Population estimates are very important data owing to the massive impact population has on the economic state of affairs of any given region.
This is a fact on a global, national, state and even regional scale. The amount of people in a certain region highly influences the economic output in said region, and as a result an accurate census of a particular territory would greatly determine productivity.
While overpopulation has its pros, it also has its cons, and vice versa with underpopulation. How a population is managed is really dependent on the competence of the government and its economic objectives.
This is particularly true in Africa, with a young population the government doesn’t seem to know what to do with. For countries like Nigeria, overpopulation has been both a good and bad thing. While there is no shortage of human resources owing to the fact, the government has struggled to provide basic necessities to service the massive population.
These sorts of nuances are why governments all across the world factor in population growth before taking any large scale commercial decisions.
Based on last year’s trends and barring any unforeseen situation, the population of the continent is set to expand, with a young demographic at the core of this expansion.
As a matter of fact, World Population Review, a population data organization, noted that more than half of the world’s expected population growth between now and 2050 is expected to come from just eight countries,, 5 of which are African: DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania.
Last year the US Census Bureau’s world population clock estimated that the global population was expected to reach 8 billion by mid-November of 2022.
However, while population itself continues to increase globally, the rate at which it is increasing has been slower for decades now, and around 2080-2100, when humanity hits 10.4 billion people, the population growth rate is expected to turn negative, resulting in global population decline.
Regardless of this likelihood, below are 10 of the most populated countries in Africa heading into 2023:
