The Congo Republic has a very high fertility rate at 5.1 children born per woman, with an even higher fertility rate of 6.5 in rural regions. The country's population is currently growing at a rate of nearly 3% per year, which is not ideal with the country's present economic circumstances. Efforts are being made to increase education about family planning and contraceptives, but the effects have not yet been extreme enough to curb the extreme growth trend. As of 2019, the growth rate of 2.64%.
Even though more people are leaving the country than coming into it, the annual growth rate in the Republic of Congo is expected to continue being high due to the extremely high birth rate in the country. Current projections believe that the annual rate of growth will decrease to 2.07% by 2050, but the actual change in numbers will be greater then than it is now even though the percentage is lower. The same set of predictions believe that the population of the Republic of Congo will be 5,686,917 in 2020, 7,318,887 in 2030, 9,308,628 in 2040 and 11, 509,651 by 2050.
| Republic of the Congo Population (as of 11/19/2024) | 6,391,533 |
| Last UN Estimate (July 1, 2024) | 6,332,960 |
| Births per Day | 528 |
| Deaths per Day | 108 |
| Migrations per Day | -7 |
| Net Change per Day | 412 |
| Population Change Since Jan. 1 | 133,488 |
Net increase of 1 person every 3.5 minutes
Population estimates based on interpolation of data from World Population Prospects
| One birth every 2.73 minutes | |
| One death every 13.33 minutes | |
| One emigrant every 205.72 minutes | |
| Net gain of one person every 3.5 minutes |
City | 2024 Pop. |
|---|---|
| Brazzaville | 1,284,609 |
| Pointe-Noire | 659,084 |
| Dolisie | 103,894 |
| Kayes | 58,737 |
| Owando | 23,952 |
| Ouesso | 23,915 |
| Loandjili | 23,204 |
| Madingou | 22,760 |
| Gamboma | 20,877 |
| Impfondo | 20,859 |
The central African nation of the Republic of Congo sits along the equator along the Gulf of Guinea and sharing borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo Gabon, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic. The Congo Republic's covers 132,047 square miles (342,000 square kilometers) of land area and the population is concentrated in the southwestern area of the country with large amounts of tropical jungle nearly uninhabited. The Republic of the Congo's population is rather sparse with a population density of just 41 people per square mile (16 people per square kilometer), which ranks 175th in the world. Given that even though the country's estimated 2017 population of 5.261 million ranks 117th in the world, it still has substantial room to grow.
The Republic of Congo is one of the most urbanized countries in Africa with 70% of the population living in the urban areas of Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire and the small cities between those two cities. Brazzaville is the capital and largest city of the Congo Republic with about 1.8 million people in the city proper and a metro population of more than 2 million. Brazzaville is a classic central African city wit ha large artistic community and beautiful stone architecture. Kinshasa (pop: 10 million), the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is directly across the Congo River from Brazzaville. Point-Noire is a wealthy oil town along the coast with a population of 715,334.
