Demography of Namibia
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Namibia is extremely sparsely populated. After Mongolia , Namibia is the country with the lowest population density in the world. There are 2.55 inhabitants per square kilometer of the country (for comparison: Germany 231).
The population is also distributed very unevenly. It is concentrated in a few cities and the fertile north of the country. Almost two thirds of the population lives in the regions north of the veterinary fence ( Omusati , Oshana , Ohangwena , Oshikoto , Kavango and Zambezi ). Another third live in central Namibia, where more than 350,000 people live in Windhoek alone. Only seven percent of the population live in the south of the country, while the west and the Namib Desert, with the exception of the port cities, are almost deserted.
Population data
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Population: 2,484,780 / 2,324,388
Age structure:
0-14 years: 36.97% (male 463,810; female 454,735) / 37%
15–64 years: 59.07% / 57% (15–59)
65 years and older: 3.96% (male 48,529 ; female 59,543) / 6% (60+)
Growth rate: 1.95% / 1.9%
Birth rate: 27.3 births / 1000 /
Death rate: 7.9 deaths / 1000 / 10.8
Child mortality: 35.1 deaths / 1000 /
Net migration rate: 0 migrants / 1000 /
Gender distribution:
Birth: 1.03 male / female /
under 15 years: 1.02 male / female /
15-64 years: 0.91 male / female /
65 years and older: 0.75 male / female /
total population: 0, 96 male / female / 0.95
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 64 years /
male: 62.4 years /
female: 65.6 years /
Fertility: 3.29 children born per woman / 4.1 children born per woman
Nationality:
Name: Namibian ( English Namibian )
Adjective: Namibian (English Namibian )
- First statement: 2017 figures - CIA World Factbook, 2017. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
- Second information: Interim census in Namibia 2016
Population development
Statistical data on the population of Namibia are collected every ten years (since 2016 also to a lesser extent every 5 years) in a census, most recently in 2011 (interim census 2016) with a total population of 2,104,900. In the years between 1970 and 1990 in particular, the number of inhabitants more than doubled. The current annual population growth is around three percent. Since up to 10 percent (see HIV / AIDS in Africa ) of the population are infected with HIV , the average life expectancy at birth fell significantly by the mid-2000s. In 1990 it was around 62 years and in 2005 only 52 years, but rose again to 64 years by 2016.
Ethnic composition
Due to the more or less arbitrary demarcation of the boundaries by the former colonial powers, often across the areas of distribution of ethnic groups at that time, as well as by numerous strong migratory movements in the 19th and 20th centuries, Namibia has become a typical multi-ethnic state . There are many different ethnic groups resident.
San
The San, also known as the Bushmen , are considered to be the oldest population group and thus the indigenous people of Namibia. They are of very short stature, have a yellowish skin color and, like the Nama, are related to the Khoikhoi . As an extremely peaceful people, repeatedly pushed out of their living space by other ethnic groups, the majority of them now live as auxiliary workers on farms in the Omaheke region .
Damara
The Damara, who have always been sedentary, are also among the indigenous people of South West Africa. They make up about seven to eight percent of the total population. They live in large families in the mountains between the Kaokoveld and the Erongo .
Ovambo
The Bantu-speaking Ovambo are by far the largest people with 49.8 percent of the population. Both previous heads of government and the President were provided by the Ovambo. They live mainly in the northern, rainy and thus most fertile regions of Omusati , Oshana , Ohangwena and Oshikoto . These people did not immigrate until the 16th and 17th centuries and are almost still among the newcomers. During the South African occupation, countless men of this people served as contract workers in the mines of central and southern Namibia. The poor working conditions (the contract labor system is considered a modern form of slavery) and the close coexistence of the mine workers were the main reasons for the strong resistance of the Ovambo against the South Africans.
Kavango
Other Bantu-speaking ethnic groups are the Kavango peoples in the Kavango region in the northeast on the banks of the Okavango . They are also considered immigrants. It is believed that they originated in East Africa. They almost exclusively practice agriculture and fishing. Their settlement area also extends to what is now Angola . Only some of them have Namibian citizenship.
