Tanzania

Within a landscape that incorporates the Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, Zanzibar, and Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania is also remarkable for the peaceful co-existence of 120 tribes, resulting in a unique blend of all aspects of life from food to language to tradition. Undergirding all of the cultural varieties found in Tanzania is an incredible religious dynamism and spiritual energy. Approximately 30% of the Tanzanian population identifies as Catholic, making Catholicism the most prominent Christian religion practiced in the country. Catholics coexist and at times compete with their religious brethren from a variety of Christian traditions, including historic Lutheran and Anglican mission churches as well as burgeoning Pentecostal churches. Catholics also practice their faith in the midst of a large number of other believers; Tanzania has some of the largest populations of Muslims and practitioners of traditional religion in East Africa. Read more...

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Demographics

National Demographics

Total Population:

59,091,392 1

Urban:

33.80% 1

Rural:

66.20% 1

Immigrants as % of Population:

0.5% 2

Homicides:

7.01 per 100,000 people (global median 6.9) 3

Level of Public Corruption:

116 (1=lowest, 176=highest corruption) 4

Gender Equality in the Economy, Health, Education and Politics:

53 (1=most equal, 144=least equal) 7

Fertility Rate:

5.08 births per adult woman 5

Children Who Do Not Live to Age 5:

4.90% 5

Life Expectancy at Birth:

66 years 5

Adult Literacy Rate:

67.80% 5

Internet Users:

5% 5

Gross National Income per Capita:

US$920 5

Population Living Below US$1.90 per Day:

46.6% 5

Catholic Demographics

These statistics are derived from the Vatican's official publication, Statistical Yearbook of the Church 2020 (Vatican City: Librera Editrice Vaticana, 2022). The numbers may differ from data reported by other sources on this site.

Baptized Catholics:

17,528,000

Baptized Catholics as % of Total Population:

30.41%

Baptisms per Year (Under age 7):

252,872

Baptisms per Year (Over age 7):

110,379

First Communions per Year:

214,306

Confirmations per Year:

149,967

Students Enrolled in Catholic Primary Schools:

322,866

Students Enrolled in Catholic Secondary Schools:

127,267

Students Enrolled in Catholic Higher Education:

66,204

Church Marriages per Year:

35,225

Church Marriages in Which Both Spouses are Catholics:

32,413

Priests:

3,105

Women Religious (Nuns & Sisters):

12,730

Catholics per Priest:

5,645

Parishes:

1,251

Mission Stations (no resident priests):

4,715

Catholic Hospitals:

Homes for Aged, Handicapped, Invalids:

1. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2018). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision, Online Edition.
2.United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Trends in International Migrant Stock: The 2015 revision.
3.United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, Homicide Statistics 2015.
4.Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index 2016.
5.UNICEF, State of the World's Children, 2016.
6. Statistical Yearbook of the Church 2020 (Vatican City: Librera Editrice Vaticana, 2022).
7.World Economic Forum, The Global Gender Gap Report, 2016.

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