An assessment of Poverty and Inequality in Cameroon

Introduction

Cameroon has grown, but too many Cameroonians haven’t felt it. Between 2001 and 2022 the national poverty rate nudged down only from 40.2% to 37.7%, while the number of poor people climbed from about 6 million to more than 10 million. Poverty remains heavily rural—nearly 7 in 10 poor people live outside cities—and starkly regional, with the Far North, North-West, and North posting the highest rates. Inequality adds weight to this story. In 2022 the Gini coefficient stood at 40.1, the Q5/Q1 ratio at 7.8 (the richest fifth consume about 7.8× the poorest fifth), and the bottom 20%’s share of national income has slipped from 6.2% (2001) to 5.4% (2021).

This explainer looks at poverty and inequality in Cameroon from 2001 to 2024, using the national poverty line and drawing on ECAM surveys and recent diagnostics. We unpack what poverty and inequality measure, how they have changed, and why—from slow, stop-and-go growth and rapid population increase to unequal access to education, jobs, land, and finance. We then examine what this means for daily life: food security, standards of living, safety, and health.

Finally, we review the government’s main development frameworks—Vision 2035 and the National Development Strategy 2020–2030 (SND30)—and close with practical recommendations for turning growth into broad-based opportunity. The aim is simple: a clear, evidence-driven guide to where Cameroon stands, what drives today’s outcomes, and what it will take to ensure progress is shared by all.

I. Analysis of Poverty in Cameroon

To understand poverty in Cameroon, it helps to first pause on what we mean by poverty itself. Poverty is one of those economic concepts that people grasp intuitively. You don’t need econometrics or statistics to know what it means to be poor. Generally, poverty is understood as the lack of resources to meet basic human needs. But it goes beyond that—it can be absolute or relative, global or rural, and it cuts across different dimensions: economic, social, political, cultural, and even environmental.

In this article, we’ll focus on the absolute economic dimension of poverty: the number of people living with a level of consumption below a defined poverty line. The idea is simple—to estimate, in monetary terms, how much consumption is required to secure a basic level of welfare (food, water, shelter, and so on), and to count how many people fall short of that minimum.

For lower-middle-income countries like Cameroon, the World Bank sets the international poverty line at $4.20 per person per day. The African Development Bank follows this same benchmark. At the national level, however, Cameroon defines its own poverty line at 813 CFA francs per person per day—roughly $1.39. For the purposes of this paper, we’ll work with this national line.

Cameroon’s poverty profile is—well, complex. From 2001 to 2022, the poverty rate dropped only slightly, from 40.2% to 37.7%. That’s a very modest shift, especially when compared to the ambitious Vision 2035 target of reducing poverty rate to 10%. Worse, while the rate of poverty has edged down, the absolute number of poor people has risen—from 6 million in 2001 to over 10 million in 2024. Poverty is also heavily rural: nearly 7 in 10 poor Cameroonians live in rural areas, with the Far North (69.2%), North West (66.8%), and North (61.1%) showing the highest rates.

So what drives this grim picture? First, weak economic growth. Cameroon’s GDP per capita grows by only about 1% annually—far too low. With an estimated growth elasticity of poverty of -1.0, that means a 1% rise in GDP per capita reduces poverty by just 1 percentage point. This weak growth is then swallowed by Cameroon’s high population growth rate of2.6%, which continually adds more people than the economy can lift out of poverty. On top of this, growth has been unequally shared, as high levels of inequality blunt the limited gains.

II. Analysis of Inequality in Cameroon

Inequality, simply put, refers to the unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, or outcomes within a population. In Cameroon, inequality is most visible in two dimensions: gender and region.

At the gender level, the World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) rates Cameroon a 3 on gender equality. This signals that there are still significant barriers preventing women and men from accessing opportunities on an equal footing.
Regionally, inequality is even starker. The gap between the poorest and least poor regions is 54.3 percentage points, ranging from 69.3% in the Far North to just 14.9% in the South. On average, about one in four Cameroonians lives in poverty, but the disparities are wide: in cities like Douala (8.3%) and Yaounde (10.8%), poverty is far below the national mean, while in rural and conflict-affected regions like the Far North (69.2%) and North West (66.8%), poverty approaches double the mean. Statistically, the standard deviation among regional poverty rates is 22 percentage points, showing just how unevenly poverty is distributed across the country.

At the national level, two standard metrics help capture inequality. The Gini coefficient captures how far the distribution is from perfect equality (0 = perfect equality and 100 = maximum inequality) and the quintile ratio (Q5/Q1) compares the average income of the top 20% to that of the bottom 20% (higher values = more unequal). In 2022, Cameroon’s Gini was 40.1 and the Q5/Q1 ratio was 7.8, meaning the richest fifth consumed about 7.8 times what the poorest fifth did. Notably, the bottom 20% ‘s share of national income has fallen from 2001 (6.2%) to 2021 (5.4%), signaling that the gains from growth have increasingly bypassed the poorest households.

One of the structural drivers of inequality in Cameroon, according to the UN National Report on Human Development, is unequal access to education. The NIS data shows that the net secondary school enrolment rate among children aged 12-18 is more than twice as high in non-poor households (65.3%) compared to poor households (32.4%). This disparity creates long-term gaps in skills acquisition, employability, and earnings potential, reinforcing intergenerational poverty traps.

