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Population of Uganda in Africa and its Consequences to Development

Population of Uganda is said to be among the highest growing in the Africa. Uganda Population is said to double to 55 million people in 20 years to come. On this page, we bring you facts about Uganda population.

With the population of Uganda expected to double to 55 million in the next 20 years, it seems obvious that the population has serious implications on the economy, which has been growing at an average of only 5 percent in the past years.

The government has already raised concerns over the fast growing numbers arguing that if the current Uganda population trends continue, Uganda’s population would strike 130 million by 2050.Experts say Uganda’s growing population and challenges of population profiling Uganda will lead to poverty, given the high rate of unemployment and costly demands for improved health, education and sanitation.

According to the Parliamentarians’ Forum, Uganda’s population is expected to double in the next 21 years to over 50 million residents. Experts offer a variety of reasons why the population of Uganda is increasing.

A typical Ugandan wife delivers seven children on average and Uganda adds over two million people each year to the population.

Uganda Population is a mixed population with people from various origins and it’s like every tribe is competing to produce more numbers. Currently Uganda has a population estimated to be above 30 million people.

Tribes in Uganda Population

Uganda Population includes the ethnic groups of baganda 17%, ankole 8%, basoga 8%, iteso 8%, bakiga 7%, langi 6%, rwanda 6%, bagisu 5%, acholi 4%, lugbara 4%, batoro 3%,bunyoro 3%, alur 2%, bagwere 2%, bakonjo 2%, jopodhiola 2%, karamojong 2%, rundi 2%, non-african 1%, other 1%. Click here to learn more about the culture of Uganda people in Africa

Uganda Population Age Tends

The age structure of the Population in Uganda can be divided into three parts such as 0-14 years 50.1%, 15-64 years 47.6%, 65 years and above 2.2%. The median age of Uganda is 14.97 years out of which 14.87 go for male an d15.08 years go for female. The population growth rate of the country is 3.31%. The birth rate of Uganda is 47.39 births/1,000 population and the death rate is 12.8 deaths/1,00 population. The fertility rate is 6.74 children born/woman.

Population of Uganda and Religion

Population of Uganda mainly follows Christianity. 33% are Roman Catholic while 33% are Protestants. 16 % of the population is Muslim and 18% of them follow indigenous belief. Click here for more information about the Uganda religions in Africa

English is the official language but people also use Luganda widely across the nation. Nilo-Saharan languages, Swahili and Arabic are in use as well. Click here for more information about Languages in Uganda

69.9 % of the Uganda Population are literate. 79.5% male and 60.4% female over 15 years age can read and write. The population of Uganda mostly suffers from HIV/AIDS. Click here for more information about Aids in Uganda

CAUSES OF POPULATION GROWTH

Culture and the population of Uganda

Uganda is culturally typical of most East African countries. Ugandans value large families, polygamy is legal and fairly common, and 80% of the country is involved in agriculture. Curiously, the total fertility rates (the average number of children born to each woman) in neighboring, culturally similar countries like Kenya and Tanzania, have gone down in recent years, to 4.91 and 4.97 respectively, but Uganda’s was 7.1 in 2000, leading to a population growth rate of 3.30% per year. Such explosive population growth will lead to serious repercussions in all sectors of Ugandan life, and wreak havoc on already precarious ecosystems.

What is it that is keeping Uganda’s birth rate so high compared to its neighbors? The correlation between women's education and declining birth rates is well documented, and often thought to be the most effective means to decrease the rate of population growth. A study of birth rates and education levels in Tanzania and Uganda finds that even though Uganda has a higher percentage of women with complete secondary education, it finds that 9.9% of Uganda’s women have complete primary education compared with Tanzania’s 46% of women with complete primary education.

This disparity in complete basic education is given as a contributing factor to Uganda’s steadily high TFR, in contrast to Tanzania’s declining TFR. This shows that despite the large portion of Uganda's women who are well educated, the continuing presence of a large undereducated population keeps Uganda's populating growing by nearly a million people per year.

As the population increases, the economy of the country has not been able to keep up with demand for public services. With every Ugandan woman having nearly 7 children, the government is strapped for educational funding, and families can not afford to pay for complete schooling for all their children. Often, girls are taken out of schools after only a few years, while their brothers continue education.

These undereducated girls will go on to have larger families, sustaining Uganda’s high rates of population growth, and putting the country in an intense cycle of poverty. Even in the face of such dire consequences, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni continues to promote a pro-growth policy, in the belief that a larger population, means a larger market and more economic growth, not recognizing the inability of the land and the economy to keep up with the breakneck pace of growth.

In the Ugandan ministry of finance’s Second Participatory Poverty Assessment Report, they surveyed Ugandan opinions on what they found to be causes of poverty around them. 33% of Ugandans reported “Large Families/Many Dependents” as a reason for poverty. 47% listed “Land Shortage” as a cause of poverty. 13% said infertile soils. We suppose that land scarcity is such a big problem because they are not able to farm the much depleted land, and good land has become scarce .

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