Iipumbu Sakaria 

The preliminary results for the 2023 population and housing census were released on 13 March 2024 and Namibia’s population has reached the three million mark. 

Comparing this growth to previous census results shows us that in 1991, Namibia’s population stood at 1.4 million people. 

In 2001, the population rose to 1.8 million and during the previous census in 2011, the population stood at 2.1 million people. As of 2023, the preliminary population of Namibia stands at 3 022 401 people. 

The population count includes all people who were present in Namibia during the reference night of counting people and is not limited to Namibian citizens only. Once the main report is released later in the year, it will be possible to fully understand the composition of the Namibian population.  In terms of rural and urban dynamics, the population is clearly moving into urban areas as currently the population in urban areas increased by 65.6% since the last census, while the rural population increased by 26.3% respectively.

 This obviously gives town planners serious things to think about as most of the people coming into the urban areas require, and expect services from respective town councils. 

The population proportions by age are also significant. Currently, 37% of the population consists of people up to the age of 14 years. The working age population 15 – 59, stands at 56.1% while the population of those above 60 years stands at 6.8%. Those aged between 15 and 34 stand at 34.1% while those under the age of 35 comprise 71.1% of the population. 

Namibia has also seen an increase in the number of households from 464 839 in 2011 to 756 339 in 2023. The average household size though, is declining as people tend to have fewer children these days than in the days past. Hence, the figure declined from 4.4 persons to 3.8 persons per household. 

Regional statistics show that Khomas is still the most populated region with close to half a million inhabitants, the exact figure stands at 494 605 people. This is closely followed by Ohangwena and Omusati regions who have a population of 337 729 and 257 302 respectively. The least populated region in Namibia is Omaheke which has a population of 102 881 people and closely followed by the //Kharas region with 109 893 inhabitants. 

Analyzing the population trend since the last census in 2011, we can see that the Erongo, Kavango East and Zambezi regions experienced a population growth of 59.3%, 59.6% and 57.3% respectively. The least percentage change was experienced in Oshana, Omusati and Hardap regions with 30.6%, 30.2% as well as 34.2% respectively. 

In terms of the sex ratio, women still outnumber men in Namibia at a sex ratio of 95; this essentially means for every 100 females there are 95 males in the country. This figure though changes from region to region as this number is higher in some areas than
others. 

Going forward, the Namibia Statistics Agency will continue to release more data from the census which will include the 14 regional reports, labour force report which will contain an in-depth analysis of economic activity, the population atlas, fertility, mortality and migration reports as well as the population projections. 

All these statistics will be available and the nation is more than welcome to request these for their own usage. Once again, thank you for participating in the census as you enabled the collecting, production, analysis and dissemination of statistics for development. 

*Iipumbu Sakaria is the Manager of Corporate Communications at the Namibia Statistics Agency.