Ugandans living longer - census report

The report also reveals declines in child and maternal deaths due to increased access to health services, with people producing and living longer. The total population now stands at 45.9 million, indicating an increase of about 10 million people in the last 1o years.

But the census report also shows the country has performed poorly, if not declined, in some critical socio-economic indicators such as employment and food security.

The report shows that 51 percent of the youth aged 18-30 are neither in employment nor education or training, which figure is higher than the 41 percent reported previously by the government.

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Further, the report says 4 in 10 households are moderately to severely food insecure, meaning they are not certain about getting their next meal or currently don’t have the food to eat.

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) produced the report after counting people and assessing their characteristics, living conditions and facilities serving communities in May this year.

The comprehensive data collection exercise used about 160 questions in the household and over 60 questions in the community questionnaire and spent more than Shs300 billion.

The census is the 11th in the history of Uganda, the sixth in post-independence Uganda, and the first digital census in the country. 

The exercise attracted both excitement and resentment from the population due to the new technology used, glitches met in payment of enumerators and the long list of questions people were being asked.

Some people have also complained they were not counted but Ubos said 99 percent of the people in the country were enumerated.

Mr Amos Lugoloobi, the state minister for Planning at the Finance ministry, said the new data would be essential in informing decisions for better service delivery. He said Ubos has demonstrated resilience and efficiency in delivering “quality” results.

Overcoming glitches

 “One of the biggest shocks during the census was a public outcry in some parts of the country [over] the malfunctioning of the tablets. Remember, this is our first digital census,” he noted.

“However, Ubos assured the public that all tablets would do the job as programmed and lived up to their word and in the end, we had a seamless enumeration process,” he added.

Mr Lugoolobi also said the results indicate “an increasing trend of transformation across sectors,” which has “yielded improvements in the welfare of our people.”

“We should all be happy about the reduced prevalence of subsistence households, which has reduced from 69 percent in 2014 when we did the last census to now 33 percent,” he said.

The 2024 report indicates that the percentage of households engaged in subsistence agriculture declined from 69 percent in 2014 to 62 percent. The statisticians at Ubos explained that employed people who grow their food for consumption also make up part of the 62 percent in subsistence agriculture.

However, the percentage of the population in a subsistence economy (not in the money economy), for which government initiatives such as the Parish Development Model (PDM) are targeting, stands at 33 percent. 

A subsistence economy refers to one that produces only enough output for its own consumption and does not attempt to produce for the market and accumulate wealth.

“Out of the 3.5 million households in the subsistence economy, 75 percent of households were engaged mainly in subsistence agriculture; 15 percent earning a wage/salary and 10 percent mainly engaged in income generating activities,” the report said.

“Of the 7.2 million households in the non-subsistence economy (money economy) in 2024, 76 percent were earning a wage/salary and 14 percent had an income-generating business enterprise. All households in this category were living above the poverty line and as such able to meet their basic needs,” it further stated.

Commenting on food insecurity in the country, the State minister appealed to Ugandans to make the best use of the land to grow their own food and also have what to sell to the market. However, many farmers are failing to get good harvests because of erratic weather, pests and diseases.

Mr Lugoolobi said in areas where there are weaknesses, the government would put more focus on them.

“With the rollout of the PDM, I'm sure we shall do better in subsequent years and have every Uganda smiling into the middle-income status. Despite these gains, it is also intriguing to note from the results that 4 in 10 households remain food-insecure,” he said.

Although some economists and population specialists have been asking the government to find a way of reducing the population growth rate, Ms Nabbanja said the country should make the best use of the population as the bigger market for goods produced in Uganda.

Improved health indicators

Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, while launching the main report in Kampala, said the increase of the population by 10 million persons from 34.6 million in 2014, indicates success in health-related interventions by the government.

“Undeniably, this increase in population could likely be an outcome of the government's priorities in the health sub-sector over the years, mainly on immunisation and rollout of health centre IVs, the upgrade of health centre IIIs, the construction of some hospitals and regional referral hospitals and national referral hospitals, with some construction still ongoing,” she said.

“In doing so, the government will be able to overcome one of the most intriguing challenges of transforming every Ugandan household into the money economy,” she added.

Ms Nabbanja directed government officials to use the new data to improve the wellbeing of Ugandans.

“Going forward, all government ministries, departments and agencies should utilise this data to remodel their operations to ensure the most vulnerable benefit and it is the prime target of our NRM government,” she added.

Mr Lugoloobi said the maternal mortality rate has come down to 207 per 100,000 live births compared to 380 per 100,000 live births registered in the previous census in 2014, which he said is a very big improvement.

Although this is significant progress, the figure remains very high when compared to countries like the United Kingdom where only 10 women die out of 100,000 live births.

