THE Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT), has released preliminary results to the 2022 Population and Housing census which indicate a 1.5% grown rate in the country’s population.
By Michael Gwarisa
According to the Preliminary Results report, Zimbabwe witnessed a population change of 16.2% from 13.1 million in 2012 to 15,178 979 as at April 20, 2022. From the population size, (52%) were female, giving a sex ratio of 92 males for every 100 females.
Given the 2012 population size of 13,061,329, this gives an annual population growth rate of 1.5 percent. The population constituted 3,818,992 households, giving an average of 4 persons per household. Given a land area of 390,757 square kilometres, the resultant population density stood at 39 persons,” said Mr Taguma Mahode ZIMSTAS Executive Director.
He added that composition of male to female population stood at 48% males and 52% females and this is more or less the status-quo from the 2012 population census so the populations have marinated their percentages in this case.
In terms of population distribution by provinces, Harare province constituted 16% of the total population. Harare had 2,427,209 persons. Manicaland and Mashonaland West Provinces had 2,037,762 and 1,893,578 persons respectively. In all provinces, the female population was higher than the male population.
“It is interesting that only in Matabeleland South is the province where we have the least disparity but still we have more female than male. The overall sex ratio was 92. By 92 we mean they are 92 males for every 100 females. The sex ratio ranged from 86 males per 100 females in Bulawayo to 98 males to 100 females in Mashonaland West.”
The rural/urban population share as at 20th April 2022 shows that the rural population constituted 61.4% while the urban population constituted 38.6%. In 2012 the rural population was at 67% while the urban population was at 33%.
The distribution of households shows that Harare Province had 653,562 households followed by Manicaland and Mashonaland West Provinces with 502,945 and 466,843 respectively. Masvingo Province had the highest average household size of 4.17 followed by Matabeleland North Province with 4.15.
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Country Representative, Dr Esther Muia the population growth indicators were crucial in guiding government in its planning processes.
“Zimbabwe’s population is just over 15 million and this is up from 13 million in 2012. Mathematically, what it means is that the size of population growth rate at a point of 1.4% up from 1.1% within 10 years clearly shows that Zimbabwe’s population is growing and it is giving the population its momentum and it will continue to do so in the foreseeable future,” said Dr Muia.
Zimbabwe’s population was at 7.5 million people in 1982 and the latest statistics shows that it has taken 40 years for Zimbabwe’s population to double notwithstanding the other population shocks that might have happened over the years.
“With this population growth rate, it will take Zimbabwe probably about 15 years to double to about 30 million. This is very helpful as it helps government to plan because this will direct the planning informed by favourable policy environments that will see Zimbabwean actually realise its goal by 2030 of becoming an upper middle income country.”
Meanwhile, Dr William Muhwava a senior demographer at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) said Zimbabwe was one of the few countries which premiered a fully technologically driven census in the world.
“We are appreciate this and this is what we have been encouraging countries to do so that they understand fully digitally driven censuses. Zimbabwe utilized around 50,000 tablets during the census and that is very significant. The census in Zimbabwe was done on record time and we know or sure that enumeration was done in April and now we are in July and already we have the preliminary results.” said Dr Muhwava.
