This article is about the demographic features of the population of Burkina Faso, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
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 total 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 (01.VII.2020):[2]
Age Group
Male
Female
Total
%
Total
10 395 600
11 114 300
21 509 900
100
0–4
1 916 600
1 833 000
3 749 600
17.43
5–9
1 685 500
1 608 400
3 293 900
15.31
10–14
1 488 200
1 405 100
2 893 300
13.45
15–19
1 252 400
1 197 500
2 449 900
11.39
20–24
948 200
1 001 000
1 949 200
9.06
25–29
689 300
815 200
1 504 500
6.99
30–34
514 400
729 300
1 243 700
5.78
35–39
405 000
592 100
997 100
4.64
40–44
360 300
494 400
854 700
3.97
45–49
285 100
367 300
652 400
3.03
50–54
240 500
314 300
554 800
2.58
55–59
185 700
236 300
422 000
1.97
60–64
145 800
189 000
334 800
1.56
65-69
106 300
125 800
232 100
1.08
70-74
81 100
97 900
179 000
0.83
75-79
48 100
55 800
103 900
0.48
80+
43 100
51 900
95 000
0.44
Age group
Male
Female
Total
Percent
0–14
5 090 300
4 846 500
9 936 800
46.20
15–64
5 026 700
5 936 400
10 963 100
50.97
65+
278 600
331 400
610 000
2.84
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]
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the 
