It’s Official! Namibia has 2.1 million people

New Era,12 Apr 2012 - Story by Alvine Kapitako

 WINDHOEK – Namibia’s population stands at 2.1 million people, an increase of 15 percent from the 1.8 million recorded during the 2001 Population and Housing Census.

On average, a 1.5 percent population growth has occurred annually. Of the 2.1 million people, 51 percent are female and 49 percent male, the latest census preliminary results indicate.

In total, 465, 400 households were counted, representing an increase of 32 percent from the 346,455 households registered in the 2001 census. This reflects a reduction in average household size to 4.4 in 2011 compared to 5.1 in 2001.

Average households vary significantly across regions and constituencies. It is highest in the Kavango Region and lowest in the Erongo Region. Generally, large households are to be found in the northern regions, while small ones are found in regions with larger urban populations such as the Erongo and Khomas regions.

The southern regions have moderately-sized households. In terms of rural and urban distribution, a total of 1, 219,400 (58 percent) were enumerated in rural areas, while 885,500 (42 percent) were enumerated in urban areas in 2011.
Compared to the proportional distributions of 67 percent and 33 percent respectively enumerated in the 2001 census, this shows that the rate of urbanization in Namibia is increasing.

The preliminary census results were announced by the Director-General of the National Planning Commission, Tom Alweendo.
“It’s a good growth if you relate that growth to the economic growth. We should still be able to manage our population.”

He explained that a population that grows faster than the economy is not desirable. Alweendo also admitted that the process “turned out to be a much harder exercise” because it was not easy to reach everybody.

Meanwhile, the NPC’s Permanent Secretary, Andries Leevi Hungamo said 800 unemployed Namibian youth were recruited for the census exercise. Experienced compatriots assisted them, he added.

“We have paid almost everyone,” he remarked when asked whether the enumerators were paid their outstanding money, adding that a few individuals have not yet received their money, because some account numbers provided are dormant.

Thus, transfers could not be made, he explained. “We’re doing our best to trace everybody who was not paid,” he said. Alweendo thanked the public for its cooperation. “We had to rely on the information they gave us,” he said.

The 2011 census was conducted under the legal framework of Statistical Act 66 of 1976 that empowers the Central Bureau of Statistics to undertake population and housing censuses.

The census was conducted from August 28 to September 15, last year. The total cost incurred for the entire census exercise was not made public and the outstanding results will be announced in due course, though no exact date was given.


siehe auch: Artikel zum  Thema in der Allgemeinen Zeitung Namibia vom 12. April 2012, Zensus belegt die Landflucht