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The 'demographics of Angola' consist of three main ethnic groups, each speaking a Bantu language: Ovimbundu 37%, Mbundu 25%, and Bakongo 13%. Other groups include Chokwe (or Lunda), Ganguela, Nhaneca-Humbe, Ambo, Herero, and Xindunga. In addition, mixed race (European and African) people amount to about 2%, with a small (1%) population of whites, mainly ethnically Portuguese. Portuguese make up the largest non-African population, with at about 40,000 (though many native-born Angolans can claim Portuguese nationality under Portuguese law). In 1975, 250,000 Cuban soldiers arrived in Angola to help the MPLA forces during the civil war. Some Cubans are of European and Asian (mostly Chinese) descent but throughout Cuba a strong African and mulatto component exists, whose ancestors are mostly Congo/Angolan. In 1989, the majority of Cubans departed the country after a peace agreement was signed between Angola, Cuba, and South Africa. The remaining 100,000 Cubans speak the Spanish language, but almost none of their descendants have maintained it. The country has also Chinese minority, including Macanese people of mixed Portuguese and Chinese blood from Macau. Blacks from other African countries (mostly Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal) migrated to Angola. Portuguese is both the official and predominant language, 60% of them — including Cubans, white Portuguese, and mestiços — speak it as their first language. 40% of Angolans, including Afrikaners and the remainder (blacks), speak Afrikaans and Bantu languages [most spoken of these are Umbundu, Kimbundu, and Kikongo] as their first languages. Blacks from Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal speak English, French, and their native African languages aside from Portuguese. Many educated Angolans can speak English as a second or third language. It has been the most popular language to learn. Christianity is officially the most claimed religion of Angola. The largest denomination of this is Roman Catholicism, but there are also followers of Protestantism, and African Initiated Churches most of them are Bantus and some Portuguese. As of 2006, one out of 221 people were Jehovah's Witnesses. Blacks from Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal are mostly Muslims. The rest of Angolans retain all or in part traditional animist practices following different ethnic faiths.
The great majority of the inhabitants are of Bantu cultural origins. In the south-east are various tribes of Bushmen. The best-known of the Bantu-Negro tribes are the Ba-Kongo (Ba-Fioti), who dwell chiefly in the north, and the Abunda (Mbunda, Ba-Bundo), who occupy the central part of the province, which takes its name from the Ngola, the title of the kings of the Mbundu peoples. Another of these ethnic groups, the Bangala, living on the west bank of the upper Kwango, must not be confounded with the Bangala of the middle Congo. The Ba-Lunda inhabit the Lunda district. Along the upper Kunene and in other districts of the plateau are settlements of Boers, the Boer population being about 2000. In the coast towns the majority of the white inhabitants are Portuguese. The Mushi-Kongo and other divisions of the Ba-Kongo retain curious traces of the Christianity professed by them in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and possibly later. Crucifixes are used as potent charms or as symbols of power passing down from chief to chief; whilse most have a "Santu" or Christian name and is dubbed dom or dona. African Traditional Religion is the prevailing faith throughout the province. The residences of the population are usually small huts of traditional construction, used chiefly as sleeping apartments; the day is spent in an open space in front of the hut protected from the sun by a roof of palm or other leaves.

Contents

Demographic data from the CIA World Factbook

Population

Age structure

Median age

Population growth rate

Birth rate

Death rate

Net migration rate

Sex ratio

Infant mortality rate

Life expectancy at birth

Total fertility rate

HIV/AIDS

Major infectious diseases

Nationality

Ethnic groups

Religions

Languages

Literacy

References

Demographic data from the CIA World Factbook

Population

:12,127,071 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure

:0-14 years: 43.7% (male 2,678,185/female 2,625,933)
:15-64 years: 53.5% (male 3,291,954/female 3,195,688)
:65 years and over: 2.8% (male 148,944/female 186,367) (2006 est.)

Median age

:Total: 18 years
:Male: 18 years
:Female: 18 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate

:2.45% (2006 est.)

Birth rate

:45.11 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate

:24.2 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate

:3.55 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio

:At birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
:Under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
:15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
:65 years and over: 0.8 male(s)/female
:Total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate

:Total: 185.36 deaths/1,000 live births
:Male: 197.56 deaths/1,000 live births
:Female: 172.54 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

:Total population: 38.62 years
:Male: 37.47 years
:Female: 39.83 years (2006 est.)

Total fertility rate

:6.35 children born/woman (2006 est.)

HIV/AIDS

:Adult prevalence rate: 3.9% (2003 est.)
:People living with HIV/AIDS: 240,000 (2003 est.)
:Deaths: 21,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases

:Degree of risk: very high
:Food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever
:Vectorborne diseases: malaria, African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) are high risks in some locations
:Respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis
:Water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Nationality

:Noun: Angolan(s)
:Adjective: Angolan

Ethnic groups

:Ovimbundu 37%, Kimbundu 25%, Bakongo 13%, mestiço (mixed European and native African) 2%, European (entirely Portuguese) 1%, other 22%

Religions

: Christian 53% (Roman Catholic 38%, Protestant 15%), Indigenous beliefs 46.8%, Buddhist 0.2% (2006 est.)

Languages

:Portuguese (official), Bantu and other African languages

Literacy

:Definition: age 15 and over can read and write
:Total population: 66.8%
:Male: 82.1%
:Female: 53.8% (2001 est.)

References

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★ 2003