Fertility & birth rates in Namibia and Sierra Leone

Fertility rate in Namibia vs Sierra Leone chart

According to the latest available data on birth rates, the fertility rate in Namibia was 3.21 children per woman in 2023, compared to 3.79 in Sierra Leone in 2023. The replacement level is considered to be 2.1 children per woman.

Check Namibia vs Sierra Leone population clock for a dynamic visualization of the changing population.

The chart below showcases historical changes in the birth rates.

Table

Year	Fertility rate
	Namibia	Sierra Leone
1960	6.24	6.18
1961	6.29	6.21
1962	6.35	6.22
1963	6.41	6.26
1964	6.43	6.29
1965	6.45	6.31
1966	6.47	6.35
1967	6.49	6.38
1968	6.5	6.39
1969	6.51	6.39
1970	6.52	6.41
1971	6.52	6.43
1972	6.53	6.45
1973	6.54	6.47
1974	6.55	6.53
1975	6.53	6.55
1976	6.49	6.55
1977	6.44	6.57
1978	6.38	6.59
1979	6.31	6.58
1980	6.24	6.56
1981	6.16	6.55
1982	6.08	6.56
1983	6	6.57
1984	5.94	6.59
1985	5.88	6.59
1986	5.79	6.6
1987	5.7	6.61
1988	5.61	6.59
1989	5.52	6.57
1990	5.4	6.57
1991	5.29	6.55
1992	5.11	6.56
1993	4.91	6.57
1994	4.68	6.56
1995	4.42	6.56
1996	4.2	6.55
1997	4.17	6.53
1998	4.18	6.5
1999	4.14	6.42
2000	3.99	6.36
2001	3.83	6.31
2002	3.69	6.23
2003	3.58	6.09
2004	3.55	5.92
2005	3.57	5.81
2006	3.6	5.74
2007	3.61	5.64
2008	3.62	5.56
2009	3.63	5.45
2010	3.66	5.33
2011	3.66	5.21
2012	3.68	5.06
2013	3.65	4.87
2014	3.64	4.7
2015	3.6	4.55
2016	3.57	4.47
2017	3.51	4.39
2018	3.46	4.29
2019	3.4	4.19
2020	3.35	4.08
2021	3.3	3.98
2022	3.25	3.88
2023	3.21	3.79
2024	3.21	3.7
2025	3.17	3.61
2026	3.13	3.53
2027	3.09	3.47
2028	3.06	3.37
2029	3.02	3.3
2030	2.98	3.23
2031	2.94	3.18
2032	2.91	3.12
2033	2.88	3.07
2034	2.84	3.02
2035	2.81	2.97
2036	2.78	2.92
2037	2.75	2.88
2038	2.72	2.84
2039	2.68	2.79
2040	2.66	2.76
2041	2.63	2.72
2042	2.6	2.68
2043	2.58	2.65
2044	2.56	2.62
2045	2.53	2.58
2046	2.51	2.55
2047	2.49	2.53
2048	2.47	2.5
2049	2.45	2.47
2050	2.43	2.45

