCT, South Africa)
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July 28, 2020
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Identification
IDNO
afr-afr34-2016-2018-v1
Title
Afrobarometer Survey 2016-2018, Merged 34 Country
Subtitle
Merged 34 Country
Country
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| Africa | afr |
Study type
Public Opinion Survey
Series Information
Afrobarometer Project. Afrobarometer 7 Merged 34 Country Survey 2016-2018 [dataset]. Version 1. International: Afrobarometer [producer], 2018. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/7ees-0959
Abstract
The Afrobarometer is a comparative series of public attitude surveys that assess African citizen's attitudes to democracy and governance, markets, and civil society, among other topics. The surveys have been undertaken at periodic intervals since 1999. The Afrobarometer's coverage has increased over time. Round 1 (1999-2001) initially covered 7 countires and was later extended to 12 countries. Round 2 (2002-2004) surveyed citizens in 16 countries. Round 3 (2005-2006) 18 countries, and Round 4 (2008) 20 countries.The survey covered 34 countries in Round 5 (2011-2013) and 36 countries in Round 6 (2014-2015). The 34 African countries covered in Round 6 (2014-2015) are:
Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, eSwatini, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, eSwatini, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Kind of Data
Sample survey data
Unit of Analysis
Households and individuals
Version
Version Description
v1: Edited, anonymised dataset for public distribution
Version Date
2020-05-03
Scope
Notes
Each Afrobarometer survey collects data about individual attitudes and behavior, including innovative indicators especially relevant to developing societies. This includes the following topics:
• Democracy - Popular understanding of, support for, and satisfaction with democracy, as well as any desire to return to, or experiment with, authoritarian alternatives.
• Governance - The demand for, and satisfaction with, effective, accountable and clean government; judgments of overall governance perfomance and social service delivery.
• Livelihoods - How do African families survive? What variety of formal and informal means do they use to gain access to food, shelter, water, health, employment and money?
• Macro-economics and markets - Citizen understandings of market principles and market reforms and their assessments of economic conditions and government performance at economic management.
• Social capital - Whom do people trust? To what extent do they rely on informal networks and associations? What are their evaluations of the trustworthiness of various institutions?
• Conflict and crime - How safe do people feel? What has been their experience with crime and violence?
• Participation - The extent to which ordinary people join in development efforts, comply with the laws of the land, vote in elections, contact elected representatives, and engage in protest. The quality of electoral representation.
• National identity - How do people see themselves in relation to ethnic and class identities? Does a shared sense of national identity exist?
• Democracy - Popular understanding of, support for, and satisfaction with democracy, as well as any desire to return to, or experiment with, authoritarian alternatives.
• Governance - The demand for, and satisfaction with, effective, accountable and clean government; judgments of overall governance perfomance and social service delivery.
• Livelihoods - How do African families survive? What variety of formal and informal means do they use to gain access to food, shelter, water, health, employment and money?
• Macro-economics and markets - Citizen understandings of market principles and market reforms and their assessments of economic conditions and government performance at economic management.
• Social capital - Whom do people trust? To what extent do they rely on informal networks and associations? What are their evaluations of the trustworthiness of various institutions?
• Conflict and crime - How safe do people feel? What has been their experience with crime and violence?
• Participation - The extent to which ordinary people join in development efforts, comply with the laws of the land, vote in elections, contact elected representatives, and engage in protest. The quality of electoral representation.
• National identity - How do people see themselves in relation to ethnic and class identities? Does a shared sense of national identity exist?
Coverage
Geographic Coverage
The survey has national coverage in the following 34 African countries: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, eSwatini, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Geographic Unit
The lowest level of geographic aggregation covered by the data is province/region
Universe
The sample universe for Afrobarometer surveys includes all citizens of voting age within the country. In other words, we exclude anyone who is not a citizen and anyone who has not attained this age (usually 18 years) on the day of the survey. Also excluded are areas determined to be either inaccessible or not relevant to the study, such as those experiencing armed conflict or natural disasters, as well as national parks and game reserves. As a matter of practice, we have also excluded people living in institutionalized settings, such as students in dormitories and persons in prisons or nursing homes.
