Demographics of Burkina Faso, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.
Burkina Faso's 22.1 million people belong to two major West African cultural groups: the Gur (Voltaic) and the Mandé. The Voltaic are far more numerous and include the Mossi, who make up about one-half of the population. The Mossi claim descent from warriors who migrated to present-day Burkina Faso and established an empire that lasted more than 800 years. Predominantly farmers, the Mossi are still bound by the traditions of the Mogho Naba, who hold court in Ouagadougou.
About 12,000 Europeans reside in Burkina Faso, the majority of whom are French.
Most of Burkina Faso's population is concentrated in the south and center of the country, with a population density sometimes exceeding 48 inhabitants per square kilometer (120 inhabitants per square mile). This population density, high for Africa, causes annual migrations of hundreds of thousands of Burkinabé to Ivory Coast and Ghana for seasonal agricultural work. About a third of Burkinabé adhere to traditional African religions. The introduction of Islam to Burkina Faso was initially resisted by the Mossi rulers. Christians, predominantly Roman Catholics, are largely concentrated among the urban elite.
Few Burkinabé have had formal education. Schooling is free but not compulsory, and only about 29% of Burkina's primary school-age children receive a basic education. The University of Ouagadougou, founded in 1974, was the country's first institution of higher education. The Polytechnic University of Bobo-Dioulasso in Bobo-Dioulasso was opened in 1995.
According to the United Nations' Population Division, the population was 20,903,000 in 2020, compared to only 4,284,000 in 1950.[1] The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2020 was 44.4%, 53.2% of the population was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 2.4% was 65 years or older.[1]
Total population
Population aged 0–14 (%)
Population aged 15–64 (%)
Population aged 65+ (%)
1950
4 284 000
40.7
57.3
2.0
1955
4 517 000
41.0
56.9
2.2
1960
4 829 000
41.3
56.3
2.3
1965
5 175 000
42.2
55.2
2.5
1970
5 625 000
43.3
53.9
2.8
1975
6 155 000
44.2
52.8
3.0
1980
6 823 000
45.6
51.2
3.2
1985
7 728 000
46.7
50.0
3.3
1990
8 811 000
47.3
49.5
3.3
1995
10 090 000
47.1
49.8
3.1
2000
11 608 000
46.8
50.5
2.8
2005
13 422 000
46.5
50.9
2.6
2010
15 605 000
46.2
51.3
2.5
2015
18 111 000
45.6
52.0
2.4
2020
20 903 000
44.4
53.2
2.4
Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (1.VII.2021) (Data refer to national projections.):[2]
Age Group
Male
Female
Total
%
Total
10 393 241
11 116 202
21 509 443
100
0–4
1 971 908
1 860 417
3 832 325
17.82
5–9
1 646 122
1 589 070
3 235 192
15.04
10–14
1 367 531
1 390 910
2 758 441
12.82
15–19
1 122 566
1 204 719
2 327 285
10.82
20–24
908 843
1 033 776
1 942 619
9.03
25–29
730 372
884 547
1 614 919
7.51
30–34
588 794
728 172
1 316 966
6.12
35–39
468 316
586 269
1 054 585
4.90
40–44
372 345
466 984
839 329
3.90
45–49
300 835
370 491
671 326
3.12
50–54
248 194
293 790
541 984
2.52
55–59
194 917
224 363
419 280
1.95
60–64
149 409
164 492
313 901
1.46
65-69
112 992
120 551
233 543
1.09
70-74
83 974
84 008
167 982
0.78
75-79
60 706
51 775
112 481
0.52
80+
65 417
61 868
127 285
0.59
Age group
Male
Female
Total
Percent
0–14
4 985 561
4 840 397
9 825 958
45.68
15–64
5 084 591
5 957 603
11 042 194
51.34
65+
323 089
318 202
641 291
2.98
Vital statistics
Registration of vital events is not complete in Burkina Faso. The website Our World in Data prepared the following estimates based on statistics from the Population Department of the United Nations.[3]
Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2022.[11]
One birth every 40 seconds
One death every 3 minutes
One net migrant every 21 minutes
Net gain of one person every 52 seconds
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.[12]
Demographic profile
Burkina Faso has a young age structure – the result of declining mortality combined with steady high fertility – and continues to experience rapid population growth, which is putting increasing pressure on the country's limited arable land. More than 65% of the population is under the age of 25, and the population is growing at 3% annually. Mortality rates, especially those of infants and children, have decreased because of improved health care, hygiene, and sanitation, but women continue to have an average of almost 6 children. Even if fertility were substantially reduced, today's large cohort entering their reproductive years would sustain high population growth for the foreseeable future. Only about a third of the population is literate and unemployment is widespread, dampening the economic prospects of Burkina Faso's large working-age population.[12]
Population
21,935,389 (2022 est.)
21,382,659 (July 2021 est.)
Note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected
Religions
Muslim 63.2%, Roman Catholic 24.6%, Protestant 6.9%, traditional/animist 4.2%, none 0.7%, unspecified 0.4% (2017-18 est.)
4.27 children born/woman (2022 est.) Country comparison to the world: 22nd
4.39 children born/woman (2021 est.) Country comparison to the world: 18th
Contraceptive prevalence rate
30.1% (2020)
32.5% (2018/19)
Urbanization
urban population: 31.9% of total population (2022)
rate of urbanization: 4.75% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
Urban population: 30.6% of total population (2020)
Rate of urbanization: 4.99% annual rate of change (2015-20 est.)
Sex ratio
At birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
0-14 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
15-24 years: 1.00 male(s)/female
25-54 years: 0.87 male(s)/female
55-64 years: 0.76 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female
Total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2020 est.)
A girl from Burkina Faso
Life expectancy at birth
Life expectancy development in Burkina Faso
total population: 63.44 years
male: 61.63 years
female: 65.31 years (2022 est.)
Total population: 63.06 years
Male: 61.28 years
Female: 64.89 years (2021 est.)
HIV/AIDS
Adult prevalence rate: 0.8% (2019 est.) County comparison to the world: 51st
People living with HIV/AIDS: 100,000 (2019 est.) Country comparison to the world: 44th
Deaths: 3,100 (2019 est.) Country comparison to the world: 33rd
Major infectious diseases
degree of risk: very high (2020)
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria
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; Burkina Faso is currently considered a high risk to travelers for polio; 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
In 2018, an estimated 82,000 people in the country were living under "modern slavery" according to the Global Slavery Index.[14] News reports also indicate that "most child slaves on cocoa farms (Ivory Coast and Ghana) come from Mali and Burkina Faso, two of the poorest nations on Earth. The children, some as young as ten, are sent by their families or trafficked by agents with the promise of money. They are made to work long hours for little or no money."[15]
