How to vertically align text inside a flexbox?

Instead of using align-self: center use align-items: center.

There's no need to change flex-direction or use text-align.

Here's your code, with one adjustment, to make it all work:

ul {
  height: 100%;
}

li {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  /* align-self: center;    <---- REMOVE */
  align-items: center;   /* <---- NEW    */
  background: silver;
  width: 100%;
  height: 20%;
}

The align-self property applies to flex items. Except your li is not a flex item because its parent – the ul – does not have display: flex or display: inline-flex applied.

Therefore, the ul is not a flex container, the li is not a flex item, and align-self has no effect.

The align-items property is similar to align-self, except it applies to flex containers.

Since the li is a flex container, align-items can be used to vertically center the child elements.

* {
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
}
html, body {
  height: 100%;
}
ul {
  height: 100%;
}
li {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  /* align-self: center; */
  align-items: center;
  background: silver;
  width: 100%;
  height: 20%;
}

<ul>
  <li>This is the text</li>
</ul>

codepen demo

Technically, here's how align-items and align-self work...

The align-items property (on the container) sets the default value of align-self (on the items). Therefore, align-items: center means all flex items will be set to align-self: center.

But you can override this default by adjusting the align-self on individual items.

For example, you may want equal height columns, so the container is set to align-items: stretch. However, one item must be pinned to the top, so it is set to align-self: flex-start.

example

How is the text a flex item?

Some people may be wondering how a run of text...

<li>This is the text</li>

is a child element of the li.

The reason is that text that is not explicitly wrapped by an inline-level element is algorithmically wrapped by an inline box. This makes it an anonymous inline element and child of the parent.

From the CSS spec:

9.2.2.1 Anonymous inline boxes

Any text that is directly contained inside a block container element must be treated as an anonymous inline element.

The flexbox specification provides for similar behavior.

4. Flex Items

Each in-flow child of a flex container becomes a flex item, and each contiguous run of text that is directly contained inside a flex container is wrapped in an anonymous flex item.

Hence, the text in the li is a flex item.

The best move is to just nest a flexbox inside of a flexbox. All you have to do is give the child align-items: center. This will vertically align the text inside of its parent.

// Assuming a horizontally centered row of items for the parent but it doesn't have to be
.parent {
  align-items: center;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
}

.child {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
}

The most voted answer is for solving this specific problem posted by OP, where the content (text) was being wrapped inside an inline-block element. Some cases may be about centering a normal element vertically inside a container, which also applied in my case, so for that all you need is:

align-self: center;

RESULT

HTML

<ul class="list">
  <li>This is the text</li>
  <li>This is another text</li>
  <li>This is another another text</li>
</ul>

Use align-items instead of align-self and I also added flex-direction to column.

CSS

* {
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

html,
body {
  height: 100%;
}

.list {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  flex-direction: column;  /* <--- I added this */
  align-items: center;   /* <--- Change here */
  height: 100px;
  width: 100%;
  background: silver;
}

.list li {  
  background: gold;
  height: 20%; 
}