The population of the 11 SADC countries covered by this report is about 130.6 million people. Their land area is about 554.9 million hectares giving a regional population density of about 23.5 people per square kilometre. The population density ranges from 2.1 people/km2 in Namibia to 566.5 people/km2 in Mauritius (Table 1). The population growth rate or the annual rate of change during the period 1995 to 2000 ranged from 0.8% in Mauritius to 2.9% in Swaziland. The other countries with notably high population growth rates are Malawi and Mozambique.
Table 1: Population and economic statistics for SADC countries
Country |
Land |
Population |
Economic Indicators |
|||
000 ha |
Total |
Growth rate |
Density |
GNP per capita |
Annual growth rate of GDP |
|
|
000 |
% |
people/km2 |
US$ |
% |
|
Botswana |
56 673 |
1 597 |
1.9 |
2.8 |
3 307 |
6.9 |
Lesotho |
3 035 |
2 108 |
2.2 |
69.5 |
734 |
8.0 |
Malawi |
9 409 |
10 640 |
2.5 |
113.1 |
163 |
5.1 |
Mauritius |
202 |
1 150 |
0.8 |
566.5 |
3 796 |
5.0 |
Mozambique |
78 409 |
19 286 |
2.5 |
24.6 |
131 |
12.4 |
Namibia |
82 329 |
1 695 |
2.3 |
2.1 |
2 196 |
1.8 |
South Africa |
121 758 |
39 900 |
1.5 |
32.7 |
3 377 |
1.7 |
Swaziland |
1 721 |
980 |
2.9 |
57.0 |
1 555 |
3.7 |
Tanzania |
88 359 |
32 793 |
2.3 |
37.1 |
183 |
4.1 |
Zambia |
74 339 |
8 976 |
2.3 |
12.1 |
387 |
3.5 |
Zimbabwe |
38 685 |
11 529 |
1.4 |
29.8 |
656 |
3.2 |
SADC |
554 919 |
130 654 |
|
23.5 |
|
|
*Source: FAO (2001)
The gross national product (GNP) ranges from US$163 in Malawi to US$3 796 in Mauritius. The annual growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ranges from 1.7% in South Africa, the regional economic giant to 12.4% in Mozambique, a country experiencing unprecedented economic growth after a devastating civil war that ended a decade ago (Table 1). In Malawi, for example, the economy is dependent on agriculture, which contributes about 40% of the GDP. Agriculture supports about 85% of the population that is rural and absorbs 80% of the labour force (Minde, et al., 2001).
Fig. 1: The 11 dry zone SADC countries covered in this report.