Zambia
Zambia: population and cities
Population
Population
According to
Countryaah website, approximately 18.3 million people live in Zambia. The high fertility rate of 5.5
children per woman contrasts with an alarming infant mortality rate of 100 per
1,000 live births and a high maternal mortality rate of 830 per 100,000 births.

Life expectancy for women is 37 years; that of men at 38 years of age. Of the
total population, 46% are under 15 and just 2% over 65 years old. The low life
expectancy in Zambia is related to the high rate of HIV infection, one of the
highest in Africa.
Ethnic groups
Apart from the 1.2% Europeans, the Indians and the 0.7% Twa, i.e. Bushmen,
approximately 98% of Zambia's population is made up of black Africans, who in
turn are made up of around 73 Bantu-speaking groups.
The largest ethnolinguistic groups are the Bemba. They make up 20% of the total
population. Then come the Bantu Botatwe (Tonga, Ila and Lenje) with 15%, the
Chewa, Ngoni and Nsenga with about 15%, the Lozi with about 6%, the Lala and
Bisa (5%), the Kaonde (3%), the Mambwe and Lungu (3%), the Lunda (3%), the Lamba
(2.5%) and the Luvale (2%). The other 57 groups are no longer listed separately
here.
Religion
About 90% of Zambia's residents are Christians. They are divided into about 65%
Protestants, 25% Catholics and some New Apostolics and Muslims. Between 25% and
50% of the residents, regardless of their other religious affiliation, also
follow natural religions.
There are also minorities of Hindus and Muslims in the country (5%). The latter
mostly belong to the Sunnis and can be found particularly in the north and east
of Zambia and predominantly in urban regions. Some smaller Jewish communities
also live in cities.
National language
There are eight official languages in Zambia, including
English, which is mostly spoken in schools, public offices and radios.
If the English is still quite acceptable in the cities, many in the more rural
areas hardly speak it anymore.
The most important of the more than 70 different Bantu dialects in Zambia are
Bemba and Nyanja (Chewa).
Capital and other cities
Lusaka
About 2 million people live in Lusaka, Zambia's capital. The city has undergone
tremendous changes in recent years. When walking through the city, the new shops
stand out, and above all the numerous construction sites; old buildings are
being restored and new, modern structures are being built.
There is a university that opens up new perspectives for the whole country
because the Zambian intellectual class is no longer forced to migrate to other
countries. Continue here >>>
Chingola Chingola is located
in the Zambian Copperbelt Province, a city of 150,000 people that has existed
since 1943. The second largest open cast copper mine in the world belongs to the
mining town. The crisis caused by the fall in the price of copper in the 1990s
hit Chingola long and hard. In the meantime, however, the city has regenerated
and developed further in terms of infrastructure. Apart from the chimpanzee
rearing station Chimfunshi, which is well worth seeing, Chingola doesn’t offer
much for tourists.
Kitwe (also Kitwe Nkana or Nkana-Kitwe)
Zambia's third largest city with around 410,000 residents is located in the
north of the country in the Copperbelt Province and is the most important
location for Zambian copper processing thanks to the Nkana mining complex. The
city, to the south of which Zambia's gem mines are expanding, struggled for a
long time with the fall in copper prices in the 1990s, but is slowly back on the
road to recovery. The economic heart of everyday life is the Chisokone Market,
which is used daily by numerous traders, while Kitwe can be proud of the
Copperbelt University of one of Zambia's universities.
Livingstone
In 1904, Livingstone was the first Zambian city to be founded,
today the capital of the southern province of Zambia. The city, also known as
Maramba, emerged together with the completion of the Victoria Falls Bridge and
was named after the Scottish Africa explorer David Livingstone.
Between 1911 and 1935 it even acted as the capital of Northern Rhodesia, today's
Zambia.
About 110,000 people live in the city, which borders the large Mosi oa Tunya
National Park and is the tourist starting point for trips to the famous Victoria
Falls.
Ndola
Ndola is not only one of the economic centers of Zambia, but also the country's
second largest city with around 420,000 residents.
The Zambian city, which was founded after Livingstone in 1904 and is therefore
the second oldest Zambian city, was an important center of the Arab-African
slave trade long before it was founded, as the city's coat of arms still reminds
of. Ndola, where a campus of the University of Zambia was set up, has a
multifaceted tourist potential with its markets, hotels and shops, cinema and
good connections to Lusaka.
