Zimbabwe Country Overview
Where is Zimbabwe located? The landlocked country of Zimbabwe, also formerly known as Southern Rhodesia, is located in southern Africa. The state owes its name to the site of ruins known as “Great Zimbabwe”. On the time zone map, Zimbabwe is located in the world time zone of “Central Africa Time”, where there is a standard difference of +2 hours to world time. Even in the summer months there is no further time shift to the world clock, since a time change to summer time is unusual.
Population Distribution
As of 2023, the latest population of Zimbabwe is 14,546,314, based on our calculation of the current data from UN (United Nations).
| Total population | 14,546,314 |
| Population growth rate | 1.87% |
| Birth rate | 34.20 births per 1,000 people |
| Life expectancy | |
| Overall life expectancy | 53.86 years |
| Men life expectancy | 53.79 years |
| Women life expectancy | 53.93 years |
| Age structure | |
| 0-14 years | 38.62% |
| 15-64 years | 56.88% |
| 65 years and above | 4.50% |
| Median age | 20.35 years |
| Gender ratio (Male to Female) | 0.95 |
| Population density | 37.23 residents per km² |
| Urbanization | 34.90% |
| Ethnicities | |
| approx. 77% Schona (Karanga, Zezeru, Manyiku, Korekore), 17% Ndebele, 1.4% white etc. | |
| Religions | |
| Syncretic religions (partly Christian, partly indigenous) 40%; Christians 25% Indigenous believers 24% Muslims and other 1% | |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | 0.563 |
| HDI ranking | 150th out of 194 |
People in Zimbabwe
More than 14.6 million people live in Zimbabwe. Most of the residents belong to two ethnic groups: 70 out of 100 residents are Shona, a Bantu people. Twenty out of 100 are Ndebele, who split off from the Zulu. In the Shona language, “Zimbabwe” means something like “houses made of stone”.
Other smaller ethnic groups that live in Zimbabwe are Chewa, Tonga, Tsonga or Venda. Then there are the whites who came here in the 19th century and stayed in the country after independence. But today they only make up 0.4 percent of the population.
Population growth
By the year 2000, the population of Zimbabwe grew rapidly. This is no longer quite the case. Zimbabwe is one of the countries in which AIDS has spread rapidly. One in five residents of the country is probably affected. Many people die of AIDS, also because they do not have access to modern medicines. In addition, many residents have left the country and gone to South Africa, for example.
Languages in Zimbabwe
In 2013, Zimbabwe changed its constitution and now officially has 16 official languages. Since most of the residents are Shona, their language is the most widely spoken. It is also called Shona and belongs to the Bantu languages. The other ethnic groups in the country each speak their own language. Until 2013, English was the only official language in the country. It is still the language of administration and commerce.
Religions in Zimbabwe
94 out of 100 residents are Christians. Most of them are Protestants. However, there are also many people who live their traditional faith and follow their natural religion, but are also Christians. A few residents are Muslim.