DODOMA, Tanzania
Tanzania’s population expanded
by 16 million in ten years to 61.7 million, President Samia Hassan announced
from Dodoma on Monday.
Tanzania's commercial capital
Dar es Salaam is poised to become one of the world's most heavily populated
cities in the years to come with current population of 5.38 million people,
followed by Mwanza with 3.69 inhabitants while the semi-autonomous archipelago
of Zanzibar is home to 1.9 million people, an increase of 600,000.
The East African country's
population grew from 44.9 million in 2012 to more than 60 million, according to
the census carried out earlier this year, with president saying the numbers
reflected an annual increase of 3.2 percent.
"Such population might
not be a big deal for a huge country like ours but it's a burden when it comes
to allocating resources and delivering social services," Hassan said
during an event broadcast live from the capital Dodoma.
"We need to start
preparing development projects for these people and make necessary reforms in
our policies to match with the current numbers," Hassan said, pointing out
that the country's population was projected to reach 151.2 million in 2050.
Dar es Salaam, which lies on
Tanzania's Indian Ocean coast, grew from a fishing village to become the
country's largest city.
A World Bank report in 2019
said Dar es Salaam was "one of the fastest growing cities in Africa, and
with a growth rate of 6.5 percent, it is expected to reach 10 million residents
by 2030.
"Because of this rapid
growth, the city faces serious congestion and mobility challenges, which are
worsened by an undeveloped road network."
President Hassan said the
census results showed there are 59.8 million in Tanzania mainland and 1.9
million in the Zanzibar islands.
Of the total population, 31.7
million are females, and 30 million are males.
The Tanzania National Bureau
of Statistics conducted the Population and Housing Census (PHC), the sixth
since independence in 1964, from August 23 to September 4.
Tanzania’s population stood at 44.9 million in the 2012 census.
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