Zambia: geography, map
Defined by DigoPaul, Zambia is a landlocked country in Africa and covers an area of 752,618
km². Thereof:

- Forest
Around 30% of the country are forest and scrubland. Deforestation reduces
this area by around 1% annually.
- Meadow and pastureland
Around 47% of the land is used as meadow or pasture
- Fields and fields
Around 7% of the land is used as arable land or fields, especially for
growing maize, flowers and cotton.
Provinces
The country is divided into the following nine provinces:
A - Central Province with the capital Kabwe
B - Copperbelt with the capital Ndola
C - Eastern Province with the capital Chipata
D - Luapula with the capital Mansa
E - Lusaka with the capital Lusaka
F - Northern Province with the capital Kasama
G - Northwest Province with the capital Solwezi
H. - Southern Province with the capital Livingstone
I - Western Province with the capital Mongu
Limits
Zambia shares a border with the following seven countries:
- Angola with a length of 1,110 km
- Democratic Republic of the Congo with a length of 1,930 km
- Malawi with a length of 837 km
- Mozambique with a length of 419 km
- Namibia with a length of 233 km
- Tanzania with a length of 338 km
Zimbabwe with a length of 797 km.
Raw materials, mineral resources
Zambia is the largest copper exporter in all of Africa. The copper mines are
mainly located in the Copperbelt Province (copper belt. In the past it was
especially western countries that profited from the mineral resources, in recent
years China has been pushing into these markets.
In addition to copper, you can also find cobalt, tin, lead and silver, Gold and
precious stones in the country. But this wealth of mineral resources is not only
a blessing for the country, but also the cause of fierce distribution struggles
in which China is increasingly embroiled.
Longitude and latitude
Zambia extends over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and
geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):
Δφ = from around 8 ° 08` to 18 ° 05` south latitude
Δλ = from around 022 ° to 033 ° 45 'east longitude |
You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and
Latitude.
Legal time
For Zambia, the following value applies to Central European Time (CET), i.e.
the time (without summer time). A minus sign means that it is earlier there, a
plus sign that it is later than CET:
Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones,
time.
The highest point of the sun in Lusaka
Lusaka, the capital of the country, is located at a southern latitude of
around φ = 15.5 ° (15 ° 30 ') and thus in the tropics. If the declination of the
sun has the value of 15 ° 30 'south, and thus the image point (= the value of
the declination) of the sun is exactly above the city, the sun is perpendicular
there. This happens exactly twice a year, roughly 33 days before March 21st and
then again 33 days after September 21st.
Attention
The sun in Lusaka is at the time when the declination of the sun has a value
that is more northerly than 15.5 °, at noon not in the south, as in our
latitudes, but in the north. In this case, the sun moves from east to north to
west, where, like us, it sets.
Mountains
The highest mountain in the country is unnamed. It is 2,301 meters high and
is located in the Mafinga Mountains. Other
high mountains are the Sunzu with a height of 2,067 m, the Luangwa with
a height of 1,848 m and the Chimbwingombi with a height of
1,788 m.
Rivers, Zambezi
Zambezi
The longest river in the country is the Zambezi with a length of around 2,736
km. It runs partly along the southern border of the country and forms the
Victoria Falls there. Other rivers in Zambia are the Kafue with
a length of around 950 km and the Luangwa with a length of 806
km.
Lakes, Lake Tanganyika
Lake Tanganyika
The largest lake in Zambia is Lake Tanganyika with an area of 32,893 km². But
only a small "corner" of the lake is in the area of Zambia. This part of the
lake is located in the northeast of the country on the border with Tanzania
(east) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (north). With a maximum depth of
1,470 m and an average depth of approx. 570 m, the lake is the second deepest
lake in the world and the deepest in all of Africa. With its area of 32,893
km² it is the second largest lake in Africa. Its water volume is 18,900 km³. Its
length is around 650 km and its width varies between around 40 and 75 km.
The lake lies in the East African rift system - the tectonic fracture zone in
East Africa. In addition to Zambia, the lake belongs to the following countries:
Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. With 45% and 41%, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania, however, take by far the largest
part of the lake. The only around 105 km long Ruzizi River is the skin inflow of
the lake and the only outflow of the East African Kiwu Lake. Other larger lakes
in Zambia are:
- Kariba reservoir with an area of around 7,770 km²
- Mweru Lake with an area of around
4,920 km²
- Bangweulu Lake (a very shallow lake)
with an area that varies between 4,000 and 10,000 km².
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