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Almost all Gabonese are of Bantu origin. Gabon has at least 40 ethnic groups with separate languages and cultures. The largest is the Fang. Others include the Myene, Bandjabi, Eshira, Bapounou, and Okande. Ethnic group boundaries are less sharply drawn in Gabon than elsewhere in Africa. French, the official language, is a unifying force. More than 120,000 French people live in Gabon, and France predominates foreign cultural and commercial influences. Historical and environmental factors caused Gabon's population to decline between 1900 and 1940. It is one of the least-densely inhabited countries in Africa, and a labor shortage is a major obstacle to development and a draw for foreign workers. The population is generally accepted to be just over 1 million but remains in dispute.

Population: 1,424,906
note: Estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 42.1% (male 300,914; female 299,141)
15-64 years: 53.9% (male 383,137; female 384,876)
65 years and over: 4% (male 23,576; female 33,262) (2006 est.)

Population growth rate: 2.13% (2006 est.)

Birth rate: 36.16 births/1,000 population (2006 est.) Death rate: 12.25 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate: -2.65 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female
total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 54.51 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 54.49 years
male: 53.21 years
female: 55.81 years (2006 est.)

Total fertility rate: 4.74 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Gabonese (singular and plural)
adjective: Gabonese

Ethnic groups:

1. Bantu tribes including four major tribal groupings (Fang, Eshira, Bapounou, Bateke)
2. other Africans, notably 'forest people' (pygmee, now sedentarizing) such as the Babongo tribe
3. Europeans 154,000, including 120,000 French and 11,000 persons of dual nationality)

Religions: Christian 55%-75%, animist, Muslim less than 1%

Languages: French (official since colonial rule), Fang, Myene, Bateke, Bapounou/Eschira, Bandjabi

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 63.2%
male: 73.7%
female: 53.3% (1995 est.)

This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook (2006 edition) which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain.

See also: Gabon