Producers and sponsors
Primary investigators
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) | Ghana |
| Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in South Africa (IJR) | South Africa |
| Institute for Empirical Research in Political Economy (IREEP) | Benin |
| Institute for Development Studies (IDS) | Kenya |
| Michigan State University (MSU) | United States |
| University of Cape Town (UCT, South Africa) |
Funding Agency/Sponsor
| Name | Abbreviation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Department for International Development | DFID | Funder |
| Swedish Internation Development Cooperation Agency | SIDA | Funder |
| United States Agency for International Development | USAID | Funder |
| World Bank | WB | Funder |
Sampling
Sampling Procedure
Afrobarometer uses national probability samples designed to meet the following criteria. Samples are designed to generate a sample that is a representative cross-section of all citizens of voting age in a given country. The goal is to give every adult citizen an equal and known chance of being selected for an interview. They achieve this by:
• using random selection methods at every stage of sampling;
• sampling at all stages with probability proportionate to population size wherever possible to ensure that larger (i.e., more populated) geographic units have a proportionally greater probability of being chosen into the sample.
The sampling universe normally includes all citizens age 18 and older. As a standard practice, we exclude people living in institutionalised settings, such as students in dormitories, patients in hospitals, and persons in prisons or nursing homes. Occasionally, we must also exclude people living in areas determined to be inaccessible due to conflict or insecurity. Any such exclusion is noted in the technical information report (TIR) that accompanies each data set.
Sample size and design
Samples usually include either 1,200 or 2,400 cases. A randomly selected sample of n=1200 cases allows inferences to national adult populations with a margin of sampling error of no more than +/-2.8% with a confidence level of 95 percent. With a sample size of n=2400, the margin of error decreases to +/-2.0% at 95 percent confidence level.
The sample design is a clustered, stratified, multi-stage, area probability sample. Specifically, we first stratify the sample according to the main sub-national unit of government (state, province, region, etc.) and by urban or rural location.
Area stratification reduces the likelihood that distinctive ethnic or language groups are left out of the sample. Afrobarometer occasionally purposely oversamples certain populations that are politically significant within a country to ensure that the size of the sub-sample is large enough to be analysed. Any oversamples is noted in the TIR.
Sample stages
Samples are drawn in either four or five stages:
Stage 1: In rural areas only, the first stage is to draw secondary sampling units (SSUs). SSUs are not used in urban areas, and in some countries they are not used in rural areas. See the TIR that accompanies each data set for specific details on the sample in any given country.
Stage 2: We randomly select primary sampling units (PSU).
Stage 3: We then randomly select sampling start points.
Stage 4: Interviewers then randomly select households.
Stage 5: Within the household, the interviewer randomly selects an individual respondent. Each interviewers alternates in each household between interviewing a man and interviewing a woman to ensure gender balance in the sample.
To keep the costs and logistics of fieldwork within manageable limits, eight interviews are clustered within each selected PSU.
Data weights
For some national surveys, data are weighted to correct for over or under-sampling or for household size. "Withinwt" should be turned on for all national -level descriptive statistics in countries that contain this weighting variable. It is included as the last variable in the data set, with details described in the codebook. For merged data sets, "Combinwt" should be turned on for cross-national comparisons of descriptive statistics. Note: this weighting variable standardizes each national sample as if it were equal in size.
Further information on sampling protocols, including full details of the methodologies used for each stage of sample selection, can be found in Section 5 of the Afrobarometer Round 5 Survey Manual
• using random selection methods at every stage of sampling;
• sampling at all stages with probability proportionate to population size wherever possible to ensure that larger (i.e., more populated) geographic units have a proportionally greater probability of being chosen into the sample.
The sampling universe normally includes all citizens age 18 and older. As a standard practice, we exclude people living in institutionalised settings, such as students in dormitories, patients in hospitals, and persons in prisons or nursing homes. Occasionally, we must also exclude people living in areas determined to be inaccessible due to conflict or insecurity. Any such exclusion is noted in the technical information report (TIR) that accompanies each data set.
