Sudan Population 2024 (Live)

According to current projections, Sudan is estimated to reach 100 million people by 2064. The population is currently at 43.85 million people.

Sudan is growing at a quick rate of 2.42% per year. This rate adds over 1 million people to the population every year.

Sudan’s fertility rate is relatively high at 4.43 births per woman. Sudan has a low contraceptive prevalence of just 9%. Even with a high infant mortality rate and one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates, Sudan is still above replacement level fertility, allowing the population to continue to grow.

Because the fertility rate is so high, a very large portion of the population is under 15 years old, putting additional strains on social services, especially education and health.

Sudan Area and Population Density

Sudan is a large, but sparsely populated country compared to the rest of Africa. It is the largest nation in Africa and covers 967,495 square miles (2,505,813 square kilometers), and is landlocked except its northeast border that touches the Red Sea. The countries touching the rest of Sudan's border are Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Chad, Libya, and Egypt.

The current population density of the nation is 64.0 people per square mile (24.7 people per square kilometer). Although these numbers are small, they have more than quadrupled in the past 50 years. These numbers are also skewed by a large amount of desert that is uninhabitable. The majority of Sudan's population live on or near the Nile river.

Largest Cities in Sudan

The majority of Sudan's major cities either lie along the Nile River or the Red Sea, which makes sense since so much of the rest of the country is desert. The largest city of Omdurman has a population of 2,395,013. Omdurman is in very close proximity to the nation's capital of Khartoum, which has a population of 1,974,647. Because these cities are so close, their populations are often lumped together into a cumulative greater metropolitan population of 7,380,479.

Some other notable cities are Nyala, Port Sudan, El-Obeid and Kassala- none of which have populations over 500,000.

Sudan, officially the Republic of Sudan but sometimes referred to as North Sudan, sits along the Red Sea south of Egypt and has a population consisting mostly of descendants of migrants from the nearby Arabian Peninsula. Sudan has a total area of 1,886,068 square kilometers (728,215 square miles).

Conducting an accurate census has been a challenge in Sudan for several decades due to conflicts in the area, while the South Sudan government has accused Sudan of deliberately manipulating census data in oil-rich regions. Sudan is often referred to as North Sudan as South Sudan seceded in 2011 with the consent of Sudan. The last official census recording the population of Sudan included the populations of Eastern, Western and Northern Sudan in 2008 and recorded over 30 million citizens.

The majority of Sudan's population is rural, with an urban population of just 33.2%. The largest metropolitan area, Khartoum (which includes Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman) is quickly growing and ranges between 6 and 7 million, which includes approximately 2 million displaced people from the southern war zone and the drought-affected areas in the west and east.

Sudan Demographics

Sudanese Arabs account for 70% of the population of Sudan, with the rest of the population being Arabized ethnic groups of Beja, Copts, Nubians and other peoples. There are more than 597 tribes in Sudan speaking more than 400 dialects and languages. Sudan is almost entirely Muslim with most citizens speaking Sudanese Arabic.

Most Arabized and indigenous tribes, such as the Masalit and Zaghawa, who speak Chadian Arabic show very little cultural integration with the rest of the population due to linguistic and cultural differences. The vast majority of the Arab tribes in the country originally migrated to Sudan in the 12th century and then intermarried with indigenous populations and introduced Islam.

The Sudanese Arabs of the Eastern and Northern parts of Sudan are descended mostly from migrants from the Arabian peninsula and some already existing indigenous populations, such as the Nubian people, who share a common history with Egypt. While some pre-Islamic Arabian tribes lived in Sudan from earlier migrations from Western Arabia, most arrived in Sudan after the 12th century.

Sudan also has a young population with 41% of its total population under the age of 15. 20% of Sudanese people are 15 to 24 years old, 31% are between 25 and 54 and just under 4% are 55 to 64 years old. The population over 65 years of age is only 3.3%. Sudan has a very low median age of 18.9 years.

Sudan Religion, Economy and Politics

97% of the Sudanese population practice Islam, specifically the Sunni Sufi branch and the Maliki school Islamic jurisprudence. The remaining people largely follow indigenous beliefs or Christianity. Most Christians are refugees or immigrants.

Sharia Law is the basis of the legal system in Sudan, which means something different in different parts of the country, but in most areas stoning, flogging, and crucifixion are legal forms of punishment even though the 2005 Naivasha Agreement, which allowed the secession of South Sudan, established some protection for non-Muslims.

The secession of South Sudan significantly affected the country's economy because the south contained over 80% of the nation's oilfields. Because of this, the GDP has been decreasing and inflation has been increasing since 2010. Most of the population, however, work in agriculture.

Sudan Population History

The population of Sudan has grown consistently and quickly over the past century. Just 30 years ago, the population was just breaking 10 million. From the 1960s-2000, the growth rate was well over 3% annually, but the dropped by almost over a full percentage point during the period of civil war and the cessation of the south.