Mr Lugoolobi said besides the reduction in maternal mortality, child mortality has also reduced and life expectancy rose by around five years.

“The under-5 mortality rate has decreased to 46 per 1000 live births compared to 74 per 1000 live births reported in the 2014 census. We have improved the national life expectancy, now, standing at 68 years, compared to 63 years in 2014 which was also an improvement from 50 years in 2002,” he said.

The census report said there has also been an increase in the number of people using electricity for lighting and clean energy, which is in line with the promotion of environmental conservation by reducing the use of charcoal and wood fuels.

However, the report also shows that about one in five Ugandans have mental distress and about one percent has also had suicidal thoughts.

New population figures

Dr Chris Mukiza, the Ubos executive director, said the total population has been revised downwards from 45,935,046 in the preliminary results in June to 45,905,417 in the main report. He said they did this because of duplication in the initial entries.

The statistics show that 53 percent of the population is female, which is higher than the 50.7 percent the females contributed in the 2014 census report. Recent data from the Ministry of Health indicates that more male children are dying than female children, a factor that may partly explain the higher number of females in the country.

The Ubos data also indicates that although life expectancy increased to 68, men are on average dying earlier than women – at the age of 67 for men versus 70 for women. Previous interviews with experts indicated that men are more likely to engage in risky behaviours such as smoking and poor health-seeking behaviours, which all increase one’s risk of dying early.

Still, in the main report, children aged 0-17 years contribute 50 percent of the population, those 18 years and above contributing 23.5 percent of the population while those 60 years and above makeup five percent of the population.

This indicates the country has a very large number of young people who are either in school or not in production, a population structure characterised by high dependency.

Nevertheless, population specialists and economists say the country can take advantage of this by ensuring the young people access education to skill them to increase the labour force even as the country reduces the fertility rate to take advantage of the demographic dividend.

Dr Jotham Musinguzi, the National Population Council’s Director General, earlier said the government has started getting good results from the campaign for a reduction in the fertility rate.

UN speaks out

Ms Gift Malunga, who represented the United Nations resident coordinator at the launch, said the new data would guide the development partners to invest in areas that Ugandans need.

She applauded Uganda for using a digital approach in the census and releasing the results in record time, within four months after the census.

“You have positioned Ubos as a model for other statistical offices in the continent. I commend you for recognising the value of digital approaches, which have significantly contributed to the timely generation of data and statistics,” she noted.

She said the timely release of the census results would play a critical role in guiding Uganda’s effort to fast-track implementation of the sustainable development goals.

“So as the government prepares the fourth National Development Plan, the UN family are preparing our next country cooperation framework. The whole idea is to align our efforts with the national priorities,” she observed.

Cities with biggest population

The Ubos results shows Kampala Capital City remains the most populated with a daytime population of 2.5 million. Although this may indicate an abundant market for goods, it may also indicate a huge pressure on social services and infrastructure.

Still, in terms of daytime population for the newly established cities, Arua comes second with 440,000 people, followed by Mbale, Jinja, Masaka, Mbarara, Gulu, Lira, Soroti, Hoima and Fort Portal.

Dominant religions

The new report also shows the majority of the population, with 84 percent affiliated to Christianity, 13.6 percent Muslims, while 0.2 percent have no religion, with 0.1 percent practicing traditional religion. There are no major changes in the data between 2024 and 2014.

Details in the report also show that Roman Catholicism is the dominant sect with 37.4 percent of the population affiliated with it but this is a reduction from 39.3 percent in 2014. Thirty percent are Anglicans, a reduction from 32 percent in 2014 while Pentecostals increased from 11 percent in 2014 to 14.7 percent.

Muslims also reduced slightly from 13.7 percent to 13.6 percent in the same period while Seventh Day Adventists increased from 1.7 percent to 2.1 percent.

Ethnic groups ranked

Baganda remained the dominant ethnic group with 7 million people, an increase from 5.5 million in 2014. The Baganda are followed by the Banyankore (4.2 million), Basoga (3.7 million), Iteso (3.1 million), Bakiga (2.9 million) and Langi (2.7 million).

The Bagisu follow the Langi with 2 million people, Acholi (1.9 million), Banyoro (1.2 million), Alur (1.1 million), Bakonzo (1.1 million), Batoro (1 million), Bafumbira (0.9 million), and the other tribes contributing 8.9 million people.

Unproductive use of Internet

The report also shows that the percentage of individuals owning mobile phones increased from 38 percent in 2014 to 43 percent in 2024 amid increased access to the Internet. The majority of the people accessing the Internet (63 percent) do so for social media networking/chatting, 16 percent for academic work and 13 percent for business purposes.