General Background
Tanzania is situated in Eastern Africa between Kenya and Mozambique and has a long coastline on the Indian Ocean. The terrain consists of a narrow coastal plain in the east, a central plateau and highlands in the North and South. Except for the higher mountains, the whole country has a tropical climate.
European explorers arrived in what is now Tanzania during the 1800s and, not long after the Berlin Conference in 1884, when Africa was “carved up” by European nations, Britain and Germany signed an agreement in 1886 allowing Germany to colonise the majority of the country. This excluded a narrow piece of territory along the coast, which remained under the authority of the Sultan of Zanzibar over which Britain enjoyed a protectorate.
With the defeat of Germany in the First World War, the German territory became a British protectorate that was called Tanganyika Territory in 1920. A Legislative Council was formed in 1926 to advise and consent to ordinances from the governor and in 1945 Africans were appointed to this. (During the war, 100,000 people from Tanganyika joined the allied forces.)
During the 1950s there was increasing pressure for independence and Julius Nyerere established the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), which pushed things forward and Tanganyika became independent in 1961 under Prime Minister Julius Nyerere.
Zanzibar then also became independent in 1963 under its Sultan, but a bloody revolt followed. Instability in Tanganyika also had to be controlled with the aid of British troops and sufficient peace was restored to enable Tanganyika and Zanzibar to unite to become the United Republic of Tanzania in 1964. In order to deal with hundreds of ethnic groups and multiple political parties Nyerere looked for ways to develop a one party system to create stability. He introduced African Socialism and introduced Kiswahili as the national language. He expanded the role of the state but this created opportunities for corruption and there was economic decline. In 1979, cold war politics impinged on the country as Soviet back Uganda invaded Tanzania and tried to annex one of its provinces. Nyerere’s response was to invade Uganda, which lead to Uganda’s leader, Idi Amin, going into exile. 1975 saw Nyerere passing power to Ali Hassan Mwinyi. Since then, although there have been elections that have shown irregularities, there has been relative stability in the country. In 2021 Samia Suluhu became the first female president of the country.
Some health and related statistics
- The country has a population of around 63.50 million in 2021, 35.6% of which live in urban areas.
- Life expectancy was 66.2 years in 2021, when its Gross Domestic Product/capita (adjusted for inflation and for differences in the cost of living between countries) was $2,582.
- Life expectancy has increased over the past 70 years, though like several other African countries, it experienced an epidemic of HIV/AIDS with many deaths, which contributed to a fall in life expectancy in the 1980s and 1990s. The most recent fall in life expectancy is mainly due to the Covid epidemic.
- The share of women expected to survive to age of 65 years was 69.41% in 2020.
- Although the death rate from HIV/AIDS has fallen to 47.24 in 2019, and HIV Incidence per 1000 uninfected adults was 2.08 in 2020 , HIV/AIDS has had a lasting effect on children.
- Children (0 – 14) living with HIV = 96,000 in 2021
- Children (17 and under) orphaned due to AIDS deaths = 885,067 in 2022
- HIV prevalence in young children (<5) = 0.14 in 2019
- Women make up just under 63% of cases in the population over 15 who have HIV.
- The death rate from TB, often associated with low immunity states of HIV/AIDS has been steadily falling over the last 15 year and was 68/100,000 in 2019.
Maternal Health Statistics
- Fertility rate (children/woman) = 4.73 in 2021
- Birth rate 36.21/1,000 people in 2021
- Adolescent birth rate 10 – 14 year olds (births/10 – 14 year olds) = 1.5 in 2016
- Adolescent birth rate 15 – 19 year olds (births/15 – 19 year olds) = 138.9 in 2016
- Share of women using contraceptives = 38.4% in 2016
- Nurses and midwives/1000 people = 0.58 in 2017
- Maternal Mortality Ratio = 524 in 2017
Some health statistics related to children
- Child Mortality Rate (share of children dying before age 5) = 4.59% in 2021
- Infant mortality rate (share of newborns dying before 1 year) = 3.47%
- Neonatal Mortality Rate (share of newborns dying before 28 days) = 2.01
- Death Rate from neonatal preterm birth complication per 100,000 children under 5 years = 108.84
