Speaking at the release of the preliminary results of the recently concluded national population and housing census, Museveni bragged about the NRM having taken the correct path to curb the rapid population increase in the country.
President Yoweri Museveni has taken credit for stimulating what he termed as “organic population control” of Ugandans that did not involve the use of dangerous medical methods.
President Yoweri Museveni arriving for the launch of the 2024 population census results
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“I am happy that we did not take the path of the people who even proposed the castration of men to control the population," Museveni said.
“Some of you were following the advice of the foreigners about birth control and injections, but we said let's have a reliable medical service to prevent child deaths. Second, we fixed the social economic base of the society, and the rest just came easily.”
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The Uganda Bureau of Statistics through its Chief Executive Dr Chris Mukiza announced that Uganda’s population had grown to 45.9 million people.
“We now have a population of 45, 935, 046 people, from 34.6 million counted in 2014 representing an increase of 11.3 million in the last 10 years and it includes 780,061 refugees,” Mukiza announced.
Dr Chris Mukiza speaking at the results launch
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The population growth rate, the results show, dropped from 3.1% to 2.9%.
This organic reduction, Museveni said was a result of the government’s initiatives such as the mass immunisation of children, which brought down the Infant Mortality Rate from 122/1000 to the current 30/1000.
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Museveni also noted that Uganda’s life expectancy has gone up from 43 in 1986 to 63.
The president was also pleased that his recent estimation that Ugandan had entered the Middle Income Status, – which was initially based on an estimated 48million Ugandans -- has now been confirmed since the population is slightly smaller.
