This is a

demography Demography () is the statistics, statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and Population dynamics, dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups ...

of the

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

including

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

ethnicity An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Population

Census results

As required by the Namibian ''Statistics Act'' #66 of 1976, and in accordance with

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

recommendations, a

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

is conducted every ten years. After

Namibian independence The history of Namibia has passed through several distinct stages from being colonised in the late nineteenth century to Namibia's independence on 21 March 1990. From 1884, Namibia was a German colony: German South West Africa. After the First W ...

the first Population and Housing Census was carried out in 1991, further rounds followed in 2001 and 2011. The data collection method is to count every person resident in Namibia wherever they happen to be. This is called the ''de facto'' method. 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. 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. In 2011 the total fertility rate was 3.6 children per woman, down from 4.1 in 2001.

UN estimates

According to the total population was in , 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 .Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision
Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (01.VII.2020):

Vital statistics

Registration of vital events in Namibia is not complete. The website

Our World in Data Our World in Data (OWID) is a scientific online publication that focuses on large global problems such as poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality. It is a project of the Global Change Data Lab, a re ...

prepared the following estimates based on statistics from the Population Department of the

Fertility and births

Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (followed by wanted fertility rate in brackets) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR): Fertility data as of 2013 (DHS Program):

Life expectancy at birth

Life expectancy from 1950 to 2015 (''UN World Population Prospects''):

Ethnic groups

Namibia has many ethnic groups. The 9 main ethnic groups are: * Coloured / Baster *

Herero Herero may refer to: * Herero people, a people belonging to the Bantu group, with about 240,000 members alive today * Herero language, a language of the Bantu family (Niger-Congo group) * Herero and Namaqua Genocide * Herero chat, a species of b ...

Kavango people The Kavango people, also known as the vaKavango or haKavango, are a Bantu ethnic group that resides on the Namibian side of the Namibian–Angolan border along the Kavango River. They are mainly riverine living people, but about 20% reside in the dr ...

Khoisan Khoisan , or (), according to the contemporary Khoekhoegowab orthography, is a catch-all term for those indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who do not speak one of the Bantu languages, combining the (formerly "Khoikhoi") and the or ( in t ...

* Nama / Damara *

Ovambo people The Ovambo people (), also called Aawambo, Ambo, Aawambo (Ndonga, Nghandjera, Kwambi, Kwaluudhi, Kolonghadhi, Mbalantu), or Ovawambo (Kwanyama) the biggest of the Aawambo sub-tribes are a Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa, primarily mo ...

Tswana people The Tswana ( tn, Batswana, singular ''Motswana'') are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group native to Southern Africa. The Tswana language is a principal member of the Sotho-Tswana language group. Ethnic Tswana made up approximately 85% of the popu ...

White Namibians White Namibians (german: Weiße Namibier or Europäer Namibier) are people of European descent settled in Namibia. The majority of White Namibians are Afrikaners (locally born or of White South Africans descent), with many of the White minority ...

* Zambezi people The majority of the Namibian population is of

Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for National ...

-speaking origin—mostly of the

Ovambo Ovambo may refer to: *Ovambo language *Ovambo people * Ovamboland *Ovambo sparrowhawk The Ovambo or Ovampo sparrowhawk, also known as Hilgert's sparrowhawk, (''Accipiter ovampensis'') is a species of sub-Saharan African bird of prey in the famil ...

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 Zambezi people and

. Other ethnic groups are the

and

Himba people The Himba (singular: OmuHimba, plural: OvaHimba) are an indigenous people with an estimated population of about 50,000 people living in northern Namibia, in the Kunene Region (formerly Kaokoland) and on the other side of the Kunene River in sout ...

, who speak a similar language, and the Damara, who speak the same "click" language as the Nama. 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 The Herero and Namaqua genocide or the Herero and Nama genocide was a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment waged by the German Empire against the Herero (Ovaherero) and the Nama in German South West Africa (now Namibia). ...

, they made up a majority. In addition to the Bantu majority, there are large groups of

(such as Nama and San), who are descendants of the original inhabitants of Southern Africa. The country also contains some descendants of refugees from Angola. There are also two smaller groups of people with mixed racial origins, called "

Coloureds Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...

" and "

Baster The Basters (also known as Baasters, Rehobothers or Rehoboth Basters) are a Southern African ethnic group descended from white European men and black African women, usually of Khoisan origin, but occasionally also enslaved women from the Cape, ...

s", 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. Himba Woman and Family

Whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as " ...

