Natalie Cowling
Research Expert South Africa
Demographics of Tanzania - statistics & facts
Nearly 60 million people live in Tanzania, one of the largest countries in Africa in terms of demographics. Immigrants make up only a small share of the population, while some 328 thousand Tanzanians live abroad. In the last decades, the East African nation has experienced remarkable population growth. In 2021, the population expanded by 2.8 percent, one of the highest rates in the world. Until 2050, roughly 130 million inhabitants might live in Tanzania.
Accelerated population growth
Mortality has progressively decreased in Tanzania, one of the factors contributing to strong populational growth. In 10 years, the number of deaths per 1,000 inhabitants declined from 10 to six. In turn, life expectancy extended from 57.7 years to 65.5 years in the same period. Moreover, Tanzania’s fertility rate is still high, despite following a steady downward trend. In 2019, the country counted 4.8 births per woman. Among adolescents aged 15-19 years, there were 115.5 births per 1,000 women.Share of young population
In addition to a growing population, Tanzania has a low median age, which was 18 years in 2020. Over 60 percent of Tanzanians are aged under 25 years. Consequently, as observed in most African countries, Tanzania had a high child dependency ratio. In 20 years, the indicator decreased by only four percentage points, reaching 81 percent in 2020. This means that, per 100 working-age individuals, there were 81 children aged 0-14 years in the country.Tanzanians in poverty
Furthermore, one in four Tanzanians were poor in 2020, considering the national poverty line. The poverty headcount ratio slowly decreased from 35.7 percent in 2000. However, the progress is still subject to economic shocks, even with Tanzania being one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa. In 2021, some additional 150 thousand people were pushed into poverty as an effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Therefore, considering the poverty threshold at 1.90 U.S. dollars a day, over 29 million Tanzanians, roughly half of the population, are extremely poor.