Moreover, the labor market further amplifies inequality. High levels of low-productivity informal sector employment (86.6%) and youth unemployment (23.2%), limit the ability of households to benefit from growth. Many young people face barriers such as insufficient qualifications for available jobs, discrimination in recruitment processes, or discouragement after repeated failure in competitive entrance exams to public service. Even those who manage to create small businesses face heavy tax burdens (25% flat rate) that hinder sustainability.

III. Implications of Poverty and Inequality

The analysis of both poverty and inequality tells a sad story. The number of people living in poverty continues to rise, while wealth is distributed very unevenly. However, what does this mean for Cameroonians’ health, food security and overall standard of living?

On health, two indicators give us perspective: the use of professional healthcare services and overall health outcomes. Just 58.6% of the population consults skilled health personnel, showing that access remains limited. Yet, the gap between poor and non-poor households is relatively small—just 3.6 percentage points. Life expectancy at birth has also steadily improved since 2000, now standing at over 63.7 years. This suggests that despite persistent poverty, healthcare outcomes are relatively resilient and somewhat shielded from the sharp divides of inequality.

Food security, on the other hand, paints a far more troubling picture. In 2022, about 6 out of 10 Cameroonians reported facing moderate or severe food insecurity, a significant rise compared to 49.9% in 2015. This shows that even as the economy grows, a large number of households remain unable to reliably feed themselves.

When it comes to the standard of living, fewer than half of Cameroonian households live in dwellings made of final materials. In rural areas, the figure drops to just 17.4%. However, access to safe water is far better: up to 8 in 10 households use an improved water source, with rural areas still performing relatively well at 7 in 10. This mixed picture shows that standards of living are as unevenly distributed as resources, and housing quality remains deeply unequal, especially in rural communities where poverty is mostly concentrated.

Taken together, the implications are clear: poverty and inequality continue to weigh heavily on everyday life in Cameroon. While health outcomes show resilience, the struggles with hunger, poor housing, and limited living standards underscore the uneven toll of poverty and inequality.

IV. Policy Measures to curb Poverty and Inequality

One of the most important long-term frameworks guiding development is Vision 2035, adopted in 2009. Its central ambition is to reduce poverty to below 10% by 2035 while transforming Cameroon into a middle-income, industrialized economy. The strategy is anchored in two key levers: sustaining high, job-generating growth and expanding redistributive social policies. To achieve this, Vision 2035 emphasizes the expansion of basic services such as health, education and training, water, electricity, and transport infrastructure, combined with a more equitable distribution of opportunities across regions. Industrialization and stronger governance are seen as cross-cutting drivers, with successive five-year plans designed to operationalize the vision over time.

Moreover, the National Development Strategy 2020–2030 (SND30) provides the medium-term roadmap to operationalize Vision 2035. Structured around four pillars, it seeks to promote sustained growth and structural transformation, improve living conditions and reduce poverty, strengthen climate-change adaptation and environmental management, and enhance governance and public-sector efficiency. Policy measures under this framework focus on expanding access to electricity and transport corridors, increasing agricultural and industrial productivity, investing in human capital, and scaling up social protection. At the same time, the SND30 highlights the importance of efficient public spending, a stronger business environment, and environmental sustainability. Together, these measures are meant to address both the structural causes of poverty and the inequalities that undermine inclusive growth.

Recommendations

While these frameworks set ambitious goals, their impact has so far been blunted by weak execution and the slow pace of inclusive growth. To make them more effective, Cameroon must place job creation at the center of its development agenda, ensuring that major infrastructure and energy projects under the SND30 directly generate employment opportunities for youth and women. Expanding programs that link large-scale investment with local hiring, apprenticeships, and SME participation would help transform growth into tangible poverty reduction.

Equally important is raising agricultural productivity, since agriculture remains the main employer of the poor. Scaling up access to irrigation, improved seeds, extension services, and rural roads, while strengthening land tenure security, would allow smallholder farmers to invest and escape subsistence traps. Linking these efforts to climate-smart agriculture would also make them more resilient in vulnerable regions such as the Far North and North-West. Alongside this, social protection systems must be expanded and better targeted, particularly through cash transfers and food assistance for the poorest households. Making these systems more shock-responsive would protect families against recurrent droughts, price hikes, and conflict.

Closing the regional and urban–rural gaps is another priority. Infrastructure and social services need to be directed toward lagging regions, while urbanization policies should focus on affordable housing and basic services in rapidly expanding peri-urban areas. At the same time, a level playing field for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is essential, requiring simpler tax procedures, easier access to finance, and fairer access to public contracts. Finally, equal opportunity policies must address the root inequalities identified earlier: the education gap between poor and non-poor households, skills mismatches in the labor market, and the persistent barriers facing women in economic participation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Cameroon has laid out the right frameworks for development. Vision 2035 sets a long-term ambition, while the SND30 provides a detailed roadmap. What is needed now is sharper execution, with a laser focus on job creation, agricultural productivity, equal access to services, and safety nets that protect the most vulnerable. Only then can growth translate into real poverty reduction and shared prosperity for all Cameroonians.

References

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AUTHOR

Jules Moukam

Research Intern

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