About 42% of Senegal's population is rural. In rural areas, population density varies from about 77 per square kilometer (200/mile²) in the west-central region to 2 per square kilometer (5/mile²) in the arid eastern section. The average population density for the country is 68 people per square kilometer (180 people/sq mi).[1] French is the official language but is used regularly only by the literate minority. Almost all Senegalese speak an indigenous language, of which Wolof has the largest usage. Many Senegalese live in Europe, particularly in France, Italy and Spain.
Population
Demographics of Senegal, From UN estimates; Number of inhabitants in millions.
According to the 2018 revision of the World Population Review[1] the total population was 16,302,789 in May 2018, compared to only 2,416,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2017 was 41.5%, between 15 and 54 years of age was 31.1%, while 55 years or older was 6.9%.[2]
Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (Estimates 1.VII.2020) (Data refer to national projections.):[3]
Vital statistics
Registration of vital events in Senegal is not complete. The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.[4]
urban population: 49.1% of total population (2022)
rate of urbanization: 3.59% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
urban population: 47.2% of total population (2018)
rate of urbanization: 3.73% annual rate of change (2015-20 est.)
Life expectancy at birth
total population: 69.96 years. Country comparison to the world: 171st
male: 68.23 years
female: 71.77 years (2022 est.)
total population: 62.5 years
male: 60.4 years
female: 64.7 years (2018 est.)
Total population: 62.1 years (2017 est.), 59.78 years (2011 est.), 59.25 years (2006 est.)
Male: 60 years (2017 est.), 57.85 years (2011 est.), 57.7 years (2006 est.)
Female: 64.3 years (2017 est.), 61.77 years (2011 est.), 60.85 years (2006 est.)
Urbanization
urban population: 47.2% of total population (2018)
rate of urbanization: 3.73% annual rate of change (2015-20 est.)
Major infectious diseases
degree of risk: very high (2020)
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: malaria and dengue fever
water contact diseases: schistosomiasis
animal contact diseases: rabies
respiratory diseases: meningococcal meningitis
note: on 21 March 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Africa; Senegal is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine
Maternal mortality ratio
315 deaths/100,000 live births (2015 est.)
Drinking water source
improved
total: 78.5% of population
urban: 92.9% of population
rural: 67.3% of population
unimproved
total: 21.5% of population
urban: 7.1% of population
rural: 32.7% of population (2015 est.)
Education expenditures
5.3% of GDP (2019) Country comparison to the world: 51st
Literacy
definition: age 15 and over can read and write (2017 est.)
total population: 51.9%
male: 64.8%
female: 39.8% (2017 est.)
Total population: 57.7%
Male: 69.7%
Female: 46.6% (2015 est.)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)
total: 9 years
male: 8 years
female: 9 years (2020)
total: 9 years
male: 9 years
female: 9 years (2017)
Unemployment, youth ages 15-24
total: 4.1%
male: 2.9%
female: 6.7% (2019 est.)
Gender ratio
At birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
Under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.87 male(s)/females
Total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2011 est.)
Emigration
Senegal was historically a destination country for neighboring economic migrants, but in recent decades West African migrants more often use Senegal as a transit point to North Africa, or as a stop before continuing illegally onward to Europe.[9] The country also has been host to several thousand black Mauritanian refugees since they were expelled from Mauritania during the 1989 border conflict with Senegal. The country's economic crisis in the 1970s stimulated emigration; departures accelerated from the 1990s. Destinations shifted from neighboring countries to Libya and Mauritania, because of their booming oil industries, and to France, Italy and Spain.[9]
^Arabic is taught as a second language for religious reasons within the Senegalese educational system.[12]
References
^ a bWorld Population Review: Senegal Population 2018, 14 June 2018
^Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision Archived 6 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine