Tanzania is on track to be the fifth largest country in Africa by 2035 according to new data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday.
The east Africa nation’s population is projected to grow to 89.2 million. 86.9 million of thta number will be on Mainland Tanzania wiht 2.3 million people on the Zanzibar archipelago.
Tanzania carries its national population census in every 10 years with the last census done in 2012.
The statement said Tanzania’s population was projected to be 54.2 million in 2018 — 52.6 million people on Mainland Tanzania and 1.6 million people on the Zanzibar archipelago.
Philip Mpango, the east African nation’s Minister for Finance and Planning, said when launching the population projection report that Tanzania adds 1.6 million people per year.
“We have taken into consideration the ratio of deaths and newborns to get an average of population growth rate,” he said, adding that there were 2 million newborns and 400,000 deaths every year.
Mpango said the population projections placed Tanzania only behind Nigeria, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa.
However, the population projection differed from that which was projected by the World Bank last year which put the population projection at 58 million Tanzanians in 2018.
Contesting the World Bank projections, NBS Director General Albina Chuwa said it was impossible for the population to grow at that rate and the WB report didn’t reflect reality.
