Skip to content.
Personal tools
You are here: Home » Censuses » Second General Population and Housing Census, 1997 » Nationality and Race/Origin
Publications
 

Nationality and Race/Origin

According t o the IIRGPH, 99.1% of the inhabitants of Mozambique are of Mozambican nationality, 0.5% are foreigners and 0.4% are of unknown nationality. In other words, at the moment of the Census, 71,300 people resident in the country were foreigners. This number could be higher, since probably a high proportion of those people with unknown nationality are foreigners.

Graph 10.1 shows the percentage distribution of the foreign population in Mozambique by nationality. Of this group, the South Africans are the most numerous, accounting for 43.4% of the foreign population. In second place, and with a much smaller percentage, are the Zimbabweans with 12.7%. In third place come those with Portuguese nationality, with 9.8%. Table 10.1 shows the same information as Graph 10.1, but broken down by area of residence. The percentage distribution is different in the two areas. For example, South Africans are 59.4% of the foreigners in the rural areas and 9.3% in urban areas. The Portuguese are 29.8% in the urban areas and only 0.5% in the countryside.

TABLE 10.1: Percentage distribution of the foreign population by area of residence, and by nationality, Mozambique, 1997

 
N (000) 22,689 48,567
Total 100.0 100.0
    Suth African 9.3 59.4
     Zimbabwean 6.0 15.9
 Lesotho 9.3 3.5
   Tanzanian 3.4 4.9
 Malawian 1.1 4.1
   Zambian 0.9 2.4
    Other southern African (*) 3.1 1.8
  Cape Verdean 4.2 5.0
 Other African (*) 4.3 1.6
      Portuguese 29.8 0.5
    Other European 11.1 0.5
    Indiana 5.3 0.0
    Paquistanesa 4.1 0.0
  Outher 8.3 0.3
(*) See notes to Graph 10.1


Graph 10.2 shows the distribution of the Mozambican population by racial type/origin. The vast majority of the population, 99.0%, is black. The same graph presents the distribution of the non-black population by racial type/origin. The majority of these are of mixed race (0.45%). Table 10.2 shows the percentage distribution of the population by racial type/origin, and by area of residence. Given the dominance of the black population in the country, the differences are small. But it is important to note that the non-black population is concentrated almost exclusively in the urban areas.

TABLE 10.2: Percentage distribution of  the population by area of residence, and by racial type/origin , Mozambique, 1997

 
Urban 4,454.9 100.0 97.6 1.4 0.2 0.3 0.1 0.4
Rural 10,823.5 100.0 99.5 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.4