What is the current human population census of the entire African continent?

Question

It seems that, in some parts of this contient, no real census has been undertaken for over a decade, so any numbers will only relate to part of the continent. A massive UN-led campaign for housing and population census-taking in 2010 is underway (http://www.afro.com/children/discover/discover.html_ that:

"Africa is so large that a full population census has never been made. Estimates say that the continent and its nearby islands may be home to as many as 748 million people." I doubt that this has the kind of statistical certainty that I need for my work in population at the Harvard Medical School, Department of Social Medicine.

Answer 1

"add all [the] other countries['] populations outside [of] Africa, and then sub*tract [this from] the total population amount of the planet"



PS don't forget about those guys on the international space station, that will be important in a precise calculation like this one being proposed!

That is about the most inefficient and incorrect way that I could even conceive of estimating the African population!

Alternatively, can you find information on birth rates?  You could extrapolate the contemporary population of each country from the most recent census, although I have no idea how to figure out the death rates as this statistic is not usually kept as well.  

Or, you could take the information from the more organized countries that have conducted many census over time and then if these countries have seen similarities in their growth then extrapolate an average growth rate and apply it to the countries that have out of date census information.  If the reliable countries show regional discrepancies then you could determine regional average growth rates and apply these rates to their neighbours.  Any of these ideas help?

Answer 2

the population of africa should be greater than india [1200million] considering area per person africa should have a population of 1650million

Answer 3

I estimate 840 million.

Answer 4

As you say, no real census has taken place for a while, for the good reason, that many african countries are in conflict or have internal struggles. This social instability cause a lot of population movements, which complicate things even more!

Your best bet, should be to add all other countries populations outside Africa, and then substract the total population amount of the planet, know at this moment... It will be as much scientific as you can get in this situation...

Also, if you think population census are not politized, then ask yourself how many Chinese live in China, and if you say 1.3billion, is that you miss the point...

Answer 5

Yeah considering its Africa..

and we all **** on the place anyways,

who cares?

p.s. dont count those broken down dell pcs as a person,

thats my old laptop on the shore!!

Answer 6

Dear Veggie,

   I know what you are going through, been there done that. I have an answer for you, although you may not like it. First, you need a complete list of the countries in Africa imported in to Excel, StatView, or what ever program you are using. Then you can annotate each entry with the estimates given by none other than the US Government (trust them at your own risk, but its easy to back up on during a thesis defense). Subtotal your numbers at the end and you have anyone's best estimation of Africa's population.  You would spend a lifetime trying to account for transient populations and gov't abandoned areas. I would footnote these flaws straight away. Its much easier to admit the flaw up front than to try and recover from being called to the carpet during your defense.

Good Luck!