* Bigger in size than China, India, Europe and the United States combined, Africa has 1.2 billion inhabitants, speaking more than 2,100 languages and spanning 54 countries.
* Africa accounts for 16 percent, or 1.2 billion, of the world’s population.
* Africa’s population hit the 1 billion mark in 2010, with a continent-wide annual growth rate of 2.4 percent.
* Of the 2.4 billion people expected to be added to the world’s population by 2050, Africa will account for 1.3 billion.
* Africans are expected to number 2 billion by 2050.
* Africa has the second highest population after Asia.
* Africa will account for 39 percent of world population by 2100.
* By 2050, the populations in some 28 African countries will double.
* By 2100, Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Niger, Somalia, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia will see their populations increase at least five times.
* By 2100, five of the 10 most populous countries will be African.
* Mauritius is the only country in Africa that will see its population decrease at any point before 2050, with its current population of 1.27 million shrinking to 1.25 million.
* Over the next 35 years, half of the world’s total population growth will be concentrated in nine countries, five of them being Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda.
* As of 2015, Nigeria, at seventh position, is the only African country among the world’s 10 most populous countries. In 2050 it will become the world’s third largest country.
* As of 2015, the ratio of males to females in 10 African countries (Botswana, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, South Sudan, Uganda and Zambia) is exactly 1:1.
* In another 27 African countries, fewer males are born for every 100 females.
* There are more than 200 million youth in Africa, comprising more than 20 percent of the continent’s population.
* Sixty percent of Africa’s population are under 24 years old and close to 70 percent under 25, making Africa the youngest continent in the world.
* In Kenya, young people are close to 75 percent of the population.
* By 2020, the median age will be 43 in Europe, 38 in China and just 20 in Africa.
* By 2040 Africa is set to have 1 in 5 of the planet’s young people.
* The top 10 countries with the youngest populations are in Africa. This will remain true through 2050 and 2100.
* By 2040 Africa is set to have 1 in 5 of the planet’s young people.
* Uganda has the youngest population in the world, with a fertility rate of 6.2 children.
* Nineteen of the 21 countries classified as “high-fertility” countries – meaning the average woman has five or more children over her lifetime – are in Africa, including Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Uganda.
* At a fertility rate of 7.63 children per woman, Niger tops the continent’s “high-fertility” countries.
* The greatest increase in life expectancy since 2000 occurred in Africa where it rose six years. Globally, life expectancy rose three years to 70 years in the same period.
* Between 2010-2015, life expectancy in Africa was 60 years, behind Asia (72), Latin America (75), Europe (77) and Northern America (79). In 2100, however, Africa’s expectancy is expected to be 78 years, the largest gain of any region.
* Sub-Saharan Africa has seen the largest absolute declines in the numbers of children who die before their fifth birthday, from 142 to 99 deaths per 1,000 live births, most of this fall coming since 2000.
* Rates of urbanization in Africa are the highest in the world. By 2020, 66 percent of the continent’s population are expected to live in cities and be of working age.
* 52 out of the 54 countries in Africa have more than 1 million people each.
* 52 African cities have more than 1 million people each.
* Poverty levels of Africa’s population are expected to decline to 20 percent by 2020, from around 43 percent in 1995.
* Africa presents the highest proportion of illiterate youth in the world, estimated at about 25 percent, according to the African Development Bank’s 2013 Economic Outlook. Estimates suggest that about 133 million young people, accounting for over 50 percent of the youth population in Africa, lack formal education.
* About five million graduates are produced annually by African universities.
* There is one doctor for every 2,000 people in Africa.
* Today’s African Diaspora consists of approximately 30 million adults.
* By 2050, migration will account for 82 percent of population growth in developed countries, with Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean being net senders.
* In 2015, no African country features among the current top five senders (more than 100,000 emigrations annually): India, Bangladesh, China, Pakistan and Mexico.
