This statistic shows the total population of Sub-Saharan Africa from 2014 to 2024. Sub-Saharan Africa includes all countries south of the Sahara desert. In 2024, the total population of Sub-Saharan Africa amounted to approximately 1.29 billion inhabitants.

In 2024, around ** percent of the total population of Sub-Saharan Africa was aged 15 to 64 years. Moreover, children younger than 15 years constituted nearly ** percent of the inhabitants. Overall, Africa has a young population. Only ***** percent of the individuals in the Sub-Saharan region were aged 65 years and older. As of 2023, Niger, Uganda, Angola, and Mali had a median age below 16.5 years, the lowest on the continent.

Graph and download economic data for Population Growth for Developing Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SPPOPGROWSSA) from 1961 to 2024 about Sub-Saharan Africa, population, and rate.

Historical dataset showing total population for Sub-Saharan Africa by year from 1950 to 2025.

In sub-Saharan Africa, a score of around 0.57 was achieved on the Human Development Index (HDI) in 2023. This represented a low level of human development. In 2018, the sub-region moved from being categorized as low human development to medium human development.

This statistic shows the population change in Sub-Saharan Africa from 2014 to 2024. Sub-Saharan Africa includes almost all countries south of the Saharan desert. In 2024, Sub-Saharan Africa's population increased by approximately 2.44 percent compared to the previous year.

The average for 2023 based on 47 countries was 0.33 percent. The highest value was in Nigeria: 2.84 percent and the lowest value was in Sao Tome and Principe: 0 percent. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Quantitative and qualitative data sets for 24 sites across Ghana, Malawi and South Africa:
a) SPSS dataset on young people’s use of mobile phones in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa.  4626 cases (young people aged 7-25 years): 1568 Ghana; 1544 Malawi; 1514 South Africa.  719 variables (+ 11 ‘navigation facilitators’) b) 1,620 Qualitative transcripts from interviews with people of diverse ages, 8y upwards: individual interviews [using either i.theme checklist or ii call register checklist]; focus group interviews [not all sites]: 50-80 transcripts for most sites.

This research project, which commenced in August 2012, explored how the rapid expansion of mobile phone usage is impacting on young lives in sub-Saharan Africa. It builds directly on our previous research on children’s mobility within which baseline quantitative data and preliminary qualitative information was collected on mobile phone usage (2006-2010) across 24 research sites, as an adjunct to our wider study of children’s physical mobility and access to services.

In this study our focus is specifically on mobile phones and we cover a much wider range of phone-related issues, including changes in gendered and age patterns of phone use over time; phone use in building social networks (for instance to support job search); impacts on education, livelihoods, health status, safety and surveillance, physical mobility and possible connections to migration, youth identity, and questions of exploitation and empowerment associated with mobile phones.

Mixed-method, participatory youth-centred studies have been conducted in the same 24 sites as in our earlier work across Ghana, Malawi and South Africa (urban, peri-urban, rural, remote rural, in two agro-ecological zones per country). We have built on the baseline data for 9-18 year-olds gathered in 2006-2010, through repeat and extended studies, but also included additional studies with 19-25 year-olds (to capture changing usage and its impacts as our initial cohort move into their 20s).

Graph and download economic data for Population Ages 15 to 64 for Developing Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SPPOP1564TOZSSSA) from 1960 to 2024 about Sub-Saharan Africa, 15 to 64 years, and population.

Graph and download economic data for Population, Total: All Income Levels for Sub-Saharan Africa (SPPOPTOTLSSF) from 1960 to 2024 about Sub-Saharan Africa, income, and population.

Christianity is the main religion in Sub-Saharan Africa. As of 2020, over *** million people in the region were Christian. Muslims followed, amounting to around *** million. Moreover, folk religions counted over ** million adherents, while the unaffiliated were approximately ** million.

Historical dataset showing Sub-Saharan Africa rural population by year from 1960 to 2023.

The average for 2024 based on 47 countries was 50.13 percent. The highest value was in Zimbabwe: 52.33 percent and the lowest value was in the Seychelles: 44.84 percent. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2024. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Less than half the population in all the Sub-Saharan African countries included had access to safely managed drinking water in 2022. The share was lowest in the Central African Republic and Chad, where only six percent of the population had access to clean drinking water. Worldwide, Sub-Saharan Africa was the region with the lowest share of access to clean drinking water.

Historical dataset showing Sub-Saharan Africa population growth rate by year from 1961 to 2023.

Social distancing is a public health measure intended to reduce infectious disease transmission, by maintaining physical distance between individuals or households. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, populations in many countries around the world have been advised to maintain social distance (also referred to as physical distance), with distances of 6 feet or 2 metres commonly advised. Feasibility of social distancing is dependent on the availability of space and the number of people, which varies geographically. In locations where social distancing is difficult, a focus on alternative measures to reduce disease transmission may be needed. To help identify locations where social distancing is difficult, we have developed an ease of social distancing index. By index, we mean a composite measure, intended to highlight variations in ease of social distancing in urban settings, calculated based on the space available around buildings and estimated population density. Index values were calculated for small spatial units (vector polygons), typically bounded by roads, rivers or other features. This dataset provides index values for small spatial units within urban areas across Sub-Saharan Africa. Measures of population density were calculated from high-resolution gridded population datasets from WorldPop, and the space available around buildings was calculated using building footprint polygons derived from satellite imagery (Ecopia.AI and Maxar Technologies. 2020). These data were produced by the WorldPop Research Group at the University of Southampton. This work was part of the GRID3 project with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development. Project partners included the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and the Flowminder Foundation.

Context

This data looks at the impact of COVID-19 on employment, income, ability to pay expenses, and more in Côte D'Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique Nigeria, and South Africa. https://data.humdata.org/dataset/economic-impact-of-covid-19-in-sub-saharan-africa

Content

Data is nationally representative by age, gender, and location, and is broken down by job type and formal or informal workers.

Acknowledgements

Roxana Elliot, Dataset' s author. https://data.humdata.org/dataset/economic-impact-of-covid-19-in-sub-saharan-africa

Inspiration

Covid-19 Pandemic.

The average for 2023 based on 46 countries was 0.569 points. The highest value was in the Seychelles: 0.848 points and the lowest value was in South Africa: 0.388 points. The indicator is available from 1980 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Backgound The concept of Human Rights has become the modern civilising standard to which all should aspire and indeed attain.

   Discussion
   In an era characterised by widening disparities in health and human rights across the world and spectacular advances in biotechnology it is necessary to reflect on the extent to which human rights considerations are selectively applied for the benefit of the most privileged people. Attention is drawn particularly to sub-Saharan Africa as a marginalised region at risk of further marginalisation if the power associated with the new biotechnology is not used more wisely than power has been used in the past. To rectify such deficiencies it is proposed that the moral agenda should be broadened and at the very least the concept of rights should be more closely integrated with duties


   Summary
   New forms of power being unleashed by biotechnology will have to be harnessed and used with greater wisdom than power has been used in the past. Widening disparities in the world are unlikely to be diminished merely by appealing to human rights. We recommend that a deeper understanding is required of the underlying causes of such disparities and that the moral discourse should be extended beyond human rights language.

As of 2022, the majority of detected victims of trafficking in persons in Sub-Saharan Africa were girls, with a share of ** percent. Women were the second most common victims of human trafficking at ** percent.