Mauritius had the highest population density level in Africa as of 2023, with nearly *** inhabitants per square kilometer. The country has also one of the smallest territories on the continent, which contributes to the high density. As a matter of fact, the majority of African countries with the largest concentration of people per square kilometer have the smallest geographical area as well. The exception is Nigeria, which ranks among the largest territorial countries in Africa and is very densely populated at the same time. After all, Nigeria has also the largest population on the continent.

Nigeria has the largest population in Africa. As of 2025, the country counted over 237.5 million individuals, whereas Ethiopia, which ranked second, has around 135.5 million inhabitants. Egypt registered the largest population in North Africa, reaching nearly 118.4 million people. In terms of inhabitants per square kilometer, Nigeria only ranked seventh, while Mauritius had the highest population density on the whole African continent in 2023. The fastest-growing world region Africa is the second most populous continent in the world, after Asia. Nevertheless, Africa records the highest growth rate worldwide, with figures rising by over two percent every year. In some countries, such as Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Chad, the population increase peaks at over three percent. With so many births, Africa is also the youngest continent in the world. However, this coincides with a low life expectancy. African cities on the rise The last decades have seen high urbanization rates in Asia, mainly in China and India. However, African cities are currently growing at larger rates. Indeed, most of the fastest-growing cities in the world are located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Gwagwalada, in Nigeria, and Kabinda, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, ranked first worldwide. By 2035, instead, Africa's fastest-growing cities are forecast to be Bujumbura, in Burundi, and Zinder, Nigeria.

The average for 2021 based on 53 countries was 112 people per square km. The highest value was in Mauritius: 634 people per square km and the lowest value was in Namibia: 3 people per square km. The indicator is available from 1961 to 2021. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

The Africa Population Distribution Database provides decadal population density data for African administrative units for the period 1960-1990. The databsae was prepared for the United Nations Environment Programme / Global Resource Information Database (UNEP/GRID) project as part of an ongoing effort to improve global, spatially referenced demographic data holdings. The database is useful for a variety of applications including strategic-level agricultural research and applications in the analysis of the human dimensions of global change.

This documentation describes the third version of a database of administrative units and associated population density data for Africa. The first version was compiled for UNEP's Global Desertification Atlas (UNEP, 1997; Deichmann and Eklundh, 1991), while the second version represented an update and expansion of this first product (Deichmann, 1994; WRI, 1995). The current work is also related to National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) activities to produce a global database of subnational population estimates (Tobler et al., 1995), and an improved database for the Asian continent (Deichmann, 1996). The new version for Africa provides considerably more detail: more than 4700 administrative units, compared to about 800 in the first and 2200 in the second version. In addition, for each of these units a population estimate was compiled for 1960, 70, 80 and 90 which provides an indication of past population dynamics in Africa. Forthcoming are population count data files as download options.

African population density data were compiled from a large number of heterogeneous sources, including official government censuses and estimates/projections derived from yearbooks, gazetteers, area handbooks, and other country studies. The political boundaries template (PONET) of the Digital Chart of the World (DCW) was used delineate national boundaries and coastlines for African countries.

For more information on African population density and administrative boundary data sets, see metadata files at [http://na.unep.net/datasets/datalist.php3] which provide information on file identification, format, spatial data organization, distribution, and metadata reference.

References:

Deichmann, U. 1994. A medium resolution population database for Africa, Database documentation and digital database, National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Deichmann, U. and L. Eklundh. 1991. Global digital datasets for land degradation studies: A GIS approach, GRID Case Study Series No. 4, Global Resource Information Database, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi.

UNEP. 1997. World Atlas of Desertification, 2nd Ed., United Nations Environment Programme, Edward Arnold Publishers, London.

WRI. 1995. Africa data sampler, Digital database and documentation, World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C.

The population in Africa is expected to grow by 90 percent by 2050. Among the countries forecast to be the most populated in the continent, Nigeria leads, with an estimated population of over 401 million people. Currently, the nation has already the largest number of inhabitants in Africa. The highest population growth is expected to be measured in Angola, by 143.3 percent between 2019 and 2050. The number of inhabitants in the country is forecast to jump from 31.8 million to 77.4 million in the mentioned period.

This dataset provides values for POPULATION reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

VERSION 1.5. The world's most accurate population datasets. Seven maps/datasets for the distribution of various populations in South Africa: (1) Overall population density (2) Women (3) Men (4) Children (ages 0-5) (5) Youth (ages 15-24) (6) Elderly (ages 60+) (7) Women of reproductive age (ages 15-49). Methodology These high-resolution maps are created using machine learning techniques to identify buildings from commercially available satellite images. This is then overlayed with general population estimates based on publicly available census data and other population statistics at Columbia University. The resulting maps are the most detailed and actionable tools available for aid and research organizations. For more information about the methodology used to create our high resolution population density maps and the demographic distributions, click here. For information about how to use HDX to access these datasets, please visit: https://dataforgood.fb.com/docs/high-resolution-population-density-maps-demographic-estimates-documentation/ Adjustments to match the census population with the UN estimates are applied at the national level. The UN estimate for a given country (or state/territory) is divided by the total census estimate of population for the given country. The resulting adjustment factor is multiplied by each administrative unit census value for the target year. This preserves the relative population totals across administrative units while matching the UN total. More information can be found here

Central African Republic population density for 2022 was 8.18, a 0.28% decline from 2021.

