KAMPALA– Uganda National Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) on Thursday released the detailed report about the recently concluded 2024 National Housing and Population census.
This was the first digital census held by Uganda, it’s the third census by UBOS and the sixth census after Independence. Its results have been released after seven days yet in the manual process, the findings could take more than six months.
The report Indicates that Uganda has a total population of 45,904,417 (forty five million, nine hundred, four thousand four hundred seventeen) people and thus registering an increase of eleven million , three hundred thousand people with in a period of ten years. The females are at 53% and males at 47%.
“Distribution within the age group, we have very many young children 50 percent, Youth 18 to 30 are 23 percent, 31 to 59 are 21.5 percent, above 60 are 1 percent. Hon Minister you have a very big task to planning for these 50 percent , the school going children and prepare for them post education.” Remarked Dr. Chris Mukiza while presenting the census report at a ceremony held at Serena Hotel Kampala.
He added that unlike the previous census exercises, this year they asked more than the 40 questions required because the country is in the process of preparing for National Development plan four (NDP 4 ) and such data is crucial.
“99.2 percent of the people were enumerated on the census night, the illiterate rate increased to 74 percent from 63.7 percent in 2014. The unemployment rate stands at 12.6 percent, 81 percent of the house holds have access to safe water, 76 percent have access to clean energy, 53 percent use electricity or solar and 62 percent of the house holds in the country depend on Agriculture.” Mukiza on more findings
Rt. Hon Robbinah Nabanja , the Prime Minister of Uganda on launching the report , revealed that an increase by 10 million persons from the year 2014 census, when the population, at that time, stood at 34 point 6 million people could likely be an outcome of the government’s priorities in the health sub sector over the years, mainly on immunization and roll out of health center fours.
“The upgrade of health center two to threes, the construction of some hospitals, and of course, some districts have hospitals, others are yet to get and the regional referral hospitals, including the National referral hospitals, in so doing, government will Be able to overcome one of the most intriguing challenges of transforming every Ugandan household into the money economy, most significantly going forward.”
She therefore urged all government ministries, departments and agencies to utilize this data to remodel their operations to ensure that the most vulnerable also can be benefit from a number of government programs.
“As government we are happy for these results because they answer the 5 key questions like; how many Ugandans are we, where do they live, where they live, how do they live ,what do they own and how they access key government services.”
Ms. Gift Mulunga UNFPA country Representative for Uganda at the launch of this report commended UBOS for timely release of results which are going to be of great value especially in planning for the country.
“The census results will play a great role in guiding Uganda’s effort in fast tracking implementation of sustainable development goal. These results combined with other surveys like Demographic Health survey will ensure that all our efforts are evidence based and aligned to national priorities.”
Dr. Albert Byamugisha, the Board Chairman for UBOS commended the team for their tireless efforts which have enabled them to produce timely census results in the shortest period possible.
“By joining our East African neighbors, Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda plus Burundi, in conducting a digital census, Uganda now has access to high-quality Geo-spatial data.” Byamugisha added.
The ceremony attracted officials from Government, Agencies, Minsitries, Academia, UN Agencies, Political leaders, Religious leaders and members of the general public.
