The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) unveiled the Namibia 2023 Population and Housing Census Main Report in Windhoek on Wednesday.
According to the report, Namibia’s population remains at just over three million, as was reported in the preliminary census report in March this year.
The findings of the 2023 Population and Housing Census Main Report were also backed up by the 2023 Census Post Enumeration Survey, which was conducted last year from October 18 to November 3rd.
Deputy Statistician-General Ottilie Mwazi said, “The PES estimated the final census population of Namibia to be 3.1 and the census population there is no change to what we have announced during the preliminary, so the difference to be estimated between the population of Namibia by the PES and the census is about 81 000 persons, which is equivalent to 2.7%, so we are saying the difference lays between the 99% confidence of the two populations, which is off acceptable as per the standards. So in conclusion, the PES thus confirms that the census is to be of quality.”
From the report, 71% of Namibia’s population is under the age of 35 years.
Alex Shimuafeni, Statistician-General of the NSA, said, “I think we confuse this sometime because we talk about the youth at 71.1%, but the right definition is that these are the people who are younger than 35 years because this also includes the children. So this is how they are distributed: children between the ages of 0 and 14 years are already 1,1 million, youth between 15 and 34 being one million, 15 to 19 around 290,000, and then 20-24 below 260, and others below 200 000.”
The census also revealed that women in Namibia gave birth to 85 991 babies in the year before the census, while for every one thousand people in the country there were about seven deaths.
“Infant mortalities we say 26.2 children between 0-1 years per 1000 babies born alive, meaning that 26.2 infants out of a 1000 are most likely to not make it past the one year and the children who are up to five years meaning that 38.8 out of a 1000 don’t confuse with percentage cause if you do it will be 0.26 in the first instance and 0.3 in the second are most likely not to make it above 5 years.”
46% of all households’ main source of income is salaries or wages, 13.8 depend on old age pension, 10.7% rely on farming, 9% on business activities, and 3.6% depend on government social grants.
The NSA is also expected to release labour force statistics on 29 January next year.
“I want to tell you that the official statistics are saying 66% of these are people getting income, so you can have a rough estimate to say they are from the definition of employment rate or employed. Maybe you can guess and say unemployment is at 34%.”
The report also revealed that about 43% of households in Namibia are occupied by owners without mortgages.