High-resolution wealth maps reveal Africa’s nonlinear trajectory of development and inequality

Economic well-being data are critical for understanding development conditions and monitoring poverty, yet micro-level socioeconomic conditions in Africa remain poorly understood. Here, we present a high-resolution wealth mapping framework that integrates household survey indicators with spatial wealth proxies, producing the first 10-m economic well-being maps across 30 African countries. Our model explains 74% of the variance (R²=0.74) and our results reveal that ~ 36% of the population—about 340 million people—still reside in the least-developed areas. Expanded analysis of nearly 60,000 settlements further shows that Africa remains in a state of “equilibrated poverty”: while economic growth tends to widen internal disparities, development trajectories follow a nonlinear U-shaped pattern rather than a monotonic trend. Under extreme poverty, inequality actually intensifies, creating compounded risks of poverty and social exclusion. These findings uncover spatial patterns invisible to coarse-scale studies and provide new evidence for poverty alleviation and equitable infrastructure planning across the Global South.