africa

Africa at a Fork in the Road: Taking Off or Disappointment Once Again?
Figure 9.1: Growth of Working-Age Population (Medium Variant), by Age
Group, 2010-30 a/
Source: United Nations (2011), sourced from Lam and Leibbrandt (2013).
a/
The growth rates for Africa include North Africa, hence the discrepancy between the working-age
population growth from 2010-30 in Figure 9.1 and Table 9.1. Nonetheless, both Africa and SSA are
expected to follow a similar trend in the growth of the working-age population.
Africa is the region projected to have the fastest growing working-age population.
This translates into a working-age population of 793 million in 2030, a 70 percent
rise from the current 466 million (Table 9.1). To get there, it is projected that
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) will add 15.6 million people on average per year to the
working-age population in 2015-20, rising to 17.2 million per year in 2020-25, and
to 19 million per year in 2025-30. The global jobs challenge then, in regional terms,
is predominantly an African challenge.
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