Demographics of São Tomé and Príncipe

This article is about the demographic features of the population of São Tomé and Príncipe, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Of São Tomé and Príncipe's total population, about 131,000 live on São Tomé and 6,000 on Príncipe. All are descended from various ethnic groups that have migrated to the islands since 1485. Six groups are identifiable:

• Luso-Africans, or mixed-heritage, descendants of Portuguese colonists and African slaves brought to the islands during the early years of settlement from Benin, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola (these people also are known as filhos da terra or "children of the land");
• Angolares, reputedly descendants of Angolan slaves who survived a 1540 shipwreck and now earn their livelihood fishing;
• Forros, descendants of freed slaves when slavery was abolished;
• Serviçais, contract laborers from Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde, living temporarily on the islands;
• Tongas, children of servicais born on the islands; and
• Europeans, primarily Portuguese.
• Asians, mostly Chinese minority, including Macanese people of mixed Portuguese and Chinese blood from Macau.

Although a small country, São Tomé and Príncipe has four national languages: Portuguese (the official language, spoken by 95% of the population), and the Portuguese-based creoles Forro (85%), Angolar (3%) and Principense (0.1%). French is also learned in schools, as the country is a member of Francophonie.

In the 1970s, there were two significant population movements—the exodus of most of the 4,000 Portuguese residents and the influx of several hundred São Toméan refugees from Angola. The islanders have been absorbed largely into a common Luso-African culture. Almost all belong to the Roman Catholic, Evangelical Protestant, or Seventh-day Adventist churches, which in turn retain close ties with churches in Portugal. There is a small but growing Muslim population.

Population

São Tomé and Príncipe's population between 1961 and 2003.

According to the 2017 revision of the World Population Prospects^[1] the total population was 199,910 in 2016, compared to only 60,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 40.3%, 55.8% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 3.9% was 65 years or older .^[2]

Vital statistics

Registration of vital events is in São Tomé & Príncipe not available for recent years. The Population Departement of the United Nations prepared the following estimates. ^[2]

Births and deaths ^[3]

Life expectancy

Period	Life expectancy in Years[6]
1950–1955	46.40
1955–1960	48.89
1960–1965	51.86
1965–1970	54.42
1970–1975	57.36
1975–1980	60.21
1980–1985	60.59
1985–1990	61.40
1990–1995	62.22
1995–2000	63.01
2000–2005	63.80
2005–2010	65.47
2010–2015	66.14

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

References