<ul style='margin-top:20px;'>

<li>Central African Republic population density for 2021 was <strong>8.21</strong>, a <strong>1.7% increase</strong> from 2020.</li>
<li>Central African Republic population density for 2020 was <strong>8.07</strong>, a <strong>1.66% increase</strong> from 2019.</li>
<li>Central African Republic population density for 2019 was <strong>7.94</strong>, a <strong>1.35% increase</strong> from 2018.</li>
</ul>Population density is midyear population divided by land area in square kilometers. Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship--except for refugees not permanently settled in the country of asylum, who are generally considered part of the population of their country of origin. Land area is a country's total area, excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones. In most cases the definition of inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.

The average for 2023 based on 53 countries was 50.08 percent. The highest value was in Zimbabwe: 52.38 percent and the lowest value was in the Seychelles: 44.82 percent. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Central African Republic CF: Population Density: People per Square Km data was reported at 8.183 Person/sq km in 2022. This records a decrease from the previous number of 8.206 Person/sq km for 2021. Central African Republic CF: Population Density: People per Square Km data is updated yearly, averaging 4.833 Person/sq km from Dec 1961 (Median) to 2022, with 62 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 8.206 Person/sq km in 2021 and a record low of 2.784 Person/sq km in 1961. Central African Republic CF: Population Density: People per Square Km data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Central African Republic – Table CF.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population density is midyear population divided by land area in square kilometers. Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship--except for refugees not permanently settled in the country of asylum, who are generally considered part of the population of their country of origin. Land area is a country's total area, excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones. In most cases the definition of inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.;Food and Agriculture Organization and World Bank population estimates.;Weighted average;

The northernmost region of the African continent was home to approximately 208 million individuals in 2023. Egypt, the third most populous country in Africa, had roughly 50 percent of the region's population living within its borders, with over 105 million inhabitants. Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia followed with 46 million, 37 million, and 12 million citizens, respectively.

South Africa ZA: Population Density: People per Square Km data was reported at 46.754 Person/sq km in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 46.176 Person/sq km for 2016. South Africa ZA: Population Density: People per Square Km data is updated yearly, averaging 30.287 Person/sq km from Dec 1961 (Median) to 2017, with 57 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 46.754 Person/sq km in 2017 and a record low of 14.773 Person/sq km in 1961. South Africa ZA: Population Density: People per Square Km data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population density is midyear population divided by land area in square kilometers. Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship--except for refugees not permanently settled in the country of asylum, who are generally considered part of the population of their country of origin. Land area is a country's total area, excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones. In most cases the definition of inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.; ; Food and Agriculture Organization and World Bank population estimates.; Weighted average;

The dataset is a zip file that contains 28 cloud optimized tiff files that cover the continent of Africa. Each of the 28 files represents a region or area - these are not divided by country. These 28 tiff files represent 2015 population estimates. However, please note that many of the country-level files include 2020 population estimates including: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Eswatini, The Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Liberia, Mozambique, Namibia, Sao Tome & Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Togo, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. To create the high-resolution maps, machine learning techniques are used to identify buildings from commercially available satellite images then general population estimates are overlaid based on publicly available census data and other population statistics. The resulting maps are the most detailed and actionable tools available for aid and research organizations.

African countries. name, long name, population (source), population, constitutional form, drives on, head of state authority, Main continent, number of airports, Airports - with paved runways, Airports - with unpaved runways, Area, Birth rate, calling code, Children under the age of 5 years underweight, Current Account Balance, Death rate, Debt - external, Economic aid donor, Electricity consumption, Electricity consumption per capita, Electricity exports, Electricity imports, Electricity production, Exports, GDP - per capita (PPP), GDP (purchasing power parity), GDP real growth rate, Gross national income, Human Development Index, Health expenditures, Heliports, HIV AIDS adult prevalence rate, HIV AIDS deaths, HIV AIDS people living with HIV AIDS, Hospital bed density, capital city, Currency, Imports, Industrial production growth rate, Infant mortality rate, Inflation rate consumer prices, Internet hosts, internet tld, Internet users, Investment (gross fixed), iso 3166 code, ISO CODE, Labor force, Life expectancy at birth, Literacy, Manpower available for military service, Manpower fit for military service, Manpower reaching militarily age annually, is democracy, Market value of publicly traded shares, Maternal mortality rate, Merchant marine, Military expenditures percent of GDP, Natural gas consumption, Natural gas consumption per capita, Natural gas exports, Natural gas imports, Natural gas production, Natural gas proved reserves, Net migration rate, Obesity adult prevalence rate, Oil consumption, Oil consumption per capita, Oil exports, Oil imports, Oil production, Oil proved reserves, Physicians density, Population below poverty line, Population census, Population density, Population estimate, Population growth rate, Public debt, Railways, Reserves of foreign exchange and gold, Roadways, Stock of direct foreign investment abroad, Stock of direct foreign investment at home, Telephones main lines in use, Telephones main lines in use per capita, Telephones mobile cellular, Telephones mobile cellular per capita, Total fertility rate, Unemployment rate, Unemployment, youth ages 15-24, Waterways, valley, helicopter, canyon, artillery, crater, religion, continent, border, Plateau, marsh, Demonym

population density for 2021 was 49.44, a 2.59% increase from 2020.

