Demographics of Senegal

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Senegal, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

About 42% of Senegal's population is rural. In rural areas, population density varies from about 77 per square kilometer (200/mile²) in the west-central region to 2 per square kilometer (5/mile²) in the arid eastern section. The average population density for the country is 68 people per square kilometer (169/sq mi).[1] French is the official language but is used regularly only by the literate minority. Almost all Senegalese speak an indigenous language, of which Wolof has the largest usage. Many Senegalese live in Europe, particularly in France, Italy and Spain.

Population

Demographics of Senegal, From UN estimates; Number of inhabitants in millions.

According to the 2018 revision of the World Population Review[1] the total population was 16,302,789 in May 2018, compared to only 2,416,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2017 was 41.5%, between 15 and 54 years of age was 31.1%, while 55 years or older was 6.9%. .[2]

	Total population	Population aged 0–14 (%)	Population aged 15–64 (%)	Population aged 65+ (%)
1950	2,416,000	41.6	55.0	3.4
1955	2,684,000	41.5	55.6	2.9
1960	3,048,000	41.9	55.5	2.6
1965	3,505,000	43.0	54.6	2.4
1970	4,096,000	44.3	53.5	2.3
1975	4,786,000	45.3	52.5	2.2
1980	5,414,000	47.2	50.5	2.2
1985	6,232,000	47.7	50.0	2.3
1990	7,242,000	47.2	50.4	2.4
1995	8,369,000	46.2	51.3	2.5
2000	9,506,000	45.4	52.1	2.5
2005	10,872,000	44.4	53.1	2.5
2010	12,434,000	43.7	53.9	2.4
2017	14,668,522	41.5	55.5	2.9

Vital statistics

Registration of vital events in Senegal is not complete. The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.[2]

Period	Live births per year	Deaths per year	Natural change per year	CBR*	CDR*	NC*	TFR*	IMR*
1950–1955	115,000	68,000	47,000	45.2	26.8	18.4	6.05	131
1955–1960	137,000	73,000	64,000	47.7	25.4	22.3	6.42	128
1960–1965	163,000	82,000	81,000	49.7	24.9	24.8	6.85	123
1965–1970	193,000	92,000	101,000	50.8	24.2	26.6	7.25	117
1970–1975	224,000	100,000	125,000	50.5	22.4	28.1	7.45	108
1975–1980	251,000	99,000	153,000	49.3	19.3	29.9	7.50	99
1980–1985	274,000	93,000	181,000	47.1	16.0	31.0	7.28	89
1985–1990	303,000	92,000	211,000	45.0	13.6	31.4	6.90	80
1990–1995	335,000	98,000	237,000	42.9	12.5	30.3	6.36	72
1995–2000	365,000	104,000	261,000	40.8	11.6	29.2	5.77	66
2000–2005	405,000	108,000	297,000	39.8	10.6	29.2	5.36	60
2005–2010	450,000	111,000	339,000	38.6	9.5	29.1	5.03	55
* CBR = crude birth rate (per 1000); CDR = crude death rate (per 1000); NC = natural change (per 1000); IMR = infant mortality rate per 1000 births; TFR = total fertility rate (number of children per woman)

Births and deaths [3]

Year	Population	Live births	Deaths	Natural increase	Crude birth rate	Crude death rate	Rate of natural increase	TFR
2009		498 714	138 182	360 532	41,0	11,4	29,6	4,91
2010		456 212	132 218	323 994	36,5	10,6	25,9	4,86
2011		464 464	134 450	330 014	36,2	10,5	25,7
2012		471 629	135 468	336 161	35,7	10,3	25,5
2013	12 874 000	478 898	136 460	342 438	35,3	10,1	25,2

Fertility and births

Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):[4]

