24 June 2009
Maputo — The central Mozambican province of Manica has one of the fastest growing populations in the country, according to the definitive results from the 2007 population census, released in the provincial capital, Chimoio, earlier this month.
Between the censuses of 1997 and 2007 the population of Manica grew from 974,208 to 1,412,029, an increase of 44.9 per cent - or an average annual increase of 4.5 per cent. This is almost twice the national growth rate of 2.4 per cent.
Almost half of the Manica population (48.7 per cent) is under the age of 15. 48.4 per cent are aged between 15 and 64 and only 2.8 per cent are aged 65 and above.
Slightly more than half the population (50.3 per cent) lives in the three districts - Gondola, Chimoio city and Manica - that lie along the Beira Corridor, the road and railway from the port of Beira to Zimbabwe. The other seven districts account for 49.3 per cent of the provincial population. The four districts in the north of the province (Guro, Tambara, Barue and Macossa) contain less than 20 per cent of the population.
As in the rest of Mozambique, the Manica illiteracy rate fell sharply in the decade between the two censuses - from 57.7 per cent in 1007 to 43 per cent in 2007. But there remains a strong gender disparity in these figures - while only 23.8 per cent of Manica men cannot read or write, the figure rises to 59.7 per cent among women.
The main languages spoken in the province are Ndau, given by 26.9 per cent of respondents as their mother tongue, Chitewe (22.6 per cent) and Sena (13.3 per cent). Less than five per cent give the official language, Portuguese, as their mother tongue - but this figure rises to almost ten per cent among teenagers.
Manica is an overwhelmingly agricultural province, and so 71.3 per cent of the economically active population work in the primary sector (agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining). Only 7.1 per cent work in industry and construction, and the remaining 21.5 per cent work in transport, finance and other services.
The number of households with electricity more than doubled between the two censuses - but from a very low base. 3.2 per cent of houses had electricity in 1997, and the number had risen to 7.9 per cent by 2007. Most households (56.2 per cent) relied on kerosene lamps for housing, while the poorest 31.3 per cent used woodfuel for all their energy needs, including lighting.
The number of households with piped water (inside or outside the house) rose slightly - from 3.5 per cent in 1997 to 3.9 per cent in 2007. 5.6 per cent relied on standpipes, and 19.5 per cent drew their water from a protected well or borehole. But the majority of the Manica population relied on unsafe sources of drinking water - 41 per cent used traditional wells lacking even a hand pump, and 29.1 per cent took their water straight from rivers or lakes.
The most widely owned durable household goods in Manica are radio sets. 57.4 per cent of households said they owned a radio. 7.8 per cent said they had a television: since this is almost the same as the number of houses with electricity, it confirms findings from other provinces that almost immediately a household obtains electricity, it buys a TV set.
Only 1.5 per cent of households owned a car, one per cent owned a motorbike and 36.7 per cent owned bicycles. As for computers, only 0.4 per cent of households owned one. The poorest 34.1 per cent of households owned none of these durable goods.
Pf/ (612)
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