Botswana Population

Traffic circulates on the left in Botswana, as elsewhere in the region.  While the roads in major population centers in Botswana are generally good, travel by automobile outside of large towns may be dangerous.  The combination of long, tedious stretches of two-lane highways, high speed limits, and poor lighting make driving at night on rural highways particularly hazardous.  Free-range domestic animals and large numbers of pedestrians and hitchhikers in the roadways make fatal accidents a frequent occurrence.  Traumatic injury is the second major cause of death in Botswana; motor vehicle accidents take the lead.  ... [Read More]

Botswana (07/05)

Annual population growth rate (2002): 0.6%. ...

More than one-half of the population lives in rural areas and is largely dependent on subsistence crop and livestock farming. Agriculture meets only a small portion of food needs and contributes a very small amount to GDP--primarily through beef exports--but it remains a social and cultural touchstone. Cattle raising in particular dominated Botswana's social and economic life before independence. The national herd is estimated between 2 and 3 million head. ... [Read More]

Botswana

The San, who now chiefly inhabit the Kalahari Desert, are the earliest known inhabitants of the country. They were linguistically, culturally, and often morphologically distinct from the rest of the population; however, they were not a homogenous group. The San remained economically and politically marginalized, have lost access to their traditional land in fertile regions of the country, and were vulnerable to exploitation by their non-San neighbors. Their isolation, ignorance of civil rights, and lack of political representation have stymied their progress. The estimated 52,000 to 65,000 San represented approximately 3 percent of the country's population. Although the San traditionally were hunter-gatherers, most employed San worked as agricultural laborers on cattle ranches that belonged to other ethnic groups. During the year, a substantial proportion of the San resided in government-created Remote Area Dweller settlements and subsisted on government social welfare benefits. ... [Read More]

Botswana

The country has a total area of 227,344 square miles, and its population is 1.67 million. Approximately half of the country's citizens identify themselves as Christians. Anglicans, Methodists, and the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa-–formerly the London Missionary Society–-claim the majority of Christian adherents. There also are congregations of Lutherans, Roman Catholics, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptists, the Dutch Reformed Church, Mennonites, and other Christian denominations. Most other citizens adhere to traditional indigenous religions or to a mixture of religions. In recent years, the number of new churches, some of West African origin, has increased; these churches have begun holding services and drawing good-sized crowds with a charismatic blend of Christianity and traditional indigenous religions. There is a small Muslim community--approximately 23,000 practitioners, a littl ... [Read More]

Press Invitation to Water Conservation Program at U.S. Embassy on April 21 - "Gaborone Botswana"

Since 2000, Bennett has overseen the SNWA's conservation and drought management programs for a population of approximately 1.7 million people in the greater Las Vegas Metropolitan area. Las Vegas is the driest major city in North America, with only 4 inches of rainfall annually. For the past two decades, the region has also held the distinction of being one of the fastest growing urban populations in the United States. Las Vegas is also a unique tourist destination that attracts more than 40 million visitors annually. ... [Read More]

Botswana

The Prisons Act grants relatives, lawyers, magistrates, and church organizations the right to visit prisoners for "rehabilitative purposes;" however, the Commissioner of Prisons has the authority to decide whether domestic and international human rights organizations may visit. Independent monitoring of prison conditions by human rights groups, the media, or the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) generally was allowed if these organizations sought permission from the Commissioner of Prisons; however, sometimes permission was denied. The BCHR was denied access to visit Lehlohonolo Bernard Kobedi, a Lesotho national sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer, following the organization's criticism of the executions of four convicted murderers (see Section 1.a.). The ICRC visited some prisons in September. d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile The Constitution prohibits arbitrary arrest and ... [Read More]

US Department Of State Post Report

Botswana’s population is estimated at 1.7 million, and is growing at 2.3 percent per annum according to government figures in the 2000 Annual Economic Report. This number is subject to significant revision, however, given the dramatic change in population growth rates due to HIV/AIDS. Approximately 35.4 percent of Batswana adults are HIV positive and life expectancy has dropped from 67 to 39 years of age. A 2001 population projection indicated that although Botswana’s population would continue to grow, it would be up to 29% smaller than it would be without AIDS. ... [Read More]

Department of State Washington File: Text: Population Reference Bureau Projects 21st Century Trends

"Currently, of the 83 million people added to global population each year by the difference between births and deaths, only 1 million are in the industrialized countries," said PRB demographers Carl Haub and Diana Cornelius, who prepared the Data Sheet. "The result will be a very different world in terms of population. In 1950, there were twice as many people in the less developed countries. By 2050, that difference could be almost six to one. The developing world's population is projected to increase by 2.9 billion by 2050, compared with only 49 million in the more developed countries. Population growth this century will depend on how quickly, or how slowly, birth rates decline in the areas of the world where we have seen either no decline or moderate decline." (See table below, "World's Largest Countries, 2001 and 2025.") ... [Read More]

Department of State Washington File: Text: Global Population Estimates Reduced Because of HIV/AIDS

The increasing diversity of population dynamics among the countries and regions of the world is evident in the results of the 2002 Revision. Whereas today the population of the more developed regions of the world is rising at an annual rate of 0.25 per cent, that of the less developed regions is increasing nearly six times as fast, at 1.46 per cent, and the subset of the 49 least developed countries is experiencing even more rapid population growth (2.4 per cent per year). Such differences, although somewhat dampened, will persist until 2050. By that time, the population of the more developed regions will have been declining for 20 years, whereas the population of the less developed regions will still be rising at an annual rate of 0.4 per cent. More importantly, the population of the least developed countries will likely be rising at a robust annual rate of over 1.2 per cent in 2045-2050. ... [Read More]

Department of State Washington File: Text: U.N. Press Release on New Global Population Projections

In more developed regions, the population aged 60 or over currently constitutes about 20 per cent of the population; by 2050, it will account for 33 per cent of the population. The elderly population has already surpassed the child population (persons aged 0-14) and by 2050, there will be two elderly persons for every child. In the less developed regions, the proportion of the population aged 60 or over will rise from 8 per cent in 2000 to close to 20 per cent in 2050. ... [Read More]