Angola Country Overview
Where is Angola located? Angola, or officially ‘Republic of Angola’, is a country located in southwest Africa. On the time zone map, which divides the world into time zones according to the extent of the time difference from world time, Angola is in the same time zone despite the great physical distance. This means that both deviate by one hour from the coordinated world time, which is also called UTC internationally. One difference to European countries, however, is that there is no daylight saving time change in Angola.
Population Distribution
As of 2023, the latest population of Angola is 32,522,339, based on our calculation of the current data from UN (United Nations).
| Total population | 32,522,339 |
| Population growth rate | 3.43% |
| Birth rate | 44.20 births per 1,000 people |
| Life expectancy | |
| Overall life expectancy | 54.95 years |
| Men life expectancy | 53.83 years |
| Women life expectancy | 56.11 years |
| Age structure | |
| 0-14 years | 48.07% |
| 15-64 years | 49.60% |
| 65 years and above | 2.32% |
| Median age | 18.00 years |
| Gender ratio (Male to Female) | 1.02 |
| Population density | 26.09 residents per km² |
| Urbanization | 35.70% |
| Ethnicities | |
| approx. 90 ethnic groups (especially Bantu): 38% Ovimbundu / Umbundu, 23% Mbundu / Kimbundu, 12% Bakongo / Kikongo; Luimbe-Nganguela, Humbe, Chokwe, Lunda, Ambo / Ovambo, Naneka, San and others | |
| Religions | |
| Indigenous religions 47%; Catholics (Roman Catholic) 38%; Protestants 15% | |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | 0.574 |
| HDI ranking | 149th out of 194 |
People in Angola
Almost 30 million people live in Angola and the number is steadily increasing. The capital Luanda, in particular, continues to expand. A total of 100 ethnic groups live in Angola, most of them belonging to the Bantu peoples. 37 out of 100 are Ovimbundu, 25 out of 100 are Kimbundu and 13 out of 100 are Bakongo.
While the Ovimbundu are mainly found on the plateau and the coast, the Kimbundu have settled near the capital. But there are many other ethnic groups, of which only the Chokwe (also Lunda), Ganguela or the Herero are mentioned. Only a few Europeans still live in Angola, only one resident in 100 is originally from Europe and most of these are Portuguese.
Languages in Angola
The official language of Angola is Portuguese. Angola was once a Portuguese colony. Around 30 out of 100 people speak Portuguese as their mother tongue, so they will learn this language as the first language in their lives. Portuguese is particularly widespread in the capital.
But people still speak their own languages as well. These are mostly Bantu languages. This also includes Umbundu, who mainly speaks the Ovimbundu ethnic group. The Bakongo language is called Kikongo. Especially in northern Angola, the people speak the Kimbundu language. It is spoken by the Ambundu ethnic group.
Religions in Angola
A little more than half of the people profess the Christian faith and a little less than half live their traditional African faith. However, as is often the case in Africa, the religions can mix. In total there are more than 1000 religious communities in Angola.