{ "Introduction": { "Background": { "text": "
In the first half of the second millennium A.D., northern Mozambican port towns were frequented by traders from Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia, Persia, and India. The Portuguese were able to wrest much of the coastal trade from Arab Muslims in the centuries after 1500 and to set up their own colonies. Portugal did not relinquish Mozambique until 1975. Large-scale emigration, economic dependence on South Africa, a severe drought, and a prolonged civil war hindered the country's development until the mid-1990s. The ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) party formally abandoned Marxism in 1989, and a new constitution the following year provided for multiparty elections and a free market economy. A UN-negotiated peace agreement between FRELIMO and rebel Mozambique National Resistance (RENAMO) forces ended the fighting in 1992. In 2004, Mozambique underwent a delicate transition as Joaquim CHISSANO stepped down after 18 years in office. His elected successor, Armando GUEBUZA, served two terms and then passed executive power to Filipe NYUSI in 2015. RENAMO’s residual armed forces intermittently engaged in a low-level insurgency after 2012, but a late December 2016 cease-fire eventually led to the two sides signing a comprehensive peace deal in August 2019. Elections in October 2019, challenged by Western observers and civil society as being problematic, resulted in resounding wins for NYUSI and FRELIMO across the country. Since October 2017, violent extremists - who an official ISIS media outlet recognized as ISIS's network in Mozambique for the first time in June 2019 - have been conducting attacks against civilians and security services in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. In 2021, Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community deployed forces to support Mozambique’s efforts to counter the extremist group.
" } }, "Geography": { "Location": { "text": "Southeastern Africa, bordering the Mozambique Channel, between South Africa and Tanzania" }, "Geographic coordinates": { "text": "18 15 S, 35 00 E" }, "Map references": { "text": "Africa" }, "Area": { "total": { "text": "799,380 sq km" }, "land": { "text": "786,380 sq km" }, "water": { "text": "13,000 sq km" } }, "Area - comparative": { "text": "slightly more than five times the size of Georgia; slightly less than twice the size of California" }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { "text": "4,783 km" }, "border countries": { "text": "Malawi 1498 km; South Africa 496 km; Eswatini 108 km; Tanzania 840 km; Zambia 439 km; Zimbabwe 1,402 km" } }, "Coastline": { "text": "2,470 km" }, "Maritime claims": { "territorial sea": { "text": "12 nm" }, "exclusive economic zone": { "text": "200 nm" } }, "Climate": { "text": "tropical to subtropical" }, "Terrain": { "text": "mostly coastal lowlands, uplands in center, high plateaus in northwest, mountains in west" }, "Elevation": { "highest point": { "text": "Monte Binga 2,436 m" }, "lowest point": { "text": "Indian Ocean 0 m" }, "mean elevation": { "text": "345 m" } }, "Natural resources": { "text": "coal, titanium, natural gas, hydropower, tantalum, graphite" }, "Land use": { "agricultural land": { "text": "56.3% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: arable land": { "text": "arable land: 6.4% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent crops": { "text": "permanent crops: 0.3% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent pasture": { "text": "permanent pasture: 49.6% (2018 est.)" }, "forest": { "text": "43.7% (2018 est.)" }, "other": { "text": "0% (2018 est.)" } }, "Irrigated land": { "text": "1,180 sq km (2012)" }, "Major lakes (area sq km)": { "fresh water lake(s)": { "text": "Lake Malawi (shared with Malawi and Tanzania) - 22,490" } }, "Major rivers (by length in km)": { "text": "Zambezi river mouth (shared with Zambia [s]), Angola, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe) - 2,740 km; Limpopo river mouth (shared with South Africa [s], Botswana, and Zimbabwe) - 1,800 kmMozambique is a poor, sparsely populated country with high fertility and mortality rates and a rapidly growing youthful population – 45% of the population is younger than 15, as of 2020. Mozambique’s high poverty rate is sustained by natural disasters, disease, high population growth, low agricultural productivity, and the unequal distribution of wealth. The country’s birth rate is among the world’s highest, averaging around 5 children per woman (and higher in rural areas) for at least the last three decades. The sustained high level of fertility reflects gender inequality, low contraceptive use, early marriages and childbearing, and a lack of education, particularly among women. The high population growth rate is somewhat restrained by the country’s high HIV/AIDS and overall mortality rates. Mozambique ranks among the worst in the world for HIV/AIDS prevalence, HIV/AIDS deaths, and life expectancy at birth, as of 2022.