<ul style='margin-top:20px;'>

<li> population density for 2020 was <strong>48.19</strong>, a <strong>2.65% increase</strong> from 2019.</li>
<li> population density for 2019 was <strong>46.94</strong>, a <strong>2.67% increase</strong> from 2018.</li>
<li> population density for 2018 was <strong>45.72</strong>, a <strong>2.68% increase</strong> from 2017.</li>
</ul>Population density is midyear population divided by land area in square kilometers. Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship--except for refugees not permanently settled in the country of asylum, who are generally considered part of the population of their country of origin. Land area is a country's total area, excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones. In most cases the definition of inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.

The population of the world, allocated to 1 arcsecond blocks. This refines CIESIN’s Gridded Population of the World project, using machine learning models on high-resolution worldwide Digital Globe satellite imagery. More information.

There is also a tiled version of this dataset that may be easier to use if you are interested in many countries.

The tabular and visual dataset focuses on South African basic education and provides insights into the distribution of schools and basic population statistics across the country. This tabular and visual data are stratified across different quintiles for each provincial and district boundary. The quintile system is used by the South African government to classify schools based on their level of socio-economic disadvantage, with quintile 1 being the most disadvantaged and quintile 5 being the least disadvantaged. The data was joined by extracting information from the debarment of basic education with StatsSA population census data. Thereafter, all tabular data and geo located data were transformed to maps using GIS software and the Python integrated development environment. The dataset includes information on the number of schools and students in each quintile, as well as the population density in each area. The data is displayed through a combination of charts, maps and tables, allowing for easy analysis and interpretation of the information.

This dataset provides values for CORRUPTION RANK reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

The world's most accurate population datasets. Seven maps/datasets for the distribution of various populations in South Africa: (1) Overall population density (2) Women (3) Men (4) Children (ages 0-5) (5) Youth (ages 15-24) (6) Elderly (ages 60+) (7) Women of reproductive age (ages 15-49). Methodology These high-resolution maps are created using machine learning techniques to identify buildings from commercially available satellite images. This is then overlayed with general population estimates based on publicly available census data and other population statistics at Columbia University. The resulting maps are the most detailed and actionable tools available for aid and research organizations. For more information about the methodology used to create our high resolution population density maps and the demographic distributions, click here. For information about how to use HDX to access these datasets, please visit: https://dataforgood.fb.com/docs/high-resolution-population-density-maps-demographic-estimates-documentation/ Adjustments to match the census population with the UN estimates are applied at the national level. The UN estimate for a given country (or state/territory) is divided by the total census estimate of population for the given country. The resulting adjustment factor is multiplied by each administrative unit census value for the target year. This preserves the relative population totals across administrative units while matching the UN total. More information can be found here

countries Main continent Africa. name, long name, population (source), population, constitutional form, drives on, head of state authority, Main continent, number of airports, Airports - with paved runways, Airports - with unpaved runways, Area, Birth rate, calling code, Children under the age of 5 years underweight, Current Account Balance, Death rate, Debt - external, Economic aid donor, Electricity consumption, Electricity consumption per capita, Electricity exports, Electricity imports, Electricity production, Exports, GDP - per capita (PPP), GDP (purchasing power parity), GDP real growth rate, Gross national income, Human Development Index, Health expenditures, Heliports, HIV AIDS adult prevalence rate, HIV AIDS deaths, HIV AIDS people living with HIV AIDS, Hospital bed density, capital city, Currency, Imports, Industrial production growth rate, Infant mortality rate, Inflation rate consumer prices, Internet hosts, internet tld, Internet users, Investment (gross fixed), iso 3166 code, ISO CODE, Labor force, Life expectancy at birth, Literacy, Manpower available for military service, Manpower fit for military service, Manpower reaching militarily age annually, is democracy, Market value of publicly traded shares, Maternal mortality rate, Merchant marine, Military expenditures percent of GDP, Natural gas consumption, Natural gas consumption per capita, Natural gas exports, Natural gas imports, Natural gas production, Natural gas proved reserves, Net migration rate, Obesity adult prevalence rate, Oil consumption, Oil consumption per capita, Oil exports, Oil imports, Oil production, Oil proved reserves, Physicians density, Population below poverty line, Population census, Population density, Population estimate, Population growth rate, Public debt, Railways, Reserves of foreign exchange and gold, Roadways, Stock of direct foreign investment abroad, Stock of direct foreign investment at home, Telephones main lines in use, Telephones main lines in use per capita, Telephones mobile cellular, Telephones mobile cellular per capita, Total fertility rate, Unemployment rate, Unemployment, youth ages 15-24, Waterways, valley, helicopter, canyon, artillery, crater, religion, continent, border, Plateau, marsh, Demonym