Democratic Republic of the Congo/People

Population: 51,964,999
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2000 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 48% (male 12,597,444; female 12,490,279)
15-64 years: 49% (male 12,503,440; female 13,037,527)
65 years and over: 3% (male 567,823; female 768,486) (2000 est.)

Population growth rate: 3.19% (2000 est.)

Birth rate: 46.44 births/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Death rate: 15.38 deaths/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Net migration rate: 0.82 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2000 est.)
note: in 1994, about a million refugees fled into Zaire (now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo or DROC), to escape the fighting between the Hutu?s and the Tutsi?s in Rwanda and Burundi; the outbreak of widespread fighting in the DROC between rebels and government forces in October 1996 spurred about 875,000 refugees to return to Rwanda in late 1996 and early 1997; an additional 173,000 Rwandan refugees disappeared in early 1997 and are assumed to have been killed by DROC forces; fighting renewed in August 1998 and has continued sporadically into 2000 resulting in further internal displacement and refugee movements within the Great Lakes region

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.74 male(s)/female
total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2000 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 101.71 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 48.75 years
male: 46.72 years
female: 50.83 years (2000 est.)

Total fertility rate: 6.92 children born/woman (2000 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Congolese (singular and plural)
adjective: Congolese or Congo

Ethnic groups: over 200 African ethnic groups of which the majority are Bantu; the four largest tribes - Mongo?, Luba?, Kongo? (all Bantu), and the Mangbetu-Azande? (Hamitic) make up about 45% of the population

Religions: Roman Catholic 50%, Protestant 20%, Kimbanguist? 10%, Muslim 10%, other syncretic sects and indigenous beliefs 10%

Languages: French (official), Lingala? (a lingua franca trade language), Kingwana? (a dialect of Kiswahili or Swahili), Kikongo?, Tshiluba?

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write French, Lingala, Kingwana, or Tshiluba
total population: 77.3%
male: 86.6%
female: 67.7% (1995 est.)