Year	CBR (Total)	TFR (Total)	CBR (Urban)	TFR (Urban)	CBR (Rural)	TFR (Rural)
1980-82		7,4		6,3		7,9
1983-85		6,6		5,4		7,1
1992-93	40,8	6,03 (5,1)	37,4	5,06 (3,8)	42,9	6,74 (5,9)
1997	37	5,67 (4,6)	31	4,29 (3,2)	42	6,74 (5,6)
1999	36	5,2	30	3,9	40	6,1
2005	39,3	5,3 (4,5)	33,4	4,1 (3,3)	44,0	6,4 (5,7)
2008–2009	37,3	4,9	33,4	4,0	40,1	5,8
2010–2011	37,4	5,0 (3,2)	32,3	3,9 (2,6)	41,6	6,0 (3,8)
2012–2013	38,6	5,3	32,9	4,1	42,7	6,3
2014	37,6	5,0 (3,7)	33,4	4,0 (3,1)	41,6	6,3 (4,4)
2015	35.7	4.9 (4.3)	28.1	3.5 (3.1)	41.5	6.1 (5.4)
2016	34.6	4.7 (4.2)	27.2	3.5 (3.1)	40.8	5.9 (5.2)
2017	33.7	4.6 (4.0)	27.1	3.4 (3.0)	39.2	5.9 (5.1)
2018	32.7	4.4 (4.0)	27.2	3.2 (3.0)	37.0	5.5 (5.0)

Fertility data by region (DHS Program):[5]

Region	Total fertility rate (2005)	Total fertility rate (2010/11)	Total fertility rate (2017)
Dakar	3.7	3.7	3.0
Thiès	5.4	4.8	4.6
Diourbel	6.2	5.2	5.8
Kaolack	5.9	6.0	5.2
Kaffrine		6.5	6.2
Louga	5.6	4.8	5.1
Fatick	6.8	6.3	5.2
Ziguinchor	5.0	4.8	4.6
Sédhiou		6.9	6.4
Kolda	6.3	6.8	5.5
Matam	3.7	5.4	5.3
Saint-Louis	5.3	5.0	4.7
Kédougou		6.1	6.4
Tambacounda	6.2	6.0	5.8

Life expectancy

Period	Life expectancy in Years[6]
1950–1955	35.47
1955–1960	37.49
1960–1965	38.62
1965–1970	38.41
1970–1975	40.91
1975–1980	46.50
1980–1985	51.27
1985–1990	56.05
1990–1995	57.59
1995–2000	57.25
2000–2005	58.93
2005–2010	62.41
2010–2015	65.71

Ethnic groups

Main article: Ethnic groups in Senegal

Wolof 37.1%, Pular 26.2%, Serer 17%, Mandinka 5.6%, Jola 4.5%, Soninke 1.4%, Other 8.3% (includes 50,000 Europeans and persons of Lebanese descent) (2017)[7]

About 50,000 Europeans -represents the 0.3% of the population of Senegal- (mostly French) and Lebanese and Vietnamese reside in Senegal, mainly in the cities.

Population of Senegal according to ethnic group in 1976 and 1988

Ethnic group	census 1976 [8]		census 1988[9]
	Number	%	Number	%
Wolof	2,001,416	41.0	2,890,402	42.7
Serer	716,919	14.7	1,009,921	14.9
Peul	605,584	12.4	978,366	14.4
Toucouleur	528,490	10.8	631,892	9.3
Diola	265,353	5.4	357,672	5.3
Mandingue	179,050	3.7	245,651	3.6
Soce			42,751	0.6
Sarakhole	84,102	1.7	113,184	1.7
Bambara	65,096	1.3	91,071	1.3
Maure	59,784	1.2	67,726	1.0
Mandjaag	41,628	0.9	66,605	1.0
Lebou	94,837	1.9	56,758	0.8
Balant	33,915	0.7	54,398	0.8
Malinke	202,472	4.1	28,643	0.4
Mancagne			23,180	0.3
Laobe			18,250	0.3
Bassari			6,195	0.1
Khassonke			1,752	0.0
Coniagui			1,119	0.0
Fula			108	0.0
Other			87,773	1.3
Total	4,879,103		6,773,417

Languages

Main article: Languages of Senegal

French (official), Wolof, Pulaar, Serer, Jola, Mandinka, Soninke

Religion

Main article: Religion in Senegal

The religion beliefs of the 2016 population of Senegal are: Muslim 96.1% (mostly Sufi), Christian 3.6% (mostly Roman Catholic), animist 0.3%.[7]

Other general statistics

The following demographic statistics of Senegal are from the World Population Review.[1]

• One birth every 56 seconds
• One death every 6 minutes
• One net migrant every 26 minutes
• Net gain of one person every 1 minutes

The following demographic are from the CIA World Factbook[10] unless otherwise indicated.

Population

15,020,945 (July 2018 est.)

