Tanzania - Geographic Information:

At 947,300 km², Tanzania is the world's 31st-largest country. Compared to other African countries, it is slightly smaller than Egypt and comparable in size to Nigeria. It lies mostly between latitudes 1° and 12°S, and longitudes 29° and 41°E.

Tanzania is mountainous in the northeast, where Mount Kilimanjaro Africa's highest peak, is situated. To the north and west are the Great Lakes of Lake Victoria (Africa's largest lake) and Lake Tanganyika (Africa's deepest lake, known for its unique species of fish). Central Tanzania comprises a large plateau, with plains and arable land. The eastern shore is hot and humid, with the island of Zanzibar lying just offshore.

Tanzania contains many large and ecologically significant wildlife parks, including the famous Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti National Park in the north, and Selous Game Reserve and Mikumi National Park in the south. Gombe National Park in the west is known as the site of Dr. Jane Goodall's studies of chimpanzee behaviour.

Population:

As of 2006, the estimated population is 38,329,000, with an estimated growth rate of 2 percent. Population distribution is extremely uneven, with density varying from 1 person per square kilometre (3/mi²) in arid regions to 51 per square kilometre (133/mi²) in the mainland's well-watered highlands, to 134 per square kilometre (347/mi²) on Zanzibar. More than 80 percent of the population is rural. Dar es Salaam is the largest city and is the commercial capital; Dodoma, located in the centre of Tanzania is the new capital and houses the Union's Parliament.

The African population consists of more than 120 ethnic groups, of which the Sukuma, the Nyamwezi, the Chagga, the Nyakyusa, the Haya, the Hehe, the Bena, the Gogo and the Makonde all have more than 1 million members. Other groups include the Pare, Zigua, Shambaa and Ngoni. The majority of Tanzanians, including such large ethnic groups as the Sukuma and the Nyamwezi, have Bantu origins. Groups of Nilotic or related origin include the nomadic Maasai and the Luo, both of which are found in greater numbers in neighbouring Kenya. The Sandawe and Hadza speak languages of the Khoisan family peculiar to the people of the Kalahari in southern Africa.

Religion:

Tanzania's population has been estimated to consist of roughly : – Christian 65%, Muslim 32%, followers of indigenous religious groups 3%. The CIA World Factbook however states that 40% of the population is Christian with Muslim being 35% and indigenous beliefs 25%.

The national census, however, has not asked for religious affiliation since 1967 as the religious balance is seen as a sensitive topic. As Tanzanians pride themselves on living together with their diversity, the use of a statistic that is conveniently equal is seen as avoiding rivalries between the various religious groups by not identifying the majority. All figures on religious statistics for Tanzania are at best educated guesswork and differ widely on the question whether there are more Christians or Muslims. Most assume that the share of traditionalists has dwindled.

The Christian population is mostly composed of Orthodox and Roman Catholic. Among Protestants the strong numbers of Lutherans and Moravians point to the German past of the country, the numbers of Anglicans to the British history of Tanganyika. All of them have had some influence in varying degrees from the Walokole movement (East African Revival) which has also been fertile ground for the spread of charismatic and Pentecostal groups.

Zanzibar is about 97 percent Muslim. On the mainland, Muslim communities are concentrated in coastal areas, with some large Muslim majorities also in inland urban areas especially and along the former caravan routes. A large majority of the Muslim population is Sunni. The Islamic population of Dar es Salaam, the largest and most richest city in Tanzania, is composed of mainly Shia Muslims.

There are also active communities of other religious groups, primarily on the mainland, such as Buddhists, Hindus, and Baha'is.

Rural poverty in Tanzania:

Rural poverty in the country has been halved in the period from 1985 to 2001. At present about 38 per cent of people living in rural areas are classified as poor. This progress is reflected in the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index for Tanzania, which rose from 0.3 in 1991 to 0.4 in 2002. Nevertheless, poverty is still widespread and acute, and is generally a rural phenomenon: about 85 per cent of the country's poor people live in rural areas and rely on agriculture as their main source of income and livelihood. According to the Household Survey of 2000/01, some 20 per cent of rural people live in extreme poverty and about 39 per cent are considered poor. Within the agriculture sector, food crop producers are generally poorer than cash crop farmers, but both operate under cyclical and structural constraints, are subject to frequent natural calamities (drought and flooding), and lack market linkages, inputs, credit and irrigation water. Income inequality for rural areas has remained more or less constant and is rooted in inequitable access to productive assets, including land, financial services, livestock and education. According to a poverty profile survey of rural households, the percentage of the rural population producing food for home consumption has dropped by 10 per cent in the last decade. Few rural households have access to safe drinking water, primary education and medical treatment. There is also clear evidence that poverty increases with the distance from markets, drinking water supplies and health clinics.

Incidence of poverty:

The incidence of poverty varies greatly across the country but is highest among rural families living in arid and semi-arid regions that depend exclusively on livestock and food crop production. The people of the central and northern highlands are nutritionally the most deficient, while the coastal and southern highlands zones register the severest levels of poverty. From the point of view of policy and strategy design, no region is significantly better-off than the other, and all are very poor by any international standard.

Education:

The literacy rate in Tanzania is estimated to be 72%. Education is compulsory for seven years, until children reach the age of 15 years, but most children do not attend school until this age, and some do not attend at all. In 2000, 57% of children age 5–14 years were attending school. As of 2006, 87.2% of children who started primary school were likely to reach grade 5.

Health:

The under-five mortality rate in 2006 was 118 out of 1,000. Life expectancy at birth in 2006 was 50 years. The 15–60 year old adult mortality rate in 2006 was 518 out of 1,000 males and 493 out of 1,000 females.[39]

The leading cause of death in children who survive the neonatal period is malaria. For adults, it is HIV/AIDS. Anti-retroviral treatment coverage for people with advanced HIV infection in 2006 was 14 percent. Other leading causes of death in under 5’s is pneumococcal disease (pneumonia) and rotavirus (diarrhoea).

2006 data show that 55 percent of the population had sustainable access to improved drinking water sources and 33 percent had sustainable access to improved sanitation.