Herero
The semi-nomadic Herero Bantu people began to immigrate to the area of Namibia in the 16th century, coming from the savannahs of East Africa. As a traditionally warlike tribe, there were frequent bloody clashes over pastureland with other local peoples. Especially the peaceful San and Damara soon came under the oppression of this people. Despite an initial friendship treaty, the Herero became the bitterest opponents of German colonial rule. Around 100,000 Herero currently live in Namibia, the majority of them in the Otjozondjupa region . Even today typical of the women of the people is their powerful headdress, which they took over from missionary wives in Victorian times.
Himba
The Himba are a very traditional African pastoral people. The women live in kraals in the Kaokoveld in the Kunene region , while the men roam the savannahs of the north with their herds in search of pastures.
Nama
The khois-appealing Nama, referred to as "Hottentots" in colonial literature, immigrated in the 18th and 19th centuries from the Cape region, from which they had been expelled by the Dutch. In search of new pastures, they fought bitter battles with the Herero until they settled in the Karas region.
Caprivians
The 90,000 or so Caprivians, who are mostly Bantu-speaking, live in the north-east between Angola , Zambia and Botswana in the Zambezi (Caprivi) and Kavango-West region .
Rehobother Baster
The Basters are an Afrikaans -speaking group of around 30,000 people . They are the descendants of Dutch settlers in the Cape region and native Nama women. To avoid confrontation with the newly arriving whites, they moved north and settled in the Rehoboth area in 1871 . A protection and peace treaty with the German Reich gave them a relative independence, which they lost again with the death of their then captain Hermanus van Wyk in 1905. It was not until 1979 that they were able to wrest the South African government back from a special status, which was largely lost with Namibia's independence.
white
Almost five percent of Namibia's residents are white. With 90,000 Africans , or Boers , are in the majority. Around 22,000 are German-born settlers, both descendants of the Germans from the colonial era and immigrants who have only been living in Namibia for a relatively short period of time and who are called German-Namibians by the German-Namibians for the purpose of distinguishing between Germans , i.e. Germans from Germany. Approx. 5000 are Portuguese who live in the north of the country. Even after more than 26 years of independence, around two thirds of commercial farms and the most productive land are still in white hands. The servants on the farms are almost without exception black.
languages
The diversity of the population is also reflected in the languages spoken. With the Bantu languages , the Khoisan languages and the Indo-European languages, there are three large language groups with over 30 dialects. The Bantu and Khoisan languages are the traditional tribal languages of the Ovambo , Otjiherero , Herero , Himba , Nama , San and the Damara .
By the whites and Bastern Germanic languages introduced as Afrikaans and German are indeed spoken only by a small part of the population as a first language, but especially among farm workers and other language whites still very common lingua franca .
Before South Africa gained independence, Afrikaans, English and German were the official languages. In 1990, English became the sole official language, with all other languages spoken in the country recognized and promoted by the government as a cultural heritage. In order to enforce the new official language, which was previously not widely used, every child now has to learn English in addition to their tribal language, which, not least because of the poor level of education due to poverty, is inadequate for the majority of the population.
religion
As a result of proselytizing during the colonial period, more than four fifths of Namibians are Christians, which means that the country is well above the African average in this regard. 50% of Namibians are Lutherans (in southern and central Namibia as a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (DELK) (ELKIN (DELK)) or Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN) or in northern Namibia as a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN)), one fifth (20%) belong to the Roman Catholic Church in Namibia , five percent are members of the Dutch Reformed Church and another five percent are Dutch Reformed or Anglicans . The remaining Christians are spread across other smaller churches such as Baptists , Adventists, and the United States- based Methodist Episcopal Church . The rest of the Namibians, especially the San, Himba and Caprivians, are followers of their traditional religions . But many Namibian Christians also combine the old rites and customs that seem incompatible with the “new faith”. Even today, ancestral cult , black magic and sorcery are part of the everyday life of many Namibians across the country.
See also
literature
- Central Bureau of Statistics (Ed.): An atlas of Namibia's population: monitoring and understanding its characteristics. Windhoek 2010. ( PDF )
- JS Malan: Peoples of Namibia. Department of Anthropology, University of the North, Rhino Publishers, Pretoria 1995, ISBN 1-874946-33-7 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Namibia Inter-censal Demographic Survey 2016 Report. Namibia Statistics Agency, November 21, 2017.
- ↑ WDI Online, Worldbank , as of December 15, 2008.
- ^ Cole Fryxell: To Be Born a Nation. Pp. 9-327.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from December 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive )