New findings from the 2019 Kenya population and housing census shows that 75 percent of Kenya’s population is aged below 35 years, with61.9 percent of youth are in the active labour.
During the 2009 national census, 30.237 million of Kenya’s total population then comprised the youth. Ten years later, the 2019 census results show Kenyans below the age of 35 years are 35.700 million.
This makes up to 75.1 percent of the total population. The youth population aged between 18 years to 34 years is 13.777 million people as compared to 2009 where the number stood at 11.809 million people.
The population of working-age between 15 to 64 years is 27.151 million people, which is 57.1 percent a slight increase from 2009s 20.684 million people that was 53.6 million people.
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) Director General Zachary Mwangi says the uptake of youthful Kenyans in the job market has increased with only a fraction looking for jobs.
“The conventional population for the youth aged 18-34 years was 13,621,492 out of which 8,436,418 which is 61.9 percent were working while 1,647,484 were seeking work or indicated that there was no job available.” Said Mwangi.
Children aged between 0 to 14 are 18,541,982 while adolescents aged 10-19 years were 11,631,929. The total population aged 3 years and above who were in learning institutions during the time of the census was 17,780,277.
The population attending pre-primary level was 3,275,028. Primary level stood at 10,028,470 with secondary schools doubling to 3,403,657 in 2019 from 1,798,587 in 2009. Universities have also recorded increased enrolment from 171,855 in the year 2009 to 470,983 enrolments in 2019.
In relation to distribution of populations by administrative units, the total urban population was 14,831, 700 while rural was 32,732,596. Nairobi County lead the country in the most populated urban areas with Eldoret coming fifth.
“The total percentage of urban to tatal population increased from 24.1 percent in 2009 to 31.2 percent in 2019. The mostly dense sub locations are Kware Nairobi, Tibwani in Mombasa, Mlolongo in Machakos, Tassia in Nairobi and Mowlem in Nairobi.”
The Cabinet Secretary for National treasury and planning Ukur Yatanni during the official launch of the reports called on the private sector to use these numbers to inform their business decisions.
The private sector must take advantage of the data presented and use it to study the market, their target demographic and purchasing power and tailor products that suit them from this data.”
