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Zaire POPULATION
Size and Growth
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Figure 8. Population by Age and Sex, 1990
Source: Based on information from Federal Republic of Germany,
Statistisches Bundesamt, Länderbericht Zaïre, 1990,
Wiesbaden, 1990, 23.
Zaire's population was estimated at 39.1 million in
1992,
making the country among sub-Saharan Africa's most
populous. This
figure represents a substantial increase over the 29.7
million
inhabitants recorded in the last official census, taken in
July
1984, which in itself had indicated a near doubling of the
16.2
million population at independence in 1960 (see
table 2,
Appendix).
Fluctuations in the country's population over time
follow a
clear pattern, correlating to political and economic
developments.
Between 1880 and approximately 1920, a period of colonial
conquest
and consolidation, Zaire suffered a drastic decline in
population.
European and Arab penetration disrupted traditional
agricultural
organization and introduced diseases such as sleeping
sickness,
smallpox, influenza, and venereal diseases, devastating
local
populations and reducing their numbers by roughly
one-third to onehalf . In the 1940s, population decline was also hastened
by the
conditions under which mandatory labor was imposed by the
colonial
government during World War II. Compulsory labor for
porterage,
road construction, mining, and the harvesting of rubber
disrupted
the planting and harvesting of food crops, provoking
famine.
Only after 1948 did the country's population show rapid
growth,
reflecting improved nutrition, health, and economic
development.
Since that time, the average annual rate of population
growth has
been consistently high even by African standards. It was
estimated
at just above 2 percent for most of the period from 1950
to 1970.
Thereafter, the rate has been near or above percent. In
1992 the
annual population growth rate was estimated at 3.3 percent
(see
table 3, Appendix). Moreover, the growth rate is projected
to
remain at or above 3 percent until at least 2015. Zaire is
thus
expected to continue to see its population grow at a
faster rate
than its economy, exacerbating the economic and social
deterioration prevailing in the early 1990s. The United
Nations
(UN) estimates that Zaire's population will total between
78.4
million and 100.9 million by 2025.
Zaire's high population growth rate is fueled by a high
crude
birth rate: forty-five births per 1,000 population in
1992, little
changed from the forty-seven births per 1,000 population
recorded
in 1965 (see
table 4, Appendix). The total fertility rate
in 1992
was estimated to be 6.1 children born per woman. In the
same year,
the crude death rate was estimated at thirteen per 1,000
population, down substantially from the twenty-one per
1,000 noted
in 1965 and thus another contributing factor to total
population
growth. The infant mortality rate, although substantially
improved
from the rate of 140 per 1,000 live births recorded in
1965, was,
however, still high at ninety-seven per 1,000 live births
in 1992.
The under-five mortality rate was estimated at 150 per
1,000. Life
expectancy was relatively low at fifty-two years for males
and
fifty-six for women in 1992.
The distribution of Zaire's population by age and sex
is
typical of that of a developing nation and quite
dissimilar from
that of the developed world. Most striking is the
youthfulness of
the population. In 1990 approximately 45 percent of the
population
was under the age of fifteen, 71 percent under the age of
thirty,
and 87 percent under the age of forty-five
(see
fig. 8).
The number
of males and females was nearly equal, estimated at 49
percent and
51 percent of the population, respectively, in 1990.
Because of
their greater longevity, females outnumbered males
primarily in the
older age-groups.
The size and composition of the population are also
affected by
uncontrolled and continuing immigration to Zaire. Both
prior to and
since independence, there have been periodic influxes of
refugees
from neighboring countries, such as Angola, Sudan, Uganda,
and
Rwanda and Burundi (the last two peoples known
collectively in
Zaire as the Banyarwanda). Emigration of Zairians has
offset only
some of the population increases. In the 1960s, some
sources
indicate that Zaire gained 500,000 inhabitants through
immigration.
In May 1985, the number of refugees in Zaire was estimated
at about
330,000.
In 1992 the U.S. Committee for Refugees estimated that
Zaire
was home to over 470,000 refugees: 310,000 from Angola,
104,000
from southern Sudan, 45,000 from Burundi, 10,000 from
Uganda, and
1,300 from other African nations. Most of the Angolan
refugees had
been in Zaire for over twenty years and were
self-supporting and
socially integrated into Zairian society. About 80,000
were,
however, more recent refugees, having fled to Zaire since
1985.
In late 1991, an estimated 20,000 foreigners, mostly
European
and United States citizens, left Zaire because of the
country's
political unrest and economic deterioration. A small
number of
Zairians are also reported to have fled from Zaire to
Angola.
However, by contrast with the repatriation of 15,000
Angolan
refugees and the reduction of Western expatriates in Zaire
during
1991, the number of refugees from Burundi and Sudan
increased in
the early 1990s.
In general, the Zairian government welcomed refugees,
allowing
them to settle on empty land or seek employment. Further
assistance
to displaced persons was provided by international relief
agencies.
Data as of December 1993
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