Mozambique is predominantly a country of emigration, but internal, rural-urban migration has begun to grow. Mozambicans, primarily from the country’s southern region, have been migrating to South Africa for work for more than a century. Additionally, approximately 1.7 million Mozambicans fled to Malawi, South Africa, and other neighboring countries between 1979 and 1992 to escape from civil war. Labor migrants have usually been men from rural areas whose crops have failed or who are unemployed and have headed to South Africa to work as miners; multiple generations of the same family often become miners. Since the abolition of apartheid in South Africa in 1991, other job opportunities have opened to Mozambicans, including in the informal and manufacturing sectors, but mining remains their main source of employment.
" }, "Age structure": { "0-14 years": { "text": "45% (male 7,413,197/female 7,217,953)" }, "15-64 years": { "text": "52.1% (male 8,153,175/female 8,787,792)" }, "65 years and over": { "text": "2.9% (2023 est.) (male 461,904/female 479,784)" } }, "Dependency ratios": { "total dependency ratio": { "text": "86.1" }, "youth dependency ratio": { "text": "81.3" }, "elderly dependency ratio": { "text": "4.8" }, "potential support ratio": { "text": "20.8 (2021 est.)" } }, "Median age": { "total": { "text": "17 years" }, "male": { "text": "16.3 years" }, "female": { "text": "17.6 years (2020 est.)" } }, "Population growth rate": { "text": "2.55% (2023 est.)" }, "Birth rate": { "text": "36.94 births/1,000 population (2023 est.)" }, "Death rate": { "text": "9.93 deaths/1,000 population (2023 est.)" }, "Net migration rate": { "text": "-1.54 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2023 est.)" }, "Population distribution": { "text": "three large populations clusters are found along the southern coast between Maputo and Inhambane, in the central area between Beira and Chimoio along the Zambezi River, and in and around the northern cities of Nampula, Cidade de Nacala, and Pemba; the northwest and southwest are the least populated areas as shown in this population distribution map" }, "Urbanization": { "urban population": { "text": "38.8% of total population (2023)" }, "rate of urbanization": { "text": "4.24% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)" } }, "Major urban areas - population": { "text": "1.852 million Matola, 1.163 million MAPUTO (capital), 969,000 Nampula (2023)" }, "Sex ratio": { "at birth": { "text": "1.03 male(s)/female" }, "0-14 years": { "text": "1.03 male(s)/female" }, "15-64 years": { "text": "0.93 male(s)/female" }, "65 years and over": { "text": "0.96 male(s)/female" }, "total population": { "text": "0.97 male(s)/female (2023 est.)" } }, "Mother's mean age at first birth": { "text": "19.2 years (2011 est.)", "note": "note: data represents median age at first birth among women 20-49" }, "Maternal mortality ratio": { "text": "127 deaths/100,000 live births (2020 est.)" }, "Infant mortality rate": { "total": { "text": "59.77 deaths/1,000 live births" }, "male": { "text": "61.72 deaths/1,000 live births" }, "female": { "text": "57.76 deaths/1,000 live births (2023 est.)" } }, "Life expectancy at birth": { "total population": { "text": "57.7 years" }, "male": { "text": "56.41 years" }, "female": { "text": "59.03 years (2023 est.)" } }, "Total fertility rate": { "text": "4.74 children born/woman (2023 est.)" }, "Gross reproduction rate": { "text": "2.33 (2023 est.)" }, "Contraceptive prevalence rate": { "text": "27.1% (2015)" }, "Drinking water source": { "improved: urban": { "text": "urban: 93.4% of population" }, "improved: rural": { "text": "rural: 61.5% of population" }, "improved: total": { "text": "total: 73.3% of population" }, "unimproved: urban": { "text": "urban: 6.6% of population" }, "unimproved: rural": { "text": "rural: 38.5% of population" }, "unimproved: total": { "text": "total: 26.7% of population (2020 est.)" } }, "Current health expenditure": { "text": "7.6% of GDP (2020)" }, "Physicians density": { "text": "0.09 physicians/1,000 population (2020)" }, "Hospital bed density": { "text": "0.7 beds/1,000 population (2011)" }, "Sanitation facility access": { "improved: urban": { "text": "urban: 71.9% of population (2015 est.)" }, "improved: rural": { "text": "rural: 24.7% of population" }, "improved: total": { "text": "total: 42.2% of population" }, "unimproved: urban": { "text": "urban: 28.1% of population" }, "unimproved: rural": { "text": "rural: 75.3% of population" }, "unimproved: total": { "text": "total: 57.8% of population (2020 est.)" } }, "Major infectious diseases": { "degree of risk": { "text": "very high (2023)" }, "food or waterborne diseases": { "text": "bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever" }, "vectorborne diseases": { "text": "malaria and dengue fever" }, "water contact diseases": { "text": "schistosomiasis" }, "animal contact diseases": { "text": "rabies" }, "note": "note: on 22 March 2023, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Africa; Mozambique is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine" }, "Obesity - adult prevalence rate": { "text": "7.2% (2016)" }, "Alcohol consumption per capita": { "total": { "text": "1.46 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)" }, "beer": { "text": "1.03 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)" }, "wine": { "text": "0.22 