Labour and Economic Change in Southern Africa c.1900-2000 by Rory Pilossof Andrew Cohen

Author:Rory Pilossof, Andrew Cohen [Rory Pilossof, Andrew Cohen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367467760
Google: rJMzzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-01-15T01:40:37+00:00

However, as Potts has noted, Zambian censuses are considered to be ‘sufficiently accurate’ to be able to study population changes and growth. While Potts was specifically analysing urban and migration trends in her 2005 paper on counter-urbanisation on the Zambian Copperbelt, her insights hold for the overall population trends.14

Population growth and change

Zambia is a large country, measuring over 752,000 square kilometres, nearly twice the size of Zimbabwe (390,000 square km), and six times larger than Malawi (118,000 square km). Unsurprisingly for its size, Zambia has a range of physically distinct regions, including semi-arid lowlands, sandy plains, swamps and marshes and high plateau savannah woodland.15 Until the 1980s, Zambia’s population was considered relatively small, and the country was not under threat of over-population in the same way as some of its neighbours. In 1968, Kay, in his overview of rural development felt the population of Zambia was ‘small’.16 In the 1961 census the population was recorded at ‘only’ 3.2 million Africans, 74,000 Europeans and 9,000 other non-Africans.17 By the 1980s, it was generally accepted that the population growth in Zambia was not an issue that would negatively affect Zambia’s development, as the country was large and the general population distribution was sparse. In the 1990s, Zambia’s population density had increased from five people per square kilometre to 7.5. This was still well below that of Malawi and Zimbabwe at this stage (roughly 40 people per square kilometre in Zimbabwe).18 It is important to note, however, that Zambia’s population distribution was highly uneven, due mainly to the high rates of urbanisation in the country. Rural densities are consistently well below national averages. However, the main urban areas of Lusaka and the Copperbelt held over one-third of the entire population. In 1990, 40 per cent of the population was considered urban. Rapid and large-scale growth of these urban centres began after 1963, when many travel and living restrictions of the colonial administration were removed.19 The urban population doubled between 1964 and 1980. By 2000, the official census recorded that urban population remained at 35 per cent.20

Kwaku and Bertha Osei-Hwedie outlined in the 1990s that demographic dynamics were important factors to understand and that actually since the 1960s Zambia’s population had been exploding. From 3.4 million people in 1963, Zambia’s population grew to 5.66 million in 1980.21 This was an increase of 62 per cent. The rise in population numbers was probably also due to better enumeration standards, as the African population was likely undercounted in the colonial period. The demographic histography of Zambia is slight, however, and Frankema and Jerven estimate that in 1951 there were approximately 2.4 million Africans, as opposed to the official census figure of 1.9 million.22

In the 1990 census the population stood at 7.3 million, with a growth rate of 3 per cent per annum.23 By 2000, the population was nearly 10 million.24 By 1990, nearly 50 per cent of the population were below the age of 15, and within this category, nearly 40 per cent are under the

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