Bodabodas or motorcycle taxis jostle for space along a street in Kampala City. Many Bodaboda riders are often involved in road crashes and most of the victims are young men
Uganda’s demographic projections are interesting; particularly on population distribution by gender between ages 15-24 years.
Independent News say it is a well-known fact that women in Uganda have always outnumbered men. Yet that reality does not begin at birth.
In fact, there are more male children born at birth than females. “The ratio is 104:100,” says Tim Mugyera, a demographic expert at National Population Council- Uganda.
Yet, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), the agency in charge of official national numbers, the mid-year population projections released on Oct.09 which put the country’s population at 44.2 million have 22,451,000 women (51%) and 21,761,800 men (49%). This implies that there are 97 men for every 100 women in the country or three men fewer for every 100 women.
Up to this point, Uganda’s numbers appear to match the general trend of more boys being born than girls and girls or women somehow overtaking the boys or men later in life.
Dr. Charles Lwanga, a lecturer of population studies at the School of Statistics in Makerere University, attributes the flip in gender of majority population to how males and females cope with life’s challenges.
“As the babies grow, more females tend to survive life’s vagaries than males,” he says.
