A huge African country that is one of the poorest in the world will see its population increase by a whopping 400% by 2100.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is located in central Africa. It has a 25-mile Atlantic Ocean coastline.
It is about the size of Western Europe making it the second largest country in Africa, behind Algeria, and the eleventh largest country in the world.
DRC gained independence from Belgium on June 30 1960, every year the occasion is marked with a public holiday.
Life for those living in DRC is incredibly tough, with more than 60% of the population living in extreme poverty and 75% living on less than £1.71 per day, representing one of the largest populations in the world living in extreme poverty.
The 2022 Global Hunger Index described the situation as “alarming”.
The DRC is considered the world’s richest country regarding natural resources, including the world’s largest coltan reserves.
Despite having significant amounts of cobalt, copper, zinc, manganese, and diamonds, its economy has declined. This is believed to be partially caused by much of its gold and cobalt being sold on the black market.
DRC’s population is growing extremely fast thanks to one of the highest birth rates in the world.
The current population of DRC is 102 million, but this is projected to increase by an astonishing 400% by 2100, taking the total population to 431 million, according to the UN.
By 2050, the DRC will have 215 million people and join the world’s ten most populated countries.
The DRC’s population grew by 3.3% in 2022, while the continent’s average was 2.5%. The average world population growth rate was 0.8% in 2022.
There are two main reasons for the high population growth: people are living longer and there are more births.
Life expectancy in DRC has increased from 49 years in 1995 to 62 years in 2023. This is down to the end of the Second Congo War in 2003 and improvements in access to HIV counselling and treatments in the region.
DRC has an incredibly high fertility rate, with the average woman having 6.2 babies in their lifetime, four births more than the global average of 2.3 babies.
Few women have access to contraception, and culturally, large families are celebrated with people encouraged to have children.
Early marriage and high fertility rates represent a challenge for women and girls in education; only 16.8% of women have completed secondary school.
A staggering 23.4 million Congolese suffer from food insecurity, making DRC the country most affected by food insecurity in the world. With the ever-growing population rate, resources will likely be more stretched in the coming years and decades.
