As required by the Namibian Statistics Act #66 of 1976, and in accordance with United Nations recommendations, a census is conducted every ten years. After Namibian independence the first Population and Housing Census was carried out in 1991, further rounds followed in 2001 and 2011.[1] The data collection method is to count every person resident in Namibia wherever they happen to be. This is called the de facto method.[2] For enumeration purposes the country is demarcated into 4,042 enumeration areas. These areas overlap with constituency boundaries in order to get reliable data for election purposes as well.[3]
The 2011 Population and Housing Census counted 2,113,077 inhabitants of Namibia. Between 2001 and 2011 the annual population growth was 1.4%, down from 2.6% in the previous ten–year period.[4]
In 2011 the total fertility rate was 3.6 children per woman, down from 4.1 in 2001.
UN estimates
According to the 2022 revision of the World Population Prospects[5][6] the total population was 2,530,151 in 2021, compared to only 485 000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 36.4%, 59.9% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 3.7% was 65 years or older
.[7]
Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (01.VII.2020) (Based on the results of the 2011 Population Census.):[8]
Vital statistics
Registration of vital events in Namibia is not complete. The website Our World in Data prepared the following estimates based on statistics from the Population Department of the United Nations.[9]
Fertility and births
Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (followed by wanted fertility rate in brackets) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):[10]
Fertility data as of 2013 (DHS Program):[11]
Life expectancy at birth
Life expectancy from 1950 to 2015 (UN World Population Prospects):[12]
Ethnic groups
Namibia has many ethnic groups. The 9 main ethnic groups are:
The majority of the Namibian population is of Bantu-speaking origin—mostly of the Ovambo ethnicity, which forms about half of the population—residing mainly in the north of the country, although many are now resident in towns throughout Namibia. They also include the Lozi people and Kavango people. Other ethnic groups are the Herero and Himba people, who speak a similar language, and the Damara, who speak the same "click" language as the Nama. As of 2022[update] Herero and Nama peoples make up less than 10% of the population, but at the beginning of the 20th century and before the Herero and Namaqua Genocide, they made up a majority.[13]
In addition to the Bantu majority, there are large groups of San, who are descendants of the original culture of Southern Africa, as well as Nama who are descendants of the above as well as mixed with colonists.They often speak Khoekhoegowab. The country also contains some descendants of refugees from Angola. There are also two smaller groups of people with mixed racial origins, called "Coloureds" and "Basters", who together make up 8.0% (with the Coloureds outnumbering the Basters two to one). There is a substantial Chinese minority in Namibia; it stood at 40,000 in 2006.[14]
Whites (mainly of Afrikaner, German, British and Portuguese origin) make up between 4.0 and 7.0% of the population. Although their proportion of the population decreased after independence due to emigration and lower birth rates, they still form the second-largest population of European ancestry, both in terms of percentage and actual numbers, in Sub-Saharan Africa (after South Africa/Angola).[15] The majority of Namibian whites and nearly all those who are of mixed race, speak Afrikaans and share similar origins, culture, and religion as the white and coloured populations of South Africa. A large minority of whites (around 30,000) trace their family origins back to the German settlers who colonised Namibia prior to the British confiscation of German lands after World War I, and they maintain German cultural and educational institutions. Nearly all Portuguese settlers came to the country from the former Portuguese colony of Angola.[16] The 1960 census reported 526,004 persons in what was then South West Africa, including 73,464 whites (14%).[17]
Modern education and medical care have been extended in varying degrees to most rural areas in recent years. The literacy rate of Africans is generally low except in sections where missionary and government education efforts have been concentrated, such as Ovamboland. The Africans speak various indigenous languages.
Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2022.[19]
One birth every 8 minutes
One death every 27 minutes
One net migrant every 131 minutes
Net gain of one person every 11 minutes
The following demographic are from the CIA World Factbook[20] unless otherwise indicated.
Population
2,727,409 (2022 est.)
2,533,224 (July 2018 est.)
Religions
Christian 97.5%, other 0.6% (includes Muslim, Baha'i, Jewish, Buddhist), unaffiliated 1.9% (2020 est.)
Age structure
0–14 years: 35.68% (male 473,937/female 464,453)
15–24 years: 20.27% (male 267,106/female 265,882)
25–54 years: 35.47% (male 449,132/female 483,811)
55–64 years: 4.68% (male 54,589/female 68,619)
65 years and over: 3.9% (2020 est.) (male 43,596/female 58,948)
^"World Population Prospects 2022: Demographic indicators by region, subregion and country, annually for 1950-2100" (XSLX) ("Total Population, as of 1 July (thousands)"). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
^Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision Archived May 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
^"UNSD — Demographic and Social Statistics".
^"Population & Demography Data Explorer". Our World in Data. Retrieved 2022-07-22.
^"MEASURE DHS: Demographic and Health Surveys". microdata.worldbank.org.
^"Namibia Demographic and Health Survey 2013" (PDF). Namibia Demographic and Health Survey. 2013.
^"World Population Prospects – Population Division – United Nations". Retrieved 2017-07-15.
^Popp, Maximilian; Riedmann, Bernhard (2022-11-10). "Namibia Continues Seeking Justice for Germany's Colonial-Era Genocide". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
^Malia Politzer (August 2008). "China and Africa: Stronger Economic Ties Mean More Migration". Migration Information Source. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
^ This article incorporates public domain material from "Namibia". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). CIA. Retrieved 23 January 2010. (Archived 2009 edition.)
^"Flight from Angola". The Economist. 16 August 1975. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
^Singh, Lalita Prasad (1980). The United Nations and Namibia. East African Publishing House.
^ a b c d This article incorporates public domain material from "Namibia". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). CIA. 19 April 2022. (Archived 2022 edition.)
^"Namibia Population 2022", World Population Review
^ This article incorporates public domain material from "Namibia". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). CIA. March 4, 2021. (Archived 2021 edition.)
External links
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