Age structure

Population pyramid of Senegal in 2017

0-14 years: 41.15% (male 3,106,942 /female 3,074,740)

15-24 years: 20.33% (male 1,521,868 /female 1,531,484)

25-54 years: 31.45% (male 2,176,052 /female 2,547,566)

55-64 years: 4.05% (male 261,682 /female 347,374)

65 years and over: 3.02% (male 200,079 /female 253,158) (2018 est.)

Median age

total: 19 years. Country comparison to the world: 205th

male: 18.1 years

female: 19.9 years (2018 est.)

Total: 18.8 years

Male: 18 years

Female: 19.7 years (2017 est.)

Birth rate

32.9 births/1,000 population (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 27th

33.4 births/1,000 population (2017 est.)

Death rate

7.9 deaths/1,000 population (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 94th

8.1 deaths/1,000 population (2017 est.)

Total fertility rate

4.2 children born/woman (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 30th

Population growth rate

2.36% (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 30th

2.39% (2017 est.)

Mother's mean age at first birth

21.9 years (2017 est.)

21.5 years (2016 est.)

note: median age at first birth among women 25-29

Contraceptive prevalence rate

25.1% (2016)

Net migration rate

-1.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 151st

Dependency ratios

Total: 85.4

Youth: 79.8

Elderly: 5.6

Potential support ratio: 18 (2015 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 47.2% of total population (2018)

rate of urbanization: 3.73% annual rate of change (2015-20 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 62.5 years

male: 60.4 years

female: 64.7 years (2018 est.)

Total population: 62.1 years (2017 est.), 59.78 years (2011 est.), 59.25 years (2006 est.)

Male: 60 years (2017 est.), 57.85 years (2011 est.), 57.7 years (2006 est.)

Female: 64.3 years (2017 est.), 61.77 years (2011 est.), 60.85 years (2006 est.)

Religions

Muslim 95.9% (most adhere to one of the four main Sufi brotherhoods), Christian 4.1% (mostly Roman Catholic) (2016 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 47.2% of total population (2018)

rate of urbanization: 3.73% annual rate of change (2015-20 est.)

Maternal mortality ratio

315 deaths/100,000 live births (2015 est.)

Drinking water source

improved

total: 78.5% of population

urban: 92.9% of population

rural: 67.3% of population

unimproved

total: 21.5% of population

urban: 7.1% of population

rural: 32.7% of population (2015 est.)

Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write (2017 est.) total population: 51.9% male: 64.8% female: 39.8% (2017 est.)

Total population: 57.7%

Male: 69.7%

Female: 46.6% (2015 est.)

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)

total: 9 years

male: 9 years

female: 9 years (2017)

total: 9 years

male: 9 years

female: 9 years (2015)

Unemployment, youth ages 15-24

total: 5.3%

male: 5.2%

female: 5.5% (2015 est.)

Gender ratio

At birth: 1.03 male(s)/female

Under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.87 male(s)/females

Total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2011 est.)

Emigration

Senegal aforetime was a destination country for neighboring economic migrants, but in recent decades West African migrants more often use Senegal as a transit point to North Africa and also to illegally onward to Europe.[7] The country also has been host to several thousand black Mauritanian refugees since they were expelled from Mauritania during the 1989 border conflict with Senegal. The country’s economic crisis in the 1970s stimulated emigration; departures accelerated from the 1990s. Destinations shifted from neighboring countries to Libya and Mauritania, because of their booming oil industries, and to France, Italy and Spain.[7]

See also

• Senegal

References

1. World Population Review: Senegal Population 2018, 14 June 2018
2. Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision Archived 6 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
3. "United Nations Statistics Division - Demographic and Social Statistics". unstats.un.org.
4. "MEASURE DHS: Demographic and Health Surveys". microdata.worldbank.org.
5. "STATcompiler". www.statcompiler.com. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
6. "World Population Prospects - Population Division - United Nations". esa.un.org. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
7. "Africa :: SENEGAL". The World Factbook. CIA.
8. Rapport National de Présentation du Recensement Général de la Population 1976 (RGP I) Archived 13 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine
9. "United Nations Statistics Division - Demographic and Social Statistics". unstats.un.org.
10. "The World FactBook - Sao Tome and Principe", The World Factbook, 12 July 2018 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

External links

• Media related to Demographics of Senegal at Wikimedia Commons