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Population report offers mixed scorecard
Pilgrims pictured attending Martyrs Day celebrations at Namugongo recently. PHOTO/ FILE
What you need to know:
- About 44 percent of the population is aged 0 to 14 years, 53 percent are aged 15 to 64 years, and only three percent are aged 65 and above.
A new report by the National Population Council has shown that the teenage pregnancy rate reduced by one percent from 2016 to 2022.
The report titled State of Uganda Population Report November 2023 indicates that the rate of teenage pregnancy stood at 25 percent in 2016 compared to the 24 percent recorded in 2022.
“The slow pace in reduction of teenage pregnancy rate is attributed to low contraceptives prevalence rate, early sexual debut, early marriages and near universal marital union,” the report notes.
It further shows that if the current teenage pregnancy rate is reduced from 24 percent to 10 percent, the government will save Shs592b annually and per capita health care expenditure will reduce from $280 to $105. Similarly, the resultant education cost for children born by teenage mothers of over Shs53b will be saved.
The report also indicates that the infant mortality rate has declined from 43 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2016 to 52 in the year 2022.
In addition, the maternal mortality ratio has dropped from 336 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2016 to 189 deaths per live births in 2022. The country’s projected population in 2023 is 46.2 million people, with females accounting for 51 percent of total population.
About 44 percent of the population is aged 0 to 14 years, 53 percent are aged 15 to 64 years, and only three percent are aged 65 and above.
The country has a total working population of 20.5 million persons aged 14 to 64 years, with 51 percent being own use production workers followed by 49 percent in employment. Fertility rate decreased from 5.4 in 2016 to 5.2 children per woman in 2022.
While acknowledging the strides made in the HIV/Aids fight, the report also makes clear that the epidemic still poses an existential threat.
Young people aged between 15 and 24 are responsible for 34 percent of new infections annually in a country whose weekly infection rate stands at 1,100. Four out of five new infections are adolescent girls and young women.