(mainly of

Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...

, German, British and

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

origin) make up between 4.0 and 7.0% of the population. Although their proportion of the population decreased after

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

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 Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

(after South Africa). The majority of Namibian whites and nearly all those who are of

mixed race Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...

, speak

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

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 German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

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 The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the l ...

of Angola. The 1960 census reported 526,004 persons in what was then South West Africa, including 73,464 whites (14%). Due to colonialism, whites hold a substantial amount of Namibian land, with about 4,500 settlers owning almost half of the country.

Languages

Oshiwambo The Ovambo () language is a dialect cluster spoken by the Ovambo people in southern Angola and northern Namibia, of which the written standards are Kwanyama and Ndonga. The native name for the language is ''Oshiwambo'' (also written ''Oshiv ...

– 48.9% *

Khoekhoegowab The Khoekhoe language (), also known by the ethnic terms Nama (''Namagowab'') , Damara (''ǂNūkhoegowab''), or Nama/Damara and formerly as Hottentot, is the most widespread of the non-Bantu languages of Southern Africa that make heavy use o ...

– 11.3% *

– 10.4% *

Otjiherero Herero (, ''Otjiherero'') is a Bantu language spoken by the Herero and Mbanderu peoples in Namibia and Botswana, as well as by small communities of people in southwestern Angola. There were 211,700 speakers in 2014. Distribution Its linguist ...

– 8.6% *

RuKwangali Kwangali, or RuKwangali, is a Bantu language spoken by 85,000 people along the Kavango River in Namibia, where it is a national language, and in Angola. It is one of several Bantu languages of the Kavango which have click consonants; these are t ...

– 8.5% *

Silozi Lozi, also known as siLozi and Rozi, is a Bantu language of the Niger–Congo language family within the Sotho–Tswana branch of Zone S (S.30), that is spoken by the Lozi people, primarily in southwestern Zambia and in surrounding coun ...

– 4.8% *

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

(official language) – 3.4% *

Setswana Tswana, also known by its native name , and previously spelled Sechuana in English, is a Bantu language spoken in Southern Africa by about 8.2 million people. It belongs to the Bantu language family within the Sotho-Tswana branch of Zone ...

– 0.3% * Other African languages – 2.3% * Other – 1.7% Nama Woman Smoking Kalahari Desert Namibia Luca Galuzzi 2004

Sprachenverteilung Oshivambo Namibia (2011)

Sprachenverteilung Khoekhoegowab Namibia (2011)

Sprachenverteilung Afrikaans Namibia (2011)

Sprachenverteilung Otjiherero Namibia (2011)

Distribution of Kavango languages in Namibia

Distribution of Caprivi languages in Namibia

Religion

Missionary work during the 19th century drew many Namibians to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, especially

Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

. While most Namibian Christians are Lutheran, there also are

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

African Methodist Episcopal The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The African Methodist Episcopal ...

, and Dutch Reformed Christians represented. *

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

80% to 90% (at least 50%

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

) * Indigenous beliefs 10% to 20%

Other demographic statistics

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 Ovamboland, also referred to as Owamboland, was a Bantustan in South West Africa (present-day Namibia), intended by the apartheid government to be a self-governing homeland for the Ovambo people. The term originally referred to the parts of ...

. The Africans speak various indigenous languages. Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2022. *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 ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...

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) :0–14 years: 36.54% (male 467,392 /female 458,190) :15–24 years: 20.34% (male 257,190 /female 257,984) :25–54 years: 34.74% (male 421,849 /female 458,118) :55–64 years: 4.46% (male 50,459 /female 62,478) :65 years and over: 3.93% (male 42,381 /female 57,183) (2018 est.)

Birth rate

:25.01 births/1,000 population (2022 est.) Country comparison to the world: 45th :25.33 births/1,000 population (2021 est.) Country comparison to the world: 45th

Death rate

:6.85 deaths/1,000 population (2022 est.) Country comparison to the world: 124th :7.07 deaths/1,000 population (2021 est.) Country comparison to the world: 117th

Total fertility rate The total fertility rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if: # she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime # she were t ...

:2.98 children born/woman (2022 est.) Country comparison to the world: 48th :3.03 children born/woman (2021 est.) Country comparison to the world: 48th

Median age

:total: 21.8 years. Country comparison to the world: 183rd :male: 21.1 years :female: 22.6 years (2020 est.)

