In the vast African continent lives a very different population. Most of these people seem to be similar to foreigners, but this is absolutely not true – they are divided into several thousand nations, sometimes very noticeably different from each other. However, the African population is mostly united by one thing – the poverty of their home countries, which has long been a real scourge of African states.
Scientists number from 1 to 8 thousand different African peoples. This variation is due to the complexity of the study and the fact that many of the local ethnic groups are very similar to each other, including culturally. Part of the population of Africa are pygmies, which are the smallest people on earth. There are more than 1.1 billion people living in Africa. This is a lot, considering that a third of the continent is occupied by the lifeless Sahara desert. Almost half of the African population lives in the top ten largest African cities. Of the total world population, Africa accounts for about 15%.
Africans use about 1.5 thousand different languages. The most common among them is Arabic. Most of the African population is Muslim. In second place is the prevalence of Christianity. About 16-17% of the total African population lives in Nigeria, the most densely populated and at the same time almost the poorest country of this continent. In Africa, the age group “up to 15 years old” includes a larger percentage of the population than on any other continent of the Earth. According to forecasts of a number of scientists, by 2050 the population of Africa will double.
Over the past half century, the average life expectancy here has grown by 15 years, from 39 to 54. True, this is still very small when compared with other countries. The average population density in Africa is only slightly more than 30 people per square kilometer. This is much lower than in Europe or Asia. Due to the significant ethnocultural diversity, most Africans speak at least two languages. The people of the Bushmen, who live in southern Africa, still use the same tools that their ancestors used more than 44 thousand years ago, according to archaeological finds. More than half of Africa’s population does not have access to clean drinking water.
Slavery is still widespread in some African countries, particularly in Mali. The Second Congolese War, which lasted from 1998 to 2006, claimed the lives of about 5.4 million people. In terms of the number of victims of all wars in world history, it is second only to World War II. The population of the African country of Tanzania is also remarkable. More albinos live there than in any other country in the world. In Africa, more people speak French than in France itself or in the French-speaking provinces of Canada.
