Ugandans now live longer, produce fewer children – 2014 census report

President Museveni appends his signature to the 2014 population and housing census report at Kampala Serena Hotel yesterday as Finance minister Matia Kasaija looks on.

What you need to know:

Highlights. The National Population and Housing Census 2014 final results show that Uganda’s population increased by 10.4 million persons between 2002 and 2014

Kampala.

The country’s population has increased by slightly more than 10 million people between 2002 and 2014.

According to the National Population and Housing Census 2014 final results released by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) yesterday, the country’s total population is 34.6 million persons, slightly lower than the 34.9 million that was projected in the provisional results released in November 2014.

The change, according Ubos, is a result of tightening loose ends and getting rid of ghost entries following thorough verification.
The growth in population represents an increase of 10.4 million persons between 2002 and 2014 census.

This is the 10th census since Uganda came into existence. The first census was conducted in 1911 by the colonial administration and the total population then was registered as 2.5 million. Other censuses were subsequently conducted in 1921, 1931, 1948 and 1959 still by the colonial administration. The first census conducted by the independent government was in 1969, and subsequently in 1980, 1991, 2002 and 2014.

According to the report launched yesterday by President Museveni, the population of women compared to men has remained higher, with a difference of about a half a million. The male population is 17,060,832 while the female are 17,573,818, totalling to a population of 34, 634, 650.

The census enumerated 7.3 million households countrywide, with the majority of the households (75 per cent) residing in rural areas. Thirty per cent of the households are female-headed. In average, each household has about five people.

In terms of age distribution, the census found that youth of 18-30 years make up 22.5 per cent of the population, and those of 15 and 64 years make up 49 per cent. Only 2.7 per cent are aged above 65 years.

Dependency burden
Age-dependency ratio is an indicator of the economic burden that the productive population must bear. According to the report, populations with very high birth rates coupled with low death rates have a high age dependency ratio.

Overall, the age dependency ratio currently is 103. This implies that for every 100 economically active persons there are 103 dependents. The dependency ratio active age is 110 for males and 97 for females.

Marital status
The National Population and Housing Census 2014 final results also showed that about 22 per cent of the population above 18 years were never married while 65 per cent were married/ cohabiting.

Fertility
Fertility refers to the reproductive performance of a woman in her reproductive life. One measure of fertility is the Total Fertility Rate (TFR), which is defined as the number of live births a woman would have if she survived to the end of her child-bearing age (15-49 years) and experienced the current observed age specific fertility rates.

The TFR affects the rate of growth of a given population. The TFR declined from 7.1 children per woman in 1991 to 5.8 children per woman in 2014.

Child mortality
Infant mortality rate (IMR) is the probability of dying in the period from birth to the first birthday while under-five mortality rate is the probability that a new-born child will die before reaching his or her fifth birthday.

The IMR was estimated at 53 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2014, showing an improvement from 87 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2002.

Under-five mortality rate was estimated at 80 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2014, an improvement from 156 deaths per 1,000 in 2002.

Life expectancy
The provisional estimate of life expectancy is 63.3 years, an increase from 50.4 years in 2002. The males have lower life expectancy compared to their female counterparts, the report indicates

Literacy
Literacy is the ability for one to read with understanding and to write a simple sentence meaningfully in any language. Literacy leads to an increase in opportunities for an individual. At National level, about 72 per cent of the population was literate, higher than about 70 per cent in 2002.

Literacy among females was lower (68 per cent) than for males (77 per cent). Literacy rates were higher in urban areas than rural areas.

There has been a steady increase in the literacy rates from 54 per cent 1991 to about 72 per cent in 2014. The male literacy rate has been persistently higher than that of their female counterparts over the three census periods.

Energy for lighting
The majority of households (52 per cent) used tadooba (local paraffin candle) as the main source of energy for lighting while about 20 per cent used electricity. Electricity use has more than doubled and use of tadooba has reduced by about 20 per cent. The tadooba was predominantly used in the rural areas (60 per cent) compared to the urban areas (25 per cent).

Energy for cooking
The majority of households use wood fuel as the main source for cooking. Overall, 71 per cent of the households use firewood for cooking, with 85 per cent in the rural and 31 per cent in the urban areas. This shows a decline in the usage of firewood from 82 per cent in 2002.

Household assets

L-R: UNFPA officials Esperance Fundira, Miranda Tabifor and UN Women Country Representative Hodan Addou at the release of the 2014 census report in Kampala yesterday.


Household assets are a proxy indicator for the socio-economic status and welfare of the household. Any asset owned by any member of the household was treated as a household asset during the census. However, only functional assets were considered. About 73 per cent of the households owned their houses, with majority of the households (83 per cent) being in rural areas.

Overall, about 62 per cent of the households owned agricultural land and this was most predominant among households in rural areas (about 71 per cent).

The most common mode of transport was a bicycle (32 per cent), especially in rural areas (35 per cent). This was followed by motor cycle with nine per cent and motor vehicle with about 4 per cent.

With respect to use of ICT equipment, a radio was the most common means by which the population received and shared information, with the proportion being higher among the male-headed households (63 per cent) compared to the female-headed households (49 per cent).
About 14 per cent of the households owned television sets, with a majority (about 40 per cent) in urban areas.

Source of Information
More than half of the households (55 per cent) reported radio as their main source of information followed by word of mouth (19.6 per cent).

The two combined are the main source of information for three quarters of the households. The share of ‘Word of Mouth’ has declined from 49 per cent in 2002 to 20 per cent in 2014.
Despite the decline and the proliferation of various communication channels, word of mouth is still a major source. Telephone and television are other sources of information, accounting for seven per cent each.

Occupation
Nearly 80 per cent of the all households in the country were involved in agriculture compared to74 per cent in 2002.

There were a higher percentage of male-headed households (81 per cent) that were involved in agriculture compared to female headed households (75 per cent). The results also indicate that more rural households participated in agriculture (90 per cent) compared to their urban counterparts (46 per cent).

Wakiso was the most populous district with nearly two million persons while Kalangala District was the least populous with less than 60,000 persons.

Urban population
In March 2016, there were 259 urban centres in Uganda. These include one capital city, 33 municipalities, 163 town councils and 62 town boards. The urban population has been increasing overtime from about 1.7 million in 1991 to nearly 7.4 million in 2014.

The population of all urban centres is 7,425,864 with 27 of these having a population of more than 50,000 persons. These collectively host 62 per cent of the urban population of Uganda.

On the converse, there are 229 urban centres with a population of 25,000 persons or less, and their total population constitutes only 38 per cent of the total urban population of Uganda. Kampala Capital City has remained the most populous with 1.5 million people. Buikwe Njeru Town Council is the least populated urban centre with 68,835 people.

census factfile

Uganda has undertaken five population censuses in the post-independence period. The most recent, the National Population and Housing Census 2014, was undertaken under the theme ‘Counting for Planning and Improved Service Delivery’. The enumeration for the 2014 Census was conducted in August/September 2014. Prior to this main report, the Provisional Results Report was released in November 2014 and it gave the total population of administrative areas by sex.

This report gives the final results of the 2014 Uganda Population and Housing Census of Uganda.

The report presents the results in broad categories of population and household characteristics and housing conditions. The population characteristics covered include spatial distribution of the population, age and sex composition, religious and ethnic composition, education and literacy, economic activity, orphanhood and disability.

THE NUMBERS
34.6 million
The country’s population according to the National Population and Housing Census 2014 .

24.2 million
The country’s population in 2002.

17,573,818
The female population according to the 2014 census.

17,060,832
The male population according to the 2014 census.

7.3 million
The number of households during the 2014 census.