Demographics of Lesotho

Historical population of Lesotho (Food and Agriculture Organization data), year 2005; Number of inhabitants in thousands.

According to the 2016 census, Lesotho has a total population of 2,007,201.[1] Of the population, 34.17 percent lived in urban and 65.83 percent in rural areas.[1] The country's capital, Maseru, accounts for around half of the total urban population. The sex distribution is 982,133 male and 1,025,068 female, or around 96 males for each 100 females.[1]

The average population density in the country is around 66,1 people per square kilometer. The density is lower in the Lesotho Highlands than in the western lowlands. Although the majority of the population—56.1 percent—is between 15 and 64 years of age, Lesotho has a substantial youth population numbering around 37.8 percent.[2] The annual population growth rate is estimated at 0.13%[2]

According to the 2019 revision of the World Population Prospects[3][4] the total population was 2,108,328 in 2018, compared to only 734 000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 37.4%, 58.3% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 4.3% was 65 years or older .[5]

Registration of vital events is in Lesotho not complete. The Population Departement of the United Nations prepared the following estimates. [5]

Life expectancy at birth

Life expectancy from 1950 to 2015 (UN World Population Prospects):[8]

Period	Life expectancy in Years
1950–1955	42.15
1955–1960	45.08
1960–1965	47.80
1965–1970	48.52
1970–1975	49.80
1975–1980	52.24
1980–1985	55.28
1985–1990	57.33
1990–1995	59.70
1995–2000	52.74
2000–2005	45.62
2005–2010	49.04
2010–2015	52.51

Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2019.[9]

• One birth every 9 minutes
• One death every 19 minutes
• One net migrant every 131 minutes
• Net gain of one person every 18 minutes

The following demographic are from the CIA World Factbook[10] unless otherwise indicated.

6,600 people living in Lesotho are from Asia or Europe. They represent 0.3% of the total population of Lesotho. The 5,000 Chinese people form the largest non-African ethnic group in Lesotho.[11]

Age structure

Population pyramid of Lesotho in 2017

0-14 years: 31.84% (male 314,155 /female 310,772)

15-24 years: 19.34% (male 181,332 /female 198,236)

25-54 years: 38.27% (male 366,652 /female 384,333)

55-64 years: 5.02% (male 52,490 /female 46,016)

65 years and over: 5.53% (male 55,804 /female 52,671) (2018 est.)

Due to Lesotho's long history as a unified nation, that continued even through British colonial rule, the ethnic makeup of the country is very homogenous. Lesotho's ethno-linguistic structure consists almost entirely of the Basotho (singular Mosotho), a Bantu-speaking people: an estimate of 99.7 percent of the people identify as Basotho.[2] The Kwena (Bakoena) are the largest subgroup of the Sotho; other Basotho subgroups include the Natal (North) Nguni, Batloung (the Tlou), Baphuthi (the Phuti), Bafokeng, Bataung (the Tau), Bats'oeneng (the tso'ene) and the Cape (South) Nguni (Thembu). Other ethnic groups include Europeans, numbering in the thousands, and several hundred Asians.[13]

Sesotho (Southern Sotho) and English languages are both official.[2] Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa and French are also spoken.

The population of Lesotho is estimated to be around 90 percent Christian.[14] Roman Catholics, the largest religious group, make up around 45 percent of the population.[14] Evangelicals comprise 26 percent of the population, and Anglican and other Christian groups an additional 19 percent.[14] Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Baháʼí, and members of traditional indigenous religions comprise the remaining 10 percent of the population.[14]

According to recent estimates, 85 percent of the population 15 and over was literate. Among women the literacy rate was around 95 percent, and among men around 75 percent.[2] As such, Lesotho boasts one of the higher literacy rates in Africa. Although education is not compulsory, the Government of Lesotho is incrementally implementing a programme for free primary education. It was expected that the program would be fully in place by 2006. The National University of Lesotho located in Roma and the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology located in the heart of Maseru, Moshoeshoe 2 are the only universities in the country.[15] In addition, the country has almost 20 other public and 15 private institutes giving tertiary education.[15]

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 This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook website https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/.