Contents

- General Information
- Geography and Environment
- Population and HIV/AIDS
- Economy
- Agriculure: General Description of the Family Farm Sector
- Communications, Information, Science and Technology
- Chronology of History

Population and Society

Population: 16,099,246 (1997) and 17,242,240 (2000 est.)[1]
Click here to view the population pyramid of the year 1997.

More detailed information on the census 1997 is provided by INE at the home page of the Ministry of Education at http://www.mined.gov.mz/docs/censo97/index.html. INE published a CD-ROM including all comprehensive results of the census 1997. This can be ordered from INE [4].

Table: Total enumerated population, sex ratio and total fertility rate in 1997, and estimated total population and population density for 2000. [1,2]

Population density: 20.6 persons/km2 (2000 est.) [1]

Urban population: 4,454,859 or 29.2% (census 1997) and 4,594,406 or 28.6% (adjusted census data) [3]

Rural population: 10,823,475 or 70.8% (census 1997) and 11,481,302 or 71.4% (adjusted census data) [3]

Average household size: 4.2 persons; number of households: 3,634,581 (1997) [1]

Table: Age structure of the adjusted total population of 1997. [3]

Dependency Ratio: 0.91 in 1997 (for adjusted population)
Ratio of population under 15 (7,195,867) plus population 65 and over (462,693) to population aged 15-64 (8,417,148).

Sex Ratio (male/female), 1997 (calculated from table above):
Total population: 0.92
Under 15 years: 1.01
15-49 years: 0.85
49 years and over: 0.89

Mean age of the population: 17.5 years [1]

Population growth rate [1]
Natural growth rate 2.3% (1996-97)
Mean annual growth rate 1.7% (1980-1997)

Birth rate: 44.4 (per 1,000, 1997) [1]
Death rate: 21.2 (per 1,000, 1997) [1]
Infant mortality rate: 145.7 (per 1,000, 1997) [1]
Life expectancy at birth, 1998 [1]
Total: 42.3 years
Male: 40.6 years
Female: 44.0 years

Social indicators [4]
GINI index: 39.6 (survey year 1996-97)
Share of income or consumption (survey year 1996-97): Lowest 10% = 2.5%; lowest 20% = 6.5%; second 20% = 10.8%; third 20% =15.1%; fourth 29% = 21.1%; highest 20% = 46.5%; highest 10% = 31.7%

Population below the poverty line (survey year 1996, international poverty lines)

population below 1 US$ a day: 37.9%
population gap at 1 US$ a day: 12.0%
population below 2 US$ a day: 78.4%
population gap at 2 US$ a day: 36.8%

Prevalence of child malnutrition: 26% of children under 5 years (1992-98)

Health [4]
Public expenditure on health: 2.1% of GDP (1990-98)
Access to improved water source: 32% of total population (1990-96)
Access to sanitation: 21% of total population (1990-96)

Native languages, in percent of population aged 5 and over (around 12,536,000 people), 1997 [1,2]
Portuguese (the official language) 6.5%; Emakhuwa 26.3%; Xichangana 11.4%; Elomwe 7.9%; Cisena 7.0%; Echuwabo 6.3%; other Mozambican languages 33.0%; other foreign languages 0.4%; none 0.1%; not known 1.3%

Table: Proportion of population aged 5 and over who know how to speak Portuguese by sex and residence in 1997. [1,2]

The highest proportion of knowledge of Portuguese is in the age group 10-39. This declines with increasing age, is higher in urban than in rural areas, and is higher for males than for females throughout all age groups.

Literacy [1, 2]

Table: Illiteracy rate by sex and residence in 1980 and 1997.

Looking at the illiteracy rate, the heritage of colonial racial segregation is clearly visible. For the total country the rates differ heavily between age groups. For the population aged 15-19 the rate is 50% and for the population 60 and over the rate is 83%. As expected the rates are higher in rural than in urban areas. The gender gap is big as well and ranges from 20% and 40% between the male and female groups.

Click here to view more detailed information on: Distribution of population 15 years and older by level of education finished, age, sex, and residence in 1997 (HTML file) and State of alphabetization of population 5 years and over, by residence, age and sex, 1997 (CSV file).

Information on the National Education Policy and Strategies for Implementation for Mozambique can be viewed in English at http://www.mined.gov.mz/docs/politica/pne_uk.htm and in Portuguese at http://www.mined.gov.mz/docs/politica/pne_po.htm.

Labor force (2,3)
The total economically-active population aged 15 years and over (activity status of the week before the census data collection) accounted for about 5.9 million people in 1997. That corresponds to 69% of the total population aged 15 years and older. According to gender, about 74% of the males and about 67% of the females were economically active.

In rural areas, the rate of the economically-active population is higher than in urban areas, because the agricultural sector absorbs the majority of the population aged 15 years and older. In rural areas, the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors comprise 87% of the male and 98% of the female population aged 15 years and over; in urban areas, this is 25% and 63%, respectively.

Click here to view more detailed information on Economically-Active Population of 15 Years and Over by Sector, Place of Residence, and Sex, 1997 (CSV file) and Population 7 and 15 years and over by economic status, 1997 (HTML file).

Table: Internal migration by region, 1992-1997 [1]

- Immigration Rate = I/N' = Persons who live in the respective province but were born in a different one (immigrants) / Persons who were born and counted in the respective province.
- Emigration Rate = E/N = Persons who were born in the respective province but live in a different one (emigrants) / Persons who were born in the respective province.
- Net Migration Rate = (I - E) / N'

Religions [1]
Catholic (23.8%); no religion (23.1%); Muslim (17.8%); Zion (17.5%); Protestant (7.8%), and others, including Animists (9.9%)

HIV/AIDS (SIDA)

Mozambique, like other sub-Saharan African countries, has been seriously hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and is faced with a rapid expansion of the disease. The most recent estimates of the HIV prevalence rate indicate that 16% of the adults aged 15 to 49 are seropositive. Already in 2000, an estimated 84,000 people died of AIDS-related diseases (INE).

Click here to view the HIV/AIDS dataset for Mozambique from the Sentinel Surveillance Survey ( 2000 by the U.S. Census Bureau; CSV file). This Sentinel Surveillance database, after adjustment, is the basis of the PDE model input.

Table: AIDS Cases Reported by Year and Sex. [5]

Sources:
[1] INE - National Statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estatística), http://www.ine.gov.mz/

[2] Ministry of Education (Minstério de Educação), http://www.mined.gov.mz/

[3] INE. 1999. CD-ROM: Censo 97. Il Recenseamento Geral da População e Habitação. Resultados Definitivos. Maputo: INE.

[4] The World Bank. 2000. World Development Report 2000/2001. Attacking Poverty. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press. The complete report is available on-line: http://worldbank.org/poverty/wdrpoverty/report/

[5] Ministry of Health, Directorate for Planning and Cooperation, http://www.ine.gov.mz/sector1/saude/saude3.htm

- General Information
- Geography and Environment
- Population and HIV/AIDS
- Economy
- Agriculure: General Description of the Family Farm Sector
- Communications, Information, and Science and Technology
- Chronology of History