Year | Population | Change | Density (/km²) | Population Rank | Density Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 6,332,960 | 2.43% | 19 | 113 | 200 |
| 2023 | 6,182,880 | 2.43% | 18 | 113 | 201 |
| 2020 | 5,752,790 | 2.42% | 17 | 114 | 202 |
| 2019 | 5,616,660 | 2.44% | 16 | 116 | 202 |
| 2018 | 5,483,120 | 2.47% | 16 | 117 | 204 |
| 2017 | 5,351,010 | 2.46% | 16 | 118 | 204 |
| 2015 | 5,097,580 | 2.7% | 15 | 119 | 205 |
| 2010 | 4,462,290 | 3.84% | 13 | 122 | 206 |
| 2005 | 3,696,390 | 3.24% | 11 | 128 | 207 |
| 2000 | 3,151,340 | 2.77% | 9 | 132 | 207 |
| 1995 | 2,749,460 | 2.92% | 8 | 131 | 209 |
| 1990 | 2,380,560 | 2.94% | 7 | 133 | 209 |
| 1985 | 2,059,310 | 2.4% | 6 | 135 | 209 |
| 1980 | 1,828,980 | 2.37% | 5 | 137 | 210 |
| 1975 | 1,627,030 | 3.09% | 5 | 137 | 210 |
| 1970 | 1,397,640 | 2.96% | 4 | 137 | 210 |
| 1965 | 1,207,880 | 2.71% | 4 | 137 | 210 |
| 1960 | 1,056,730 | 2.49% | 3 | 138 | 210 |
| 1955 | 934,432 | 2.27% | 3 | 138 | 209 |
Year | Population | Change | Density (/km²) | Population Rank | Density Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 6,332,960 | 2.43% | 19 | 113 | 200 |
| 2025 | 6,484,440 | 2.42% | 19 | 112 | 200 |
| 2030 | 7,282,270 | 2.35% | 21 | 109 | 197 |
| 2035 | 8,160,730 | 2.3% | 24 | 107 | 195 |
| 2040 | 9,083,970 | 2.17% | 27 | 101 | 192 |
| 2045 | 10,041,900 | 2.02% | 29 | 95 | 189 |
| 2050 | 11,006,500 | 1.85% | 32 | 95 | 188 |
| 2055 | 11,977,800 | 1.71% | 35 | 92 | 184 |
| 2060 | 12,950,800 | 1.57% | 38 | 92 | 180 |
| 2065 | 13,945,100 | 1.49% | 41 | 90 | 179 |
| 2070 | 14,930,000 | 1.37% | 44 | 89 | 175 |
| 2075 | 15,888,700 | 1.25% | 47 | 86 | 173 |
| 2080 | 16,802,300 | 1.12% | 49 | 85 | 168 |
| 2085 | 17,683,700 | 1.03% | 52 | 84 | 165 |
| 2090 | 18,525,600 | 0.94% | 54 | 80 | 161 |
| 2095 | 19,305,600 | 0.83% | 57 | 79 | 158 |
19.5
Total
19.3
Male
19.7
Female
There are people over age 18 in Republic of the Congo.
The Congo Republic has a very ethnically diverse population. There are 62 spoken languages. The Kongo represent the largest ethnic group at about 48% of the population, with subgroups that include the Laari of Brazzaville and Pool and the Vili of Pointe-Noire. The second-largest ethnic group is the Sangha (20%) in the northern part of the country, followed by the Teke people (17%) who live north of Brazzaville. The Boulangui of the northwest and Brazzaville account for 12% of the total population, while the Pygmies make up 2%.
Prior to the war in 1997, there were 9,000 Europeans and non-Africans in the country, but most have left. There are also about 300 American expatriates in the Congo. A large percentage of the Congo's population remains undernourished and the HIV rate stands at 3.4%.
Christianity is by far the dominant religion in the Republic of Congo, with over 90% of people practicing some form of it. 1% of people practice Sunni Islam, and the remaining population does not have a specific faith system. Indigenous religions were very different from Christianity and embrace animism, vitalism, spirit and ancestor worship, sorcery and witchcraft, yet these beliefs often mesh with the Christian Faith among the Congolese.
The economy in the Republic of Congo is extremely dependent on the petroleum sector. Rising oil prices during the 1980s brought an influx of revenue and allowed the country to invest in itself. Oil prices have dropped substantially since then and the economy isn't flourishing the way it once was. The Republic of Congo is focusing efforts on moving away from petroleum and in recent years they have begun converting natural gas to electricity instead of burning it.
As a unitary semi-presidential republic, the president is the head of state and the prime minister leads the government in the Republic of Congo. This system is extremely young as a new constitution was written up outlining the current system in just 2015. The legislative branch of the government is made up of both the chambers of parliament.
Indigenous people have been to known to live in what is now the Republic of Congo since at least the 1400s. The French turned the land into their protectorate in 1880 and treated the people living there very poorly, and put thousands into forced labor. The Africans revolted in 1928, but the French pushed back and killed 17,000 native people. The Republic of Congo gained independence from France in 1960.
In the 1990s there began to be some civil strife in the Republic of Congo, when the people began opposing the government over parliamentary elections. A peace deal was signed in 1999. An ammunition dump in Brazzaville in 2012 killed nearly 300 and injured over 2,300.