Children 0-14 years as share of population

Table

Year	Share of people 0-14 years old
	Namibia	Sierra Leone
1960	42.2%	38.2%
1961	42.4%	38.3%
1962	42.6%	38.3%
1963	42.7%	38.5%
1964	42.9%	38.8%
1965	43%	39.1%
1966	43.2%	39.4%
1967	43.3%	39.6%
1968	43.5%	39.9%
1969	43.6%	40.1%
1970	43.8%	40.3%
1971	43.9%	40.6%
1972	44.1%	40.7%
1973	44.3%	40.9%
1974	44.6%	41.1%
1975	44.8%	41.3%
1976	45%	41.4%
1977	45.3%	41.6%
1978	45.9%	41.7%
1979	46.3%	41.8%
1980	46.6%	41.9%
1981	47.1%	42%
1982	47.2%	42.1%
1983	46.9%	42.2%
1984	46.6%	42.3%
1985	46.2%	42.5%
1986	45.8%	42.6%
1987	45.3%	42.7%
1988	44.8%	42.8%
1989	43.4%	42.9%
1990	42.3%	42.9%
1991	42.2%	43%
1992	42.2%	43.1%
1993	42.2%	43.2%
1994	42.2%	43.3%
1995	42.1%	43.4%
1996	42%	43.5%
1997	41.9%	43.5%
1998	41.8%	43.6%
1999	41.7%	43.7%
2000	41.5%	43.8%
2001	41.3%	43.9%
2002	41%	43.9%
2003	40.5%	43.9%
2004	40%	43.9%
2005	39.4%	43.8%
2006	38.7%	43.7%
2007	38.1%	43.6%
2008	37.5%	43.5%
2009	37.1%	43.4%
2010	36.8%	43.2%
2011	36.7%	43%
2012	36.6%	42.8%
2013	36.6%	42.5%
2014	36.5%	42.2%
2015	36.5%	41.8%
2016	36.5%	41.4%
2017	36.7%	41%
2018	36.8%	40.6%
2019	37%	40.2%
2020	37.1%	39.8%
2021	37.4%	39.4%
2022	37.5%	39%
2023	37.3%	38.5%
2024	37%	38.1%
2025	36.7%	37.7%
2026	36.3%	37.2%
2027	35.9%	36.8%
2028	35.5%	36.3%
2029	35.1%	35.9%
2030	34.6%	35.5%
2031	34%	35.2%
2032	33.5%	34.8%
2033	32.9%	34.4%
2034	32.4%	34%
2035	31.8%	33.6%
2036	31.1%	33.2%
2037	30.6%	32.8%
2038	30.3%	32.4%
2039	30%	32%
2040	29.7%	31.6%
2041	29.5%	31.2%
2042	29.2%	30.9%
2043	29%	30.5%
2044	28.8%	30.2%
2045	28.5%	29.8%
2046	28.3%	29.5%
2047	28.1%	29.2%
2048	27.9%	28.8%
2049	27.7%	28.5%
2050	27.5%	28.2%

Children aged 0-14 make up 37% of the population in Namibia and 38.1% in Sierra Leone in 2024, compared to 42.3% and 42.9% respectively in 1990.

Demographics of Namibia and Sierra Leone compared.

Natural population change in Namibia vs Sierra Leone by year

For the past 10 years, the annual natural population change (excluding migration) has been +2.04% in Namibia and +2.31% in Sierra Leone. The chart below illustrates the comparison of the absolute yearly changes resulting from births and deaths.

Table

Year	Population change due to births and deaths
	Namibia	Sierra Leone
1960	14,307	38,192
1961	14,936	40,022
1962	15,656	41,603
1963	16,430	43,569
1964	17,134	45,487
1965	17,902	47,223
1966	18,635	49,486
1967	19,498	51,734
1968	20,470	53,126
1969	21,387	54,768
1970	22,414	56,513
1971	23,467	58,484
1972	24,606	60,279
1973	25,754	62,443
1974	26,844	65,357
1975	27,882	67,560
1976	28,785	69,506
1977	29,241	71,663
1978	29,821	74,130
1979	28,930	75,992
1980	28,142	77,932
1981	27,938	80,111
1982	27,474	82,457
1983	28,307	84,628
1984	29,395	87,072
1985	30,575	88,869
1986	31,764	90,902
1987	33,340	94,235
1988	34,798	96,344
1989	37,715	98,298
1990	43,956	100,778
1991	44,523	105,477
1992	43,945	103,251
1993	42,861	103,317
1994	41,316	101,486
1995	39,119	100,885
1996	37,177	104,140
1997	37,256	105,433
1998	37,500	103,906
1999	37,233	102,295
2000	35,280	110,754
2001	32,942	116,647
2002	31,947	126,429
2003	31,115	130,312
2004	31,478	132,661
2005	32,909	137,234
2006	34,690	144,127
2007	36,430	145,740
2008	38,147	149,855
2009	39,942	152,669
2010	42,046	155,338
2011	43,557	158,858
2012	46,204	160,915
2013	47,801	161,265
2014	49,581	160,137
2015	50,846	162,275
2016	52,228	168,784
2017	52,975	173,259
2018	53,970	178,772
2019	54,769	181,068
2020	55,034	181,015
2021	50,160	183,326
2022	54,534	186,625
2023	58,435	188,788

