Over 59 000 Bulawayo residents have migrated to South Africa, making it the top destination for emigrants, according to the 2022 Population and Housing Census.
According to the 2022 Population and Housing Census for Bulawayo Province, compiled by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT), 73,190 people emigrated from Bulawayo province.
“In the province, 59,450 emigrants were based in South Africa and 3,469 were in Botswana. For overseas countries, the United Kingdom had 4,026 emigrants. Migration initially increased with age for both males and females, peaking at 20 to 24 years age group (10,758 males and 10,485 females) and declining after that,” the report read.
“The population size of Bulawayo province was 665,952, of which 307,871 were male and 358.081 were female. The sex ratio at birth was 86 males per 100 females. The population with registered births was 91.3 percent, while 7.9 percent of the births were not registered and 0.8 percent had an unknown registration status.”
The census report also showed that 92.0 percent of the city’s population had a national identity document, while 7.5 percent never acquired one, and 0.5 percent had an unknown status.
It also established that 99.6 percent of the population for Bulawayo province were Zimbabweans while 0.4 percent were citizens of other countries.
“Christians constituted 88.0 percent of the population in the province. The population which did not identify with any religion was 7.8 percent. Concerning Christianity, 24.9 percent were Pentecostal,” the census noted.
“Those constituting African tradition are 2.4 percent, Roman Catholic 8.5 percent, apostolic sect 21.2 percent, protestant 20.2 percent, other Christians 13.2 percent, Islam 3.2 percent, Hinduism 0.1 percent and other religion was 1.4 percent.”
Regarding marriage statistics, 43.9 percent of the population was married while 43.5 were never married.
“The types of marriage include civil, customary registered, and customary unregistered. Widowed constituted 5.2 percent, separated were 2.4 percent, divorced were 2.0 percent while those cohabiting were 2.5 percent.”