Population growth rate

:1.82% (2022 est.) Country comparison to the world: 50th :1.83% (2020 est.) Country comparison to the world: 45th

Mother's mean age at first birth

:21.5 years (2013 est.) :note: median age at first birth among women 25–29

Contraceptive prevalence rate

:56.1% (2013)

Net migration rate

0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2022 est.) Country comparison to the world: 94th

Urbanization

:urban population: 54% of total population (2022) :rate of urbanization: 3.64% annual rate of change (2020–25 est.) :urban population: 50% of total population (2018) :rate of urbanization: 4.2% annual rate of change (2015–20 est.)

Major infectious diseases

:degree of risk: high (2020) :food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever :vectorborne diseases: malaria :water contact diseases: schistosomiasis

Dependency ratio The dependency ratio is an age-population ratio of those typically not in the labor force (the ''dependent'' part ages 0 to 14 and 65+) and those typically in the labor force (the ''productive'' part ages 15 to 64). It is used to measure the press ...
s

:total dependency ratio: 68.1 (2015 est.) :youth dependency ratio: 62.2 (2015 est.) :elderly dependency ratio: 5.8 (2015 est.) :

potential support ratio The potential support ratio (PSR) is the number of people age 15–64 per one older person aged 65 or older. This ratio describes the burden placed on the working population (unemployment and children are not considered in this measure) by the non ...

: 17.1 (2015 est.)

Education expenditures

:9.4% of GDP (2020) Country comparison to the world: 6th

Sex ratio

''at birth:'' 1.03 male(s)/female (2017 est.)
''under 15 years:'' 1.02 male(s)/female (2017 est.)
''15–64 years:'' 0.99 male(s)/female (2017 est.)
''65 years and over:'' 0.75 male(s)/female (2017 est.)
''total population:'' 0.96 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

:total population: 65.87 years (2021 est.) Country comparison to the world: 197th :male: 63.9 years (2021 est.) :female: 67.9 years (2021 est.)

HIV/AIDS

adult prevalence rate: 12.7% (2019 est.) Country comparison to the world: 6th people living with HIV/AIDS: 210,000 (2019 est.) deaths: 3,000 (2019 est.)

Nationality

''noun:'' Namibian(s)
''adjective:'' Namibian

Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write (2015 est.) :total population: 91.5% (2018 est.) :male: 91.6% (2018 est.) :female: 91.4% (2018 est.)

Population

Census results

UN estimates

Vital statistics

Fertility and births

Life expectancy at birth

Ethnic groups

Languages

Religion

Other demographic statistics

Population

Religions

Age structure

Birth rate

Death rate

Total fertility rate The total fertility rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if: # she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime # she were t ...

Median age

Population growth rate

Mother's mean age at first birth

Contraceptive prevalence rate

Net migration rate

Urbanization

Major infectious diseases

Dependency ratio The dependency ratio is an age-population ratio of those typically not in the labor force (the ''dependent'' part ages 0 to 14 and 65+) and those typically in the labor force (the ''productive'' part ages 15 to 64). It is used to measure the press ...
s

Education expenditures

Sex ratio

Life expectancy at birth

HIV/AIDS

Nationality

Literacy

Unemployment, youth ages 15–24

References

External links

Population

Census results

UN estimates

Vital statistics

Fertility and births

Life expectancy at birth

Ethnic groups

Languages

Religion

Other demographic statistics

Population

Religions

Age structure

Birth rate

Death rate

Total fertility rate The total fertility rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if: # she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime # she were t ...

Median age

Population growth rate

Mother's mean age at first birth

Contraceptive prevalence rate

Net migration rate

Urbanization

Major infectious diseases

Dependency ratio The dependency ratio is an age-population ratio of those typically not in the labor force (the ''dependent'' part ages 0 to 14 and 65+) and those typically in the labor force (the ''productive'' part ages 15 to 64). It is used to measure the press ...s

Education expenditures

Sex ratio

Life expectancy at birth

HIV/AIDS

Nationality

Literacy

Unemployment, youth ages 15–24

References

External links

Dependency ratio The dependency ratio is an age-population ratio of those typically not in the labor force (the ''dependent'' part ages 0 to 14 and 65+) and those typically in the labor force (the ''productive'' part ages 15 to 64). It is used to measure the press ...
s