BBC News – Africa’s under-18 population will swell by two-thirds to reach almost a billion by 2050, a new UN report says.
The findings show a “massive shift in the world’s child population towards Africa”, it says.
Its projections indicate that by 2050, about 40% of all children will be in Africa, up from around 10% in 1950.
This is despite the fact that child mortality rates in Africa will remain high, it says.
The continent currently accounts for about half of child mortality globally and the proportion could rise to around 70% per cent by 2050, according to the Generation 2030/Africa Report released by Unicef, the UN’s child agency.
‘Seismic demographic shifts’
However, high fertility rates and rising numbers of women of reproductive age mean that over the next 35 years, almost two billion babies will be born in Africa and the continent’s population will double in size, the report says.
“The seismic demographic shifts that Africa’s child population will experience are among the most important questions facing the continent, and indeed vital issues for the world,” it adds.
Special attention should be given to Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, as it already has the greatest number of births on the continent and will account for almost one in 10 births globally by 2050, the report says.
