Tanzania Country Profile

The current population of Tanzania is 60,202,191, based on projections of the latest United Nations data. Tanzania is growing at a very fast rate. Tanzania’s population is currently growing at a rate of 2.98%. Tanzania has a high fertility rate of 4.8 births per woman and a high birth rate of 36.2 births per 1,000 people.

Unfortunately, a rapidly growing population in Tanzania means increased levels of poverty and income inequality. The country also faces a harsh HIV/AIDS epidemic affecting over 1.6 million Tanzanians (about 5.1% of the population). This epidemic may result in a lower life expectancy, a higher infant mortality rate, higher death rate, changes in age and sex distribution in the population as well as lower population growth.

Tanzania is the 23rd largest country in the world and the 13th largest in Africa. Tanzania has one of the highest birth rates in the world and more than 44% of the population is under the age of 15. The total fertility rate is 5.01 children born per woman, which is the 17th highest of any country.

Tanzania has a very uneven population distribution. About 80% of the population lives in rural areas.

There are 28,704,923 adults in Tanzania with a median of 17.5 male and 18.0 female.

 Tanzania literacy rate for 2015 was 77.89%, a 0.21% decline from 2012.

The last official census recording the population of Tanzania occurred in 2012 and showed there were 44,928,923 people living in the country.

Tanzania has a very low median age with more than 44.8% of the population under 15, 52% between 15 and 64 and just 3.1% over the age of 64. 

Map of Tanzania