Sample size and design
Samples usually include either 1,200 or 2,400 cases. A randomly selected sample of n=1200 cases allows inferences to national adult populations with a margin of sampling error of no more than +/-2.8% with a confidence level of 95 percent. With a sample size of n=2400, the margin of error decreases to +/-2.0% at 95 percent confidence level.
The sample design is a clustered, stratified, multi-stage, area probability sample. Specifically, we first stratify the sample according to the main sub-national unit of government (state, province, region, etc.) and by urban or rural location.
Area stratification reduces the likelihood that distinctive ethnic or language groups are left out of the sample. Afrobarometer occasionally purposely oversamples certain populations that are politically significant within a country to ensure that the size of the sub-sample is large enough to be analysed. Any oversamples is noted in the TIR.
Sample stages
Samples are drawn in either four or five stages:
Stage 1: In rural areas only, the first stage is to draw secondary sampling units (SSUs). SSUs are not used in urban areas, and in some countries they are not used in rural areas. See the TIR that accompanies each data set for specific details on the sample in any given country.
Stage 2: We randomly select primary sampling units (PSU).
Stage 3: We then randomly select sampling start points.
Stage 4: Interviewers then randomly select households.
Stage 5: Within the household, the interviewer randomly selects an individual respondent. Each interviewers alternates in each household between interviewing a man and interviewing a woman to ensure gender balance in the sample.
To keep the costs and logistics of fieldwork within manageable limits, eight interviews are clustered within each selected PSU.
Data weights
For some national surveys, data are weighted to correct for over or under-sampling or for household size. "Withinwt" should be turned on for all national -level descriptive statistics in countries that contain this weighting variable. It is included as the last variable in the data set, with details described in the codebook. For merged data sets, "Combinwt" should be turned on for cross-national comparisons of descriptive statistics. Note: this weighting variable standardizes each national sample as if it were equal in size.
Further information on sampling protocols, including full details of the methodologies used for each stage of sample selection, can be found in Section 5 of the Afrobarometer Round 5 Survey Manual
Weighting
Note that for some surveys data is weighted to correct for either deliberate (e.g., to provide an adequate sample of specific sub-groups for analytical purposes) or inadvertent over- or under-sampling of particular sample strata. In these cases, a weighting variable is included as the last variable in the data set, with details described in the codebook. These weighting factors should be used when calculating all national-level statistics.
Data Collection
Dates of Data Collection
| Start | End | Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2018 | Round 7 |
Data Collection Mode
Face-to-face [f2f]
Ethics Approval for Data Collection
Teams of four interviewers traveled together to the field under the leadership of a field supervisor. It was the supervisor's job to ensure quality control of survey returns on a daily basis. Interviewers, usually holding a first degree in social science, were trained in a five-day training workshop immediately prior to fieldwork. Interviews usually took about one hour and only proceeded after respondents have given informed consent. Strict confidentiality was required in handling survey returns.