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)" }, "spirits": { "text": "0.21 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)" }, "other alcohols": { "text": "0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)" } }, "Tobacco use": { "total": { "text": "14.3% (2020 est.)" }, "male": { "text": "23% (2020 est.)" }, "female": { "text": "5.6% (2020 est.)" } }, "Children under the age of 5 years underweight": { "text": "15.6% (2014/15)" }, "Currently married women (ages 15-49)": { "text": "63.7% (2023 est.)" }, "Education expenditures": { "text": "6.3% of GDP (2020 est.)" }, "Literacy": { "definition": { "text": "age 15 and over can read and write" }, "total population": { "text": "63.4%" }, "male": { "text": "74.1%" }, "female": { "text": "53.8% (2021)" } }, "School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)": { "total": { "text": "10 years" }, "male": { "text": "10 years" }, "female": { "text": "9 years (2017)" } }, "Youth unemployment rate (ages 15-24)": { "total": { "text": "8.1%" }, "male": { "text": "8.1%" }, "female": { "text": "8.2% (2021 est.)" } } }, "Environment": { "Environment - current issues": { "text": "increased migration of the population to urban and coastal areas with adverse environmental consequences; desertification; soil erosion; deforestation; water pollution caused by artisanal mining; pollution of surface and coastal waters; wildlife preservation (elephant poaching for ivory)" }, "Environment - international agreements": { "party to": { "text": "Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 2006, Wetlands" }, "signed, but not ratified": { "text": "none of the selected agreements" } }, "Climate": { "text": "tropical to subtropical" }, "Land use": { "agricultural land": { "text": "56.3% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: arable land": { "text": "arable land: 6.4% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent crops": { "text": "permanent crops: 0.3% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent pasture": { "text": "permanent pasture: 49.6% (2018 est.)" }, "forest": { "text": "43.7% (2018 est.)" }, "other": { "text": "0% (2018 est.)" } }, "Urbanization": { "urban population": { "text": "38.8% of total population (2023)" }, "rate of urbanization": { "text": "4.24% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)" } }, "Food insecurity": { "severe localized food insecurity": { "text": "due to shortfall in agricultural production and economic downturn - the number of people in need of food assistance is expected to rise above the 1.86 million estimated in 2021-2022 because of three key factors; firstly, higher year‑on‑year prices of food and fuel are reducing households’ purchasing power, worsening their economic access to food, particularly for low-income households; secondly, the impact of extreme weather events on agricultural production in central and southern provinces in 2022 is likely to mean that farming households in the affected areas have both low food supplies from their own production and curtailed income-earning opportunities from crop sales, impinging on their food availability and economic access to food; thirdly, there has been an increase in attacks by non‑state armed groups in the northern province of Cabo Delgado in 2022
(2022)" } }, "Revenue from forest resources": { "text": "6.46% of GDP (2018 est.)" }, "Revenue from coal": { "text": "4.17% of GDP (2018 est.)" }, "Air pollutants": { "particulate matter emissions": { "text": "19.44 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)" }, "carbon dioxide emissions": { "text": "7.94 megatons (2016 est.)" }, "methane emissions": { "text": "16.26 megatons (2020 est.)" } }, "Waste and recycling": { "municipal solid waste generated annually": { "text": "2.5 million tons (2014 est.)" }, "municipal solid waste recycled annually": { "text": "25,000 tons (2014 est.)" }, "percent of municipal solid waste recycled": { "text": "1% (2014 est.)" } }, "Major lakes (area sq km)": { "fresh water lake(s)": { "text": "Lake Malawi (shared with Malawi and Tanzania) - 22,490" } }, "Major rivers (by length in km)": { "text": "Zambezi river mouth (shared with Zambia [s]), Angola, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe) - 2,740 km; Limpopo river mouth (shared with South Africa [s], Botswana, and Zimbabwe) - 1,800 kmMozambique-Eswatini: none identified
Mozambique-Malawi: the two countries have held exercises to reaffirm boundaries a number of times
Mozambique-South Africa: South Africa has placed military units to assist police operations along the border of Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique to control smuggling, poaching, and illegal migration
Mozambique-Tanzania: none identified
Mozambique-Zambia: none identified
Mozambique-Zimbabwe: none identified
" }, "Refugees and internally displaced persons": { "refugees (country of origin)": { "text": "12,178 (Democratic Republic of Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers), 9,261 (Burundi) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2023)" }, "IDPs": { "text": "1.03 million (north Mozambique, violence between the government and an opposition group, violence associated with extremists groups in 2018, political violence 2019) (2022)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "a transit country for large shipments of heroin and methamphetamine originating from Afghanistan to primarily South Africa
" } } }