Abstract

Zambia is about to host the world's statisticians. In July 2027 the ISI World Statistics Congress comes to Lusaka, to a country whose median age is 18 and where more than one in three people is aged 15–35. Its 2022 census counted 19.7 million people, 6.6 million more than in 2010, and the working-age share rose from 52.0% to 55.2%: the arithmetic of a demographic dividend. But a dividend is only banked if enough skilled young people can turn data into decisions.
Across East and Southern Africa the pattern repeats, and the stakes grow. The DR Congo (median age about 16) and Uganda (about 17) are among the youngest countries on Earth. By 2036 the DRC is projected to reach 158 million people and Ethiopia 172 million, while Zambia heads towards 29 million. Yet an estimated one in four young Zambians is not in employment, education or training, and few countries in the region have deliberate pathways to recruit, train and retain young statisticians, demographers and data scientists. Mauritius, with a median age of 38, shows the other end of the transition: demographic change never stops, and statistical systems must keep renewing the people who track it. Meanwhile, big data and AI/ML are raising the bar for public-sector data work.
Young statisticians are not waiting. YASA was born at the ISI's 2009 session in Durban, and UNECA's Takwimu programme urges countries to institutionalise young statistician associations. This joint session of UNFPA ESARO, UNFPA Zambia and YASA asks what comes next: a youth data workforce policy linking training, structured pathways into public service, innovation spaces, mentorship and data ethics, with clear roles for governments, National Statistics Offices, universities and partners. Using Zambia as its lens, the session argues that investing in young African statisticians is not just a youth agenda; it is how Africa counts, plans for and delivers its demographic dividend.
Keywords: youth data workforce; Zambia; demographic dividend; official statistics; AI/ML; ESAR