Data Collection Notes
Interviews conducted in the following languages:
Benin:
French, Fon, Adja, Bariba, Dendi, Yoruba, Otamari, Peulh
Botswana:
English, Setswana
Cape Verde:
Creole, Portuguese
Ghana:
English, Akan, Ewe, Ga, Dagbani
Kenya:
English, Kiswahili, Kamba, Kikuyu, Kimeru, Kisii, Luhya, Luo, Somali, Turkana
Lesotho:
English, Sesotho
Madagascar:
Malagasy Ofisialy, Malagasy Fitenim-Paritra
Malawi:
English, Chichewa, Chiyao, Chitumbuka
Mali:
Frenchm Bambara, Sonrhaï, Tamasheq, Peuhl
Mozambique:
Portuguese, Emakhuwa, Xichangana, Cisena, Cinyanja, Echuwabu, Cinyungwe
Namibia:
English, Afrikaans, Oshiwambo
Nigeria:
English, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Pidgin, Tiv, Ibibio, Ijaw
Senegal:
French, Wolof, Pulaar, Serer
South Africa:
Afrikaans, English, Xhosa, North Sotho, South Sotho, Setswana, Swazi, Shangaan, Zulu
Tanzania:
Kiswahili
Uganda:
English, Luganda, Lusoga, Luo, Ruyankole, Rutoro, Rukiga, Ateso, Lugbara
Zambia:
English, Chibemba, Chinyanja, Chitonga, Silozi
Zimbabwe:
English, Chishona, Sindebele
Benin:
French, Fon, Adja, Bariba, Dendi, Yoruba, Otamari, Peulh
Botswana:
English, Setswana
Cape Verde:
Creole, Portuguese
Ghana:
English, Akan, Ewe, Ga, Dagbani
Kenya:
English, Kiswahili, Kamba, Kikuyu, Kimeru, Kisii, Luhya, Luo, Somali, Turkana
Lesotho:
English, Sesotho
Madagascar:
Malagasy Ofisialy, Malagasy Fitenim-Paritra
Malawi:
English, Chichewa, Chiyao, Chitumbuka
Mali:
Frenchm Bambara, Sonrhaï, Tamasheq, Peuhl
Mozambique:
Portuguese, Emakhuwa, Xichangana, Cisena, Cinyanja, Echuwabu, Cinyungwe
Namibia:
English, Afrikaans, Oshiwambo
Nigeria:
English, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Pidgin, Tiv, Ibibio, Ijaw
Senegal:
French, Wolof, Pulaar, Serer
South Africa:
Afrikaans, English, Xhosa, North Sotho, South Sotho, Setswana, Swazi, Shangaan, Zulu
Tanzania:
Kiswahili
Uganda:
English, Luganda, Lusoga, Luo, Ruyankole, Rutoro, Rukiga, Ateso, Lugbara
Zambia:
English, Chibemba, Chinyanja, Chitonga, Silozi
Zimbabwe:
English, Chishona, Sindebele
Data Collectors
| Name |
|---|
| Afrobarometer Project |
Questionnaires
Questionnaires
The questionnaire for Round 3 addressed country-specific issues, but many of the same questions were asked across surveys. The survey instruments were not standardized across all countries and the following features should be noted:
• In the seven countries that originally formed the Southern Africa Barometer (SAB) - Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe - a standardized questionnaire was used, so question wording and response categories are the generally the same for all of these countries. The questionnaires in Mali and Tanzania were also essentially identical (in the original English version). Ghana, Uganda and Nigeria each had distinct questionnaires.
• This merged dataset combines, into a single variable, responses from across these different countries where either identical or very similar questions were used, or where conceptually equivalent questions can be found in at least nine of the different countries. For each variable, the exact question text from each of the countries or groups of countries ("SAB" refers to the Southern Africa Barometer countries) is listed.
• Response options also varied on some questions, and where applicable, these differences are also noted.
• In the seven countries that originally formed the Southern Africa Barometer (SAB) - Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe - a standardized questionnaire was used, so question wording and response categories are the generally the same for all of these countries. The questionnaires in Mali and Tanzania were also essentially identical (in the original English version). Ghana, Uganda and Nigeria each had distinct questionnaires.
• This merged dataset combines, into a single variable, responses from across these different countries where either identical or very similar questions were used, or where conceptually equivalent questions can be found in at least nine of the different countries. For each variable, the exact question text from each of the countries or groups of countries ("SAB" refers to the Southern Africa Barometer countries) is listed.
• Response options also varied on some questions, and where applicable, these differences are also noted.
Access policy
Access authority
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DataFirst | University of Cape Town | support@data1st.org | http://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za |
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DataFirst Helpdesk | University of Cape Town | support@data1st.org | http://support.data1st.org/ |
Access conditions
Public use files, available to all
Citation requirements
Afrobarometer Project. Afrobarometer 7 Merged 34 Country Survey 2016-2018 [dataset]. Version 1. International: Afrobarometer [producer], 2018. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/7ees-0959
Disclaimer and copyrights
Disclaimer
The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.
Metadata production
Producers
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| DataFirst | University of Cape Town | Metadata producer |
Date of Metadata Production
2020-07-27
DDI Document version
Version 2