Demographics of Chad, Data of Our World in Data, year 2022; Number of inhabitants in millions.
The people of Chad speak more than 100 languages and divide themselves into many ethnic groups. However, language and ethnicity are not the same. Moreover, neither element can be tied to a particular physical type.[1]
Although the possession of a common language shows that its speakers have lived together and have a common history, peoples also change languages. This is particularly so in Chad, where the openness of the terrain, marginal rainfall, frequent drought and famine, and low population densities have encouraged physical and linguistic mobility. Slave raids among[specify] non-Muslim peoples, internal slave trade, and exports of captives northward from the ninth to the twentieth centuries also have resulted in language changes.
Anthropologists view ethnicity as being more than genetics. Like language, ethnicity implies a shared heritage, partly economic, where people of the same ethnic group may share a livelihood, and partly social, taking the form of shared ways of doing things and organizing relations among individuals and groups. Ethnicity also involves a cultural component made up of shared values and a common worldview. Like language, ethnicity is not immutable. Shared ways of doing things change over time and alter a group's perception of its own identity.
Not only do the social aspects of ethnic identity change but the biological composition (or gene pool) also may change over time. Although most ethnic groups emphasize intermarriage, people are often proscribed from seeking partners among close relatives—a prohibition that promotes biological variation. In all groups, the departure of some individuals or groups and the integration of others also changes the biological component.
The Chadian government has avoided official recognition of ethnicity. With the exception of a few surveys conducted shortly after independence, little data were available on this important aspect of Chadian society. Nonetheless, ethnic identity was a significant component of life in Chad.
Chad's languages fall into ten major groups, each of which belongs to either the
Nilo-Saharan, Afro-Asiatic, or Niger–Congo language family. These represent three of the four major language families in Africa; only the Khoisan languages of southern Africa are not represented. The presence of such different languages suggests that the Lake Chad Basin may have been an important point of dispersal in ancient times.
Population
A tribal delegation in ChadPeople of Chad
According to the 2022 revision of the World Population Prospects[3][4] the total population was 17,179,740 in 2021, compared to only 2 429 000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 45.4%, 51.7% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 2.9% was 65 years or the country is projected to have a population of 34 millions peoples in 2050 and 61 millions peoples in 2100
.[5]
Year
Total population
Population percentage in age bracket
aged 0–14
aged 15–64
aged 65+
1950
2 429 000
37.8%
57.8%
4.4%
1955
2 671 000
39.1%
56.8%
4.1%
1960
2 954 000
40.3%
55.9%
3.8%
1965
3 289 000
41.5%
54.7%
3.8%
1970
3 656 000
42.0%
54.2%
3.8%
1975
4 114 000
42.8%
53.4%
3.8%
1980
4 554 000
44.0%
52.3%
3.7%
1985
5 151 000
45.2%
51.2%
3.6%
1990
6 011 000
45.8%
50.7%
3.5%
1995
6 998 000
45.9%
50.8%
3.3%
2000
8 222 000
45.9%
51.0%
3.1%
2005
9 786 000
45.8%
51.2%
3.0%
2010
11 227 000
45.4%
51.7%
2.9%
Population by Sex and Age Group (Census 20.V.2009):[6]
Age Group
Male
Female
Total
%
Total
5 452 483
5 587 390
11 039 873
100
0–4
1 129 693
1 100 985
2 230 678
20.21
5–9
1 012 471
987 297
1 999 768
18.11
10–14
700 015
650 633
1 350 648
12.23
15–19
502 894
557 494
1 060 388
9.61
20–24
382 122
482 768
864 890
7.83
25–29
320 063
433 622
753 685
6.83
30–34
277 322
335 402
612 724
5.55
35–39
241 971
260 515
502 485
4.55
40–44
215 887
214 181
430 068
3.90
45–49
163 952
139 357
303 308
2.75
50–54
147 725
133 019
280 744
2.54
55–59
84 938
62 817
147 755
1.34
60–64
92 696
85 024
177 720
1.61
65–69
48 054
37 398
85 452
0.77
70–74
56 059
49 289
105 348
0.95
75–79
24 148
17 371
41 518
0.38
80–84
24 947
21 486
46 433
0.42
85–89
9 086
5 833
14 919
0.14
90–94
6 852
5 465
12 317
0.11
95–99
5 113
3 609
8 722
0.08
100+
1 323
1 200
2 523
0.02
Age group
Male
Female
Total
Percent
0–14
2 842 179
2 738 915
5 581 094
50.55
15–64
2 429 569
2 704 199
5 133 768
46.50
65+
175 582
141 651
317 233
2.87
Unknown
5 153
2 625
7 778
0.07
Vital statistics
Registration of vital events is in Chad not complete. The Population Departement of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.
The separation of religion from social structure in Chad represents a false dichotomy, for they are perceived as two sides of the same coin. Three religious traditions coexist in Chad- classical African religions, Islam, and Christianity. None is monolithic. The first tradition includes a variety of ancestor and/or place-oriented religions whose expression is highly specific. Islam, although characterized by an orthodox set of beliefs and observances, also is expressed in diverse ways. Christianity arrived in Chad much more recently with the arrival of Europeans. Its followers are divided into Roman Catholics and Protestants (including several denominations); as with Chadian Islam, Chadian Christianity retains aspects of pre-Christian religious belief.
The number of followers of each tradition in Chad is unknown. Estimates made in 1962 suggested that 35 percent of Chadians practiced classical African religions, 55 percent were Muslims, and 10 percent were Christians. In the 1970s and 1980s, this distribution undoubtedly changed. Observers report that Islam has spread among the Hadjarai peoples and other non-Muslim populations of the Saharan and sahelian zones. However, the proportion of Muslims may have fallen, because the birthrate among the followers of traditional religions and Christians in southern Chad is thought to be higher than that among Muslims. In addition, the upheavals since the mid-1970s have resulted in the departure of some missionaries; whether or not Chadian Christians have been numerous enough and sufficiently organized to attract more converts since that time is unknown.
urban population: 24.1% of total population (2022)
rate of urbanization: 4.1% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
urban population: 23.1% of total population (2018)
rate of urbanization: 3.88% annual rate of change (2015-20 est.)
Sex ratio
At birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
Under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
15–64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.66 male(s)/female
Total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)
Life expectancy at birth
total population: 59.15 years. Country comparison to the world: 222nd
male: 57.32 years
female: 61.06 years (2022 est.)
total population: 57.5 years (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 214th
male: 55.7 years (2018 est.)
female: 59.3 years (2018 est.)
Total population: 50.6 years
Male: 49.4 years
Female: 51.9 years (2017 est.)
HIV/AIDS
Adult prevalence rate: 1.3% (2017 est.)
People living with HIV/AIDS: 110,000(2017 est.)
Deaths: 3,100 (2017 est.)
Children under the age of 5 years underweight
28.8% (2015)
Major infectious diseases
degree of risk: very high (2020)
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: malaria and dengue fever
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; Chad is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; 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
