What can you conclude about the population of Africa based on this information? (Site 1) Africa’s population has increased dramatically since the mid-20th century. In 1950, there were approximately 230 million people living on the continent. Today, there are 1.2 billion. That is an increase of almost a billion people in just about seventy years!

Fast Facts
There are fifty-four sovereign (self-governing) states and countries, nine territories, and two independent states (with limited recognition) in Africa.

Forty-one percent of the population of Africa is under the age of fifteen. That is a lot of young people!

The life expectancy in Africa has increased to about sixty years old. In 1950, it was only thirty-seven years old.

The child mortality rate (death of children under five years of age) in Africa has fortunately decreased dramatically. In the 1950s, one in every four children in Africa died before they reached age five. Today, there is an average of one death per ten children.

Africa has the world’s highest fertility rate. On average, women have about five children. The global average is 2.5. Of the world’s twenty-one high-fertility countries, nineteen are in Africa and two are in Asia. By 2050, Africa’s child population will reach about one billion.

Fastest-Growing: Nigeria
According to the United Nations (UN), the African country of Nigeria currently has the seventh largest population in the world. And it is growing the most rapidly. By the year 2050, some experts believe that it will have a population larger than the United States. It would then be the third largest country in the world.

Expanding Population Size
The UN predicts that by 2050 the populations of twenty-eight African countries will double. In addition, in about eighty years, the populations of ten African countries will likely increase by five times their current size. These countries include Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Somalia, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, and Zambia. It’s estimated that by the end of the 21st century, about forty percent of the world’s population will live in Africa.

Greatest and Least
Africa’s most populated country is Nigeria with about 198 million people. The country with the continent’s smallest population size is the island nation of Seychelles, located in the Indian Ocean just north of Madagascar. This country has a population of nearly 96,000. However, the country is small geographically, so it has a fairly high population density.

On the Rise
Currently, Africa is the second-most populous continent in the world—Asia is the most populous. It is also the fastest growing. It is growing at about 2.55 percent per year.

By 2050, it’s expected that 2.4 billion people will be added to the world’s population. Of that growth, 1.3 billion will be in Africa. In comparison, the population in 2050 in Europe is expected to decline and be less than it was in 2015.