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2006 POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS IN BRIEF

1.0 Background

The census undertaking in Lesotho states as far back as March 1875, and data collection was in the form of public gatherings where all the villagers were assembled to the Chief’s place and the Enumerators took records of the household members. This method was adopted until during the last census of 1956. Since the 1966 census, Lesotho adopted the scientific method of data collection, where the Enumerators went from house to house asking questions related to education, fertility, mortality, migration, employment, relationship to head of the household, age, sex, disability, household characteristics and housing amenities. However, the Questionnaire since that of 1966 has undergone some changes over the census periods depending on the kind of data required by the Government in order to provide information to monitor and evaluate Government programs. As shown in Table 1.1. the de jure population of Lesotho has increased from 969,634 in 1966 to 1,595,096 in 1986 and to 1,876,633 in 2006.

Table 1.1. De jure Population of Lesotho, 1966 – 2006

De jure Population of Lesotho by District and census year, 1966 -2006
District	Census Year
District	1966	1976	1986	1996	2006
Botha - Bothe	63,179	77,178	106,077	109,192	110,320
Leribe	161,493	206,558	273,678	300,160	293,369
Berea	118,248	146,124	148,794	240,754	250,006
Maseru	201,832	257,809	311,254	385,869	431,998
Mafeteng	119,087	154,339	204,553	211,970	192,621
Mohale's Hoek	109,927	136,311	173,,909	184,034	176,928
Quthing	72,746	88,491	119,766	126,342	124,048
Qacha's Nek	62,955	76,497	68,207	71,665	69,749
Mokhotlong	60,167	73,508	79,671	85,628	97,713
Thaba-Tseka	---------	----------	108,187	126,353	129,881
Total Population	969,634	1,216,815	1,595,096	1,841,967	1,876,633

1.1 Population Growth Rate

The trend since 1966 census as indicated in Figure 1.1. has shown a significant population growth rate from 1966 to 1986, where it was recorded at 2.0 per annum between 1956 census and 1966 census. It increased to 2.3 per annum between 1966 census and 1976 census, to a higher rate at 2.6 per annum between 1976 census and 1986 census. The 1996 census, however, experienced a sharp decrease of population growth rate to 1.5 per annum and to a lower growth rate of 0.08 per annum between 1996 and 2006. The 2006 census has indicated that the reason for this dramatic change is due to a high mortality rate and low fertility.

Source: 1976 census – 2006 census

The four Population Pyramids from 1976 – 2006 indicate a clear picture that there has been a decline in the population 0-14. For example, the 1976 and 1986 population pyramids show a broad based population of Lesotho, where children 0-4 formed the majority of the population, constituting 13.9 percent of the de jure population in 1976, it represented 14.1 percent of the de jure population of 1986 and a lower percentage of 10.8 for the population 0-4 in 1996 and 2006 respectively.

1.2 Fertility rates

The fertility distributions for the years1976, 1986 and 1996 show very low fertility at age group 15-19 and a relatively broad peak at age groups 20-24 and 25-29. Conversely, the fertility distribution derived from the 2004 DHS indicates high fertility at the group 15-19 and a peak at age group 20-24. The fertility distribution derived from the 2006 census is markedly different from the fertility distributions implied by previous censuses but is consistent with the fertility distribution derived from the 2004 DHS.

1.3 Levels and Trends in Mortality

This brief analysis attempts to examine changes in mortality levels. It tracks these changes in mortality levels from various censuses over a period of the last three decades of the 20th century. Table 4.4 indicates that in the last thirty years the average number of years lived by the population was increasing and has started to decline recently. It increased from 51.0 years in 1976 to 53.3 years in 1986 to 59.0 years in 1996 and it has shown some decline to 41.2 years in 2006

Table 1.2 Trends in life expectancy, 1976-2006

Census Year	Both sexes	Males	Females
1976	51.0	49.3	52.7
1986	53.3	53.5	57.2
1996	59.0	58.6	60.2
2006	41.2	39.7	42.9

Source: BOS 1976, BOS 1986, BOS 1996, BOS 2006

The pattern of life expectancy by sex followed the same pattern with females representing high life expectancies than the males. Life expectancy among females increased from 52.7 years in 1976 to 57.2 years in 1986 to 60.2 years in 1996 then declining to 42.9 years in 2006. On the other hand, life expectancy among males increased from 49.3 years in 1976 to 53.5 years in 1986 to 58.6 years in 1996 and then declining to 39.7 years in 2006.

The recent increases in mortality can be attributed to recent increases in poverty; malnutrition and HIV/AIDS.

Infant mortality refers to the deaths of children under the age of one year. It is measured by infant mortality rate which is the total number of deaths to children under the age of one for every 1,000 live births. Table 1 shows the 2006 census derived infant and child mortality rates by residence and sex.

Table 1.3. Infant and child mortality rates by residential status and sex of the child, Census 2006

	IMR			CMR
	Both Sexes	Male	Female	Both Sexes	Male	Female
Lesotho	94.0	102.5	83.9	23.7	26.5	21.1
Residence
Urban	103.8	105.8	101.8	25.4	26.6	24.2
Rural	90.8	101.6	79.3	20.4	26.5	20.2

Source: 2006 census

The 2006 Census has derived an IMR of 94.0 deaths per 1,000 live births with a higher IMR (102.5 deaths per 1,000 live births) for males than that of females at 83.9 deaths per 1,000 live births. Infant mortality is higher (103.8 deaths per 1,000 live-births) among women residing in urban areas while it is lower among women residing in rural areas with 90.8 deaths per 1,000 live-births.

Child mortality rate (CMR) for both sexes stands at 23.7 deaths per 1,000 live births surviving between exact age 1 and age 5, while for males and females the rates are 26.5 and 21.1 deaths respectively. As observed with IMR, child mortality is also higher (25.4 deaths per 1,000 live births) surviving between age 1 and 5, and lower among women residing in rural areas with 20.4 live-births.

Figure 7 shows the trend of infant mortality rate (IMR) from the different censuses and surveys. It is shown that the IMR was initially high in 1976, but started to decline up to 1996 and increased again reaching 94.0 per 1,000 live births in 2006.

Illustration of trend in infant mortality rates by sex in Table 8 shows that male deaths have always been higher than those of females over the past 30 years. The rates declined from 1976 to 1996 and from 2001 increased up to 2006.