1. The number of older persons in sub-Saharan
Africa has doubled since 1990 and is projected
to more than triple between 2015 and 2050
In 2015, there were 46 million people aged 60 years or
over in sub-Saharan Africa, an increase from 23 million
in 1990. In 2050, a projected 161 million older persons
will reside in the region. Notably, the growth rate of the
older population of sub-Saharan Africa that is projected
for the 2040s is faster than that experienced by any
other region since 1950.1
The growing number of older persons in sub-Saharan
Africa is a legacy of the high fertility that produced
increasingly large birth cohorts during the twentieth
century, as well as improving rates of survival to older
ages. An estimated 40 per cent of the cohort born in
the region in 1950-1955 survived to celebrate a sixtieth
birthday in 2010-2015, with 15 per cent of the birth
cohort expected to live to age 80. By contrast,
among those born in 2000-2005, 66 per cent are
expected to live to age 60 and 35 per cent to age 80.
2. Across sub-Saharan Africa, there are marked
differences in the percentage of older persons in
the population
Although older persons comprised just under 5 per cent
of the overall population of the region in 2015, in a
number of countries the proportion of older persons
was much greater. More than 15 per cent of the
populations of Mauritius and Réunion were aged 60
years or over in 2015, making them the most aged
populations of sub-Saharan Africa. In Seychelles, 11
per cent of the population was aged 60 years or over in
2015, and older persons comprised nearly 8 per cent of
South Africa’s population. At the other end of the
spectrum are countries such as Angola, Burkina Faso,
Gambia and Uganda, where older persons accounted
for less than 4 per cent of the total population in 2015.