The population of Bulawayo province slightly increased from 650 000 recorded in the 2012 national census, to 665,952 in 2022.

This was according to the 2022 Population and Housing Census Results for Bulawayo province released by Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStats) on Wednesday.

The 2022 census was the fifth the country has conducted since independence in 1980, and collected information on many other aspects of the population such as disability, and home ownership.

The overall national population, according to the 2022 census, increased by 16,2 percent to 15.1 million from 13 million in the last count.

ZimStats director of demography and social statistics, Aluwusiso Mukavhi said of Bulawayo’s population, 307,871 were males – representing 46.2 percent – and females stood at 358,081, constituting 53.8 percent.

The population with registered births was 91.3 percent, while 7.9 percent of births were not registered and 0.8 percent had unknown registration status.

“The population which had ever acquired a national identity was 92.0 percent, while 7.5 percent never acquired and 0.5 had unknown status,” Mukavhi said.

He said the census had also established that 99.6 percent of the population of Bulawayo province were Zimbabweans, while 0.4 percent were citizens of other countries.

In terms of religion, he said Christians constituted 88.0 percent of the population in the province.

“The population which did not identify with any religion was 7.8 percent. With respect to Christianity, 24.9 percent were Pentecostal.

The African tradition constituted 2.4 percent, Roman Catholic 8.5 %, Protestants 20.2%, Apostolic sect 21.2%, Islam 0,3% and other Christians 13.2%,” Mukavhi said.

On marital status, he said of the population aged 15 and above, 43.9 percent were married while 43.5 were never married and the types of marriage include civil, customary registered and unregistered.

Disability prevalence in the province stood at was 1.4 percent, the census found.

New Ziana