Maternal mortality chart: Namibia vs Sierra Leone

The maternal mortality rate, which is the probability of dying during childbirth or within 42 days of pregnancy termination, is 139 deaths per 100,000 live births in Namibia, compared to 354 deaths in Sierra Leone.

Table

Year	Maternal mortality per 100K births
	Namibia	Sierra Leone
1985	354	1,506
1986	348	1,530
1987	336	1,533
1988	342	1,549
1989	306	1,575
1990	325	1,572
1991	337	1,699
1992	346	1,681
1993	354	1,696
1994	367	1,755
1995	369	1,777
1996	387	1,726
1997	383	1,721
1998	396	1,753
1999	371	1,731
2000	384	1,603
2001	376	1,518
2002	313	1,492
2003	290	1,433
2004	282	1,366
2005	344	1,294
2006	408	1,168
2007	489	1,132
2008	537	1,093
2009	547	1,054
2010	531	1,018
2011	498	967
2012	439	915
2013	402	842
2014	369	821
2015	307	730
2016	250	633
2017	213	578
2018	198	491
2019	175	464
2020	143	422
2021	254	403
2022	127	370
2023	139	354

Under-five mortality rates

The chance that a newborn baby will die before reaching age five is 4.07% in Namibia and 9.43% in Sierra Leone. Below is the historical data on under-five mortality rates.

Table

Year	Mortality rate before reaching 5 years of age, per 1,000 live births
	Namibia	Sierra Leone
1960	-	39.1%
1961	-	38.5%
1962	-	38%
1963	-	37.4%
1964	-	36.8%
1965	-	36.2%
1966	-	35.6%
1967	9.66%	35%
1968	9.64%	34.5%
1969	9.65%	33.9%
1970	9.65%	33.4%
1971	9.67%	32.9%
1972	9.68%	32.3%
1973	9.73%	31.9%
1974	9.79%	31.4%
1975	9.89%	30.9%
1976	10%	30.5%
1977	10.2%	30%
1978	10.3%	29.6%
1979	10.3%	29.2%
1980	10.3%	28.9%
1981	10.2%	28.5%
1982	9.93%	28.1%
1983	9.61%	27.8%
1984	9.22%	27.5%
1985	8.81%	27.2%
1986	8.43%	26.9%
1987	8.09%	26.6%
1988	7.81%	26.4%
1989	7.57%	26.2%
1990	7.39%	25.9%
1991	7.24%	25.7%
1992	7.14%	25.5%
1993	7.1%	25.3%
1994	7.13%	25%
1995	7.24%	24.7%
1996	7.39%	24.3%
1997	7.56%	23.9%
1998	7.7%	23.4%
1999	7.79%	22.9%
2000	7.79%	22.4%
2001	7.71%	21.8%
2002	7.61%	21.3%
2003	7.51%	20.7%
2004	7.41%	20.1%
2005	7.05%	19.4%
2006	6.49%	18.8%
2007	6.06%	18.1%
2008	5.64%	17.3%
2009	5.29%	16.6%
2010	5.08%	15.9%
2011	5.16%	15.2%
2012	5.51%	14.5%
2013	5.4%	13.9%
2014	5.31%	13.7%
2015	5.5%	13.8%
2016	5.42%	12.3%
2017	5.19%	11.8%
2018	5.01%	11.3%
2019	4.78%	10.9%
2020	4.57%	10.5%
2021	4.38%	10.1%
2022	4.2%	9.77%
2023	4.07%	9.43%