The recently released 2023 Census Main Report has shown that about 13.8 percent of the households depend on the old age pension, while 10.7 percent depend on farming for their survival, and the majority, 46.6 percent of households in Namibia, depend on salaries and wages.
Beyond this, 9% depend on business (non-farming), 2.4% on child support, 2.6% on grants, 2.1% on in-kind receipts, 1.4% on drought relief assistance, and 3.7% rely on other sources of livelihood, while the remaining 3.3% have an unknown source of income.
“Information on the livelihood of households is very important to measure the level of poverty, hunger, and in general the living standard of the people. The livelihood referred to here is not only in monetary terms but also in terms of the main products being produced for consumption or sale,” the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) says in the report.
Assets owned by households
The census collected information on a wide range of assets, including cars, televisions, radios, and mobile phones. These can be categorised into assets used for transportation, communication, and domestic utilities. It should be noted that a household can own or have access to one or more assets.
“Motorcars were the most owned transportation assets, owned by 22.6 percent of the households, followed by bicycles owned by 5.5 percent of the households. Similarly, motorcars were the most owned transportation assets in urban and rural households, owned by 27.6 percent and 16.6 percent of households, respectively. In addition, households that owned animal-drawn carts were more prevalent in rural areas, owned by 6.6 percent,” NSA notes.
On the other hand, the majority (52.4%) of households owned smartphones, followed by radio (47.2%) and television (35.1%). Most urban households (68.5%) owned smartphones compared to 33.0 percent of rural households. Computers/laptops were mostly owned by urban households (30.5%), compared to 6.4 percent of households in rural areas.
“In Namibia, 34.9 percent of households have access to mobile internet connectivity. A similar trend is observed in urban and rural areas, where 50.3 and 16.2 percent of the households had access to mobile internet connectivity.”
Furthermore, most households in Namibia (46.3%) owned electrical/gas stoves, followed by 41.6 percent of households who owned refrigerators/freezers, while 26.0 percent of households owned microwaves. Similarly, the results show that these assets are the ones that are also mostly owned by households in both urban and rural areas.
Population
The 2023 Namibia Population and Housing Census enumerated 3,022,401 people in Namibia as of 24 September 2023. Figure 2.1 shows that Namibia’s population increased from 1,409,920 in 1991 to 3,022,401 in 2023, representing a population increase of 1,612,481 (114.4%) over the period of 32 years.
Urban population has caught up and slightly surpassed the rural population for the 2023 census year. The urban population was 1,512,685 compared to the rural population, which recorded 1,509,716 people. The result indicates an increase of 67.4 percent in the urban population between the 2011 and 2023 census, while the rural population increased by 24.8 percent between the two census years.
“The Khomas region retained the largest population in Namibia for all census years except for 1991, where Omusati (189,919) had the largest population. In contrast, the region of Omaheke registered the smallest population across all four census years. The rural percent share decreased across all four census years from 72.9 percent in 1991 to 50.0 percent in 2023. At the regional level in 2023, Khomas had the highest share of the total population with 16.4 percent, followed by Ohangwena (11.2%) and Omusati (10.5%), whereas Omaheke, Hardap, and //Kharas had the smallest share of the total population with 3.4, 3.5, and 3.6 percent, respectively,” the report reads in part.
The Government of the Republic of Namibia, through the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA), conducted the 2023 Namibia Population and Housing Census to provide updated demographic, social, and economic indicators for policy formulation and planning to support the national development agenda and track the implementation of national, regional, continental, and global development goals such as the NDPs AU Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The preliminary report that was released in March 2024 provided the interim results on the population distribution by sex at regional and constituency levels. While the main reports present the Census results in much more detail, covering all variables collected in the Census.
More thematic reports (Fertility, Mortality, Migration, Labour Force, Disabilities, Regional Profile, and Population Projection) and targeted analyses of the census data will be undertaken in the next financial year. The NSA will also produce the Census Atlas, Interactive Atlas, and Proximity Analysis, which will provide information on the spatial distribution. In addition, sample microdata will be available for researchers and analysts to further do research and studies on the Namibian population.