Uganda has smallest population above 65
SOLOMON MUYITA
KAMPALA
A NEW World Bank study indicates that Uganda has the highest adult mortality on the African continent.
Ugandans die so young that the country has the smallest percentage of people living up to their 65th birthday.
About half of Ugandans are children under the age of 14 years.
"The country with the lowest percentage of people above 65 years is Uganda, at 1.8 percent (2003)," the latest annual publication of the World Bank, African Development Indicators (ADI) 2005 stated.
"Nearly half the population of Uganda (49.8) and Niger (48.9) are under 14 years old (2002)," said the publication that was launched on June 29, at the World Bank headquarters in Washington.
This means that with Uganda's 27 million people as of today, only about 1.5 million can make it to 65 years of age.
Seychelles and Mauritius are the countries with the highest life expectancy, at 73 years, while Zambia has the lowest total life expectancy, 36 years followed by Lesotho and Sierra Leone with 37 years.
Seychelles, on the other hand has the highest percentage of people above 65 years, at 6.9 percent, and the lowest infant mortality rate, with 11 per 1,000 live births.
The ADI 2005 stresses the need for more generous aid, improved access to markets for African goods and services and for deeper debt relief.
The report shows that net aid grew, thanks to higher bilateral and multilateral flows.
Debt relief benefited 23 African countries but foreign direct investment dropped on a continent whose diversity is well captured by the extensive data ADI 2005 assembles in one volume.
ADI assembles economic, social and environmental data from a variety of sources to present a broad picture of development across Africa.
It is drawn from the World Bank Africa Database and provides the most detailed collection of development data of the continent in one volume, and presents data from 53 African countries and five regional country groups, arranged in separate tables or matrices for more than 500 indicators of development.
Other highlights indicate that Seychelles has the highest GNI per capita for 2003 in Africa at ($7,350), followed by Mauritius ($4,100), Botswana ($3,530), Gabon ($3,400), and South Africa ($2,920). Sudan remains the country with the greatest land area, with 2.37 million sq. km, followed by DR Congo (2.26 million sq. km).
Nigeria is the most populated country with 136.5 million people, followed by Ethiopia (68.6 million) and DR Congo (53.2 million).
GDP levels
South Africa is the biggest economy, with a real GDP of $145,338 million, followed by Nigeria, with a GDP of only $48,766 million, while Sao Tome and Principe is the smallest economy, with a GDP of $53 million.
Somalia was highlighted as a country that has made the greatest gains in life expectancy in the past decade is Somalia - from 42 (1990) to 47 years, followed by Sudan.
Rwanda, one of Uganda's neighbouring countries, has the highest proportion of females in its labour force is Rwanda, at 50.2 percent, and the least urbanised population at 6.6 percent.
The country with the greatest HIV prevalence is Swaziland, where one out of every four adults has contracted the virus.
It is followed by Botswana. |
