Demographics of Africa
The population of Africa has grown rapidly over the past century and consequently shows a large youth bulge, further reinforced by a low life expectancy of below 50 years in some African countries. Total population as of 2020 is estimated to be more than 1.3 billion, with a growth rate of more than 2.5% p.a. The total fertility rate (births per woman) for Africa is 4.7 as of 2018, the highest in the world according to the World Bank. The most populous African country is Nigeria with over 206 million inhabitants as of 2020 and a growth rate of 2.6% p.a. Genetic history of Africa Source: Maddison and others. (University of Groningen). Source: Maddison and others (University of Groningen) and others. Registration of vital events in most of Africa is incomplete. The website Our World in Data prepared the following estimates based on statistics from the Population Department of the United Nations. The Sahara Desert, covering most of North Africa, and the smaller Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa, are very sparsely populated. Heavily populated areas include the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Nile River valley and delta, Nigeria and vicinity and the southern coast of West Africa, Ethiopia, the greater East African Rift area, Madagascar, coastal and urban South Africa, and the Middle Africa megacities of Kinshasa and Luanda. The population of Africa was 177 million in 1950, and it grew 7.6 times to more than 1.341 billion in 2020. The increase in population is explosive, with a population under the age of 14 in the exponential growth phase, a difference from almost the rest of the world, which is already in balance (United States 1966, Europe 1969, Mexico 1990, Latin America 2000, India 2009, Asia 1977). As of 2019, the total population of Africa is estimated at 1.3 billion, representing 16 percent of the world's population. According to UN estimates, the population of Africa may reach 2.49 billion by 2050 (about 26% of the world's total) and 4.28 billion by 2100 (about 39% of the world's total).
