The record in plain text — overall score, categories, strengths and risks, momentum, resilience, strategic position, and diagnostics.
Strongest on Stability (62/100) — sharpest risk, talent emigration risk.
| Category | Score | Key driver |
|---|---|---|
| Economy | 45/100 | Financial Account Ownership |
| Governance | 45/100 | — |
| Quality of Life | 52/100 | Clean Cooking Access |
| Innovation | 54/100 | Internet Penetration |
| Stability | 62/100 | Violence & Safety |
Derived — composites of sourced indicators. Full audit trail in Data Provenance below.
| Signal | Value | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| National Momentum | +1 | now 57, versus 56 three years ago, across 5 categories |
| Resilience | 51/100 | Pandemic 52 · Banking Crisis 43 · War / Conflict 47 · Natural Disaster 63 |
| Strategic Position | 51/100 | Demographics 80 · Resources 19 · Stability 62 · Education 42 · Technology 54 · Geopolitics 47 |
South Africa scores 52 (weak) overall on NationsHelm's index. Momentum: up 1 point versus three years ago (now 57). Its strongest area is Stability (62/100). The risk drawing attention: Talent emigration risk.
All 192 tracked indicators — 110 sourced, 82 derived — each with its exact source, series code, and refresh cadence. The complete source-by-source catalog is on the methodology page.
Full catalog →Per-indicator sources are always public on the methodology page — Analyst assembles the complete ledger in context.
South Africa scores 52 out of 100 overall on NationsHelm's index (weak) — the unweighted mean of its sourced category scores. Its strongest area is Stability (62/100) and its weakest is Governance (45/100).
South Africa's Stability score is 62 out of 100 (moderate), blended from World Bank governance indicators, V-Dem and UCDP conflict data.
South Africa's Economy score is 45 out of 100 (weak), derived from World Bank, IMF and ILO indicators.
South Africa's Quality of Life score is 52 out of 100 (weak), covering safety, healthcare, education, basic living conditions, environment and living conditions context from sourced indicators.
South Africa's Governance score is 45 out of 100 (weak), from World Bank governance indicators and V-Dem democracy data.
South Africa's Innovation score is 54 out of 100 (weak), from World Bank connectivity and business indicators, WIPO patent data and the Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index.
On NationsHelm's momentum read, South Africa is up 1 point versus three years ago — 57 now, from 56 — across the 5 categories with time-series coverage.
South Africa's defining asset is mining (world's largest producer of platinum, gold, chromium), while its sharpest risk is talent emigration — weak labor market conditions.
South Africa's Strategic Position score is 51 out of 100 (weak), weighing demographics, resources, stability, education, technology and geopolitics — each component sourced or derived, with unsourced components dropped rather than counted as zero.
On NationsHelm's Opportunity Index, South Africa scores 52 out of 100 for Invest In — one of its three vectors, alongside Start a Business and Emigrate To, with a Resilience score of 51/100. Every input is sourced, so treat it as a starting map, not advice.