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Tanzania Demographics Profile

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Population62,092,761 (July 2021 est.)

note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected
Nationalitynoun: Tanzanian(s)

adjective: Tanzanian
Ethnic groupsmainland - African 99% (of which 95% are Bantu consisting of more than 130 tribes), other 1% (consisting of Asian, European, and Arab); Zanzibar - Arab, African, mixed Arab and African
LanguagesKiswahili or Swahili (official), Kiunguja (name for Swahili in Zanzibar), English (official, primary language of commerce, administration, and higher education), Arabic (widely spoken in Zanzibar), many local languages; note - Kiswahili (Swahili) is the mother tongue of the Bantu people living in Zanzibar and nearby coastal Tanzania; although Kiswahili is Bantu in structure and origin, its vocabulary draws on a variety of sources including Arabic and English; it has become the lingua franca of central and eastern Africa; the first language of most people is one of the local languages

major-language sample(s):
The World Factbook, Chanzo cha Lazima Kuhusu Habari ya Msingi. (Kiswahili)

The World Factbook, the indispensable source for basic information.
ReligionsChristian 63.1%, Muslim 34.1%, folk religion 1.1%, Buddhist <1%, Hindu <1%, Jewish <1%, other <1%, unspecified 1.6% (2020 est.)

note: Zanzibar is almost entirely Muslim
Age structure0-14 years: 42.7% (male 12,632,772/female 12,369,115)

15-24 years: 20.39% (male 5,988,208/female 5,948,134)

25-54 years: 30.31% (male 8,903,629/female 8,844,180)

55-64 years: 3.52% (male 954,251/female 1,107,717)

65 years and over: 3.08% (male 747,934/female 1,056,905) (2020 est.)
Dependency ratiostotal dependency ratio: 85.9

youth dependency ratio: 81

elderly dependency ratio: 4.9

potential support ratio: 20.4 (2020 est.)
Median agetotal: 18.2 years

male: 17.9 years

female: 18.4 years (2020 est.)
Population growth rate2.81% (2021 est.)
Birth rate33.71 births/1,000 population (2021 est.)
Death rate5.17 deaths/1,000 population (2021 est.)
Net migration rate-0.44 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2021 est.)
Population distributionthe largest and most populous East African country; population distribution is extremely uneven, but greater population clusters occur in the northern half of country and along the east coast as shown in this population distribution map
Urbanizationurban population: 36% of total population (2021)

rate of urbanization: 4.89% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
Major cities - population262,000 Dodoma (legislative capital) (2018), 7.047 million DAR ES SALAAM (administrative capital), 1.182 million Mwanza (2021)
Sex ratioat birth: 1.03 male(s)/female

0-14 years: 1.02 male(s)/female

15-24 years: 1.01 male(s)/female

25-54 years: 1.01 male(s)/female

55-64 years: 0.86 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female

total population: 1 male(s)/female (2020 est.)
Mother's mean age at first birth19.8 years (2015/16 est.)

note: median age at first birth among women 20-49
Maternal mortality rate524 deaths/100,000 live births (2017 est.)
Infant mortality ratetotal: 31.51 deaths/1,000 live births

male: 34.36 deaths/1,000 live births

female: 28.57 deaths/1,000 live births (2021 est.)
Life expectancy at birthtotal population: 69.9 years

male: 68.12 years

female: 71.74 years (2021 est.)
Total fertility rate4.45 children born/woman (2021 est.)
Contraceptive prevalence rate38.4% (2015/16)
Drinking water sourceimproved: urban: 92.3% of population

rural: 56.2% of population

total: 68.2% of population

unimproved: urban: 7.7% of population

rural: 43.8% of population

total: 31.8% of population (2017 est.)
Health expenditures3.6% (2018)
Physicians density0.01 physicians/1,000 population (2016)
Hospital bed density0.7 beds/1,000 population (2010)
Sanitation facility accessimproved: urban: 82.1% of population

rural: 29.5% of population

total: 46.9% of population

unimproved: urban: 17.9% of population

rural: 70.5% of population

total: 53.1% of population (2017 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate4.7% (2020 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS1.7 million (2020 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths32,000 (2020 est.)
Major infectious diseasesdegree of risk: very high (2020)

food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever

vectorborne diseases: malaria, dengue fever, and Rift Valley fever

water contact diseases: schistosomiasis

animal contact diseases: rabies
Obesity - adult prevalence rate8.4% (2016)
Food insecuritysevere localized food insecurity: due to localized shortfalls in staple food production - number of severely food insecure people estimated at 490,000 for period May-September 2021, markedly lower than in period November 2019-April 2020 (2021)
Children under the age of 5 years underweight14.6% (2018)
Education expenditures3.4% of GDP (2014)
Demographic profile

Tanzania has the largest population in East Africa and the lowest population density; almost a third of the population is urban. Tanzania’s youthful population – about two-thirds of the population is under 25 – is growing rapidly because of the high total fertility rate of 4.8 children per woman. Progress in reducing the birth rate has stalled, sustaining the country’s nearly 3% annual growth. The maternal mortality rate has improved since 2000, yet it remains very high because of early and frequent pregnancies, inadequate maternal health services, and a lack of skilled birth attendants – problems that are worse among poor and rural women. Tanzania has made strides in reducing under-5 and infant mortality rates, but a recent drop in immunization threatens to undermine gains in child health. Malaria is a leading killer of children under 5, while HIV is the main source of adult mortality

For Tanzania, most migration is internal, rural to urban movement, while some temporary labor migration from towns to plantations takes place seasonally for harvests. Tanzania was Africa’s largest refugee-hosting country for decades, hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Great Lakes region, primarily Burundi, over the last fifty years. However, the assisted repatriation and naturalization of tens of thousands of Burundian refugees between 2002 and 2014 dramatically reduced the refugee population. Tanzania is increasingly a transit country for illegal migrants from the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region who are heading to southern Africa for security reasons and/or economic opportunities. Some of these migrants choose to settle in Tanzania.

Literacydefinition: age 15 and over can read and write Kiswahili (Swahili), English, or Arabic

total population: 77.9%

male: 83.2%

female: 73.1% (2015)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)total: 9 years

male: 9 years

female: 9 years (2019)

Source: CIA World Factbook
This page was last updated on September 18, 2021

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