Uganda’s Demographics & the Problem they Pose!

Demographics and the Problem!

Demographically, researchers look at the age and sex structure of a country and use the information to predict a country’s burden in terms of socioeconomic transformation or the decisions to make for progress.

Concerning this, says UBOS (2016), Uganda’s population is made up of very many young people of ages 15 years and below (52%). About 3.2% are old people of 65 years and above, the rest are between 15-64 years (about 47%). Generally, more than 78% of the whole 44 million people are below 30 years (National Population Council, 2018).

According to demographers, for example, Bongaarts (2009), populations of ages below 15 and those above 65 are considered dependent (aren’t working or productive) and those between 15 and 64 the productive ones.

Though it is possible to have those below 15 and above 65 being productive and those between 15 and 64 being dependent, the above interpretation generally applies if we leave other factors or extremes constant.

So what is the Uganda’s challenge? Uganda has the highest number of young population of ages below 15 who are indeed non-productive. 52% of the current 44 million population estimates implies that more than 22.8 million people are dependent. Additionally, 3.2% of the 44 million people implies that more than 1.4 people are old and dependent. The total of non-productive dependent Ugandans is a little more than 24 million people. That isn’t it all!

The population that is expected to be productive (16-35 years) have the highest unemployment rates! Youth unemployment stands between 65% (UBOS, 2016) and 83% (World Bank, 2013). Besides low formal employment, Ugandans are affected by high levels of corruption, poor health indicators, especially concerning reproductive health and rights, poor education system that has failed to produce skilled graduates ready for job market (National Population Council, 2018), and unfavorable entrepreneurship environment characterized by high taxes, poor support schemes for startups, high interests rates and unfavorable bank system and much more (Oxfam, 2018).

Poor pension system, poor health system and poor saving culture among Ugandans undermine the possibilities of being productive in old age!

The above situation simply means that with the current population of Uganda (about 44 millions),  more than 60% of total population are dependent on the few who are working or productive. That is why we are poor. Those who are working have many mouths or dependents to feed and cannot save and develop themselves.

Concerning being poor, the number of people below poverty line had reduced from about 56% in 1992 to 19.4% by 2013 (Oxfam, 2017; Uganda National NGO Forum, 2017). However, the 2016/2017 Uganda National Household Survey says that this percentage rose again to about 27% in 2016/2017 (Uganda Bureau of Statistics-UBOS, 2017). Besides this, Oxfam (2017) and Uganda National NGO Forum (2017) highlight the dangerous inequality that characterizes efforts against poverty. Actually, incidence of poverty in rural remains high at 31% compared to urban 15% (UBOS, 2017). People living on less than one dollar (about 3500 shillings) per day are still many (about 19%) and this time with inequalities in economic or financial freedom, the poor are becoming poorer and the rich becoming richer.

Any Solution?

Yes, there is a solution! Welcome to Uganda’s plan to harvest demographic dividend from its age and sex population structure!

If you are interested in the solution, then OPEN THIS LINK. Thank me later!

God be with you