Poverty in Namibia is common with an unemployment rate of 29.9%, poverty incidence of 26.9% and HIV prevalence of 16.9%.

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 ...

has an economic growth rates averaging 4.3% according to the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

, and is one of nine nations in Africa classified by the World Bank as upper center pay. However,

income disparity There are wide varieties of economic inequality, most notably income inequality measured using the distribution of income (the amount of money people are paid) and wealth inequality measured using the distribution of wealth (the amount of we ...

in the country is one of the world's highest with a Gini coefficient of 59.1 in 2015 (2017: 61.3), and there were 3,300

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

millionaires in 2017. In a 2021 report by the governmental Namibia Statistics Agency, multidimensional poverty was determined to affect 43% of the population, 59% in rural and 25% in urban areas. The poorest regions per this measure were

Kavango West Kavango West is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its capital and only self-governed settlement is Nkurenkuru, its governor is Sirkka Ausiku. The Region was created in 2013 when the Kavango Region was split into Kavango East and Kavango ...

(80%),

Kavango East Kavango East is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its capital is Rundu, its governor is Bonifatius Wakudumo. The Region was created in 2013 when the Kavango Region was split into Kavango East and Kavango West. The only self-governed settle ...

(70%) and

Kunene Region Kunene is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its capital is Opuwo, its governor is Marius Sheya. The region's name comes from the Kunene River which forms the northern border with Angola. Besides the capital Opuwo, the region contains the ...

(64%), while the lowest rates of poverty were found in

Erongo Erongo is one of the 14 regions of Namibia. The capital is Swakopmund. It is named after Mount Erongo, a well-known landmark in Namibia and in this area. Erongo contains the municipalities of Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, Henties Bay and Omaruru, as w ...

(16%) and ǁKaras (21%). More than 400,000 people live in

informal housing Informal housing or informal settlement can include any form of housing, shelter, or settlement (or lack thereof) which is illegal, falls outside of government control or regulation, or is not afforded protection by the state. As such, the inform ...

, with

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 202 ...

(100,000 shack dwellers),

Rundu Rundu is the capital and largest city of the Kavango-East Region in northern Namibia. It lies on the border with Angola on the banks of the Kavango River about above sea level. Rundu's population is growing rapidly. The 2001 census counted 36,9 ...

(76,000) and

Otjiwarongo Otjiwarongo ( hz, beautiful place) is a city of 28,000 inhabitants in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia. It is the district capital of the Otjiwarongo electoral constituency and also the capital of Otjozondjupa. Otjiwarongo is situated in c ...

(53,000) accommodating the largest number.

References

Economy of Namibia

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See also

References