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People
Population
With more than nine million inhabitants across the country, Burundi's urban population has grown at a rate of 2.3 percent annually, though it still represents only eight percent of the population. The population growth rate for the whole country is 3.6 percent. More than two-thirds of Burundians live in the southwest and northwest provinces.
Ethnicity
The population of Burundi is generally divided into two major ethnic groups: the Bahutus and the Batutsis. The Bahutus comprise around 85 percent of the total population. The Batutsi minority -- many of whom tend to be well-educated -- makes up 14 percent of the population. The Batutsi minority, in the past, dominated the Burundian government and military. The Twa (pygmy) people make up about one percent of the population.
Considerable emphasis has been placed on the differences of ethnicity and economic activities in an effort to explain Bahutu and Batutsi differences. The primordial explanation focuses on the difference between Hamitic Batutsi and Bantu Bahutus. Occupational explanations focus on the fact that Batutsis tend to be herders whereas Bahutus tend to be agriculturalists.
These ethnic and occupational differences are not necessarily so rigid. As scholar Rene Lemarchand argues, "ethnic entrepreneurs" take advantage of the linguistic and geographic overlaps between the ethnic identities to forge alternate identities that meet their needs. In this way, differences between Bahutus and Batutsis have vacillated in extremity over time as influenced by both internal and external factors. Lemarchand points out that clan and feudal divides still dominate the political landscape and in fact take us farther than ethnicity in explaining the complex relationships of Burundian society.
Religion
In general, religious affiliation can be broken down in the following way. Sixty-seven percent of Burundi's inhabitants are Catholic, only ten percent are Muslim, and twenty-three percent adhere to indigenous beliefs. The syncretic blending of religious beliefs makes for a significant overlap between these categories.
Language and Literacy
Kirundi and French are the official languages of Burundi, however a dialect of KiSwahili is also spoken and English is taught in some schools. An estimated 59.3 percent of the population, ages 15 and older, are literate -- generally, the rate of literacy for men is higher (at 67.3 percent) than that of women (at 52.2 percent).
Note that 8.3 percent of GDP is spent on educational expenditures in this country.
Health and Welfare
Burundians have an average life expectancy at birth of only 58.29 years for the total population, with slighly lower life expectancy for men (at 56.65 years) than women (at 59.98 percent), according to recent estimates. The infant mortality rate is 63.38 deaths per 1,000 live births. The fertility rate is 6.25 children born per woman. The rate of HIV/AIDS infection is 2 percent, with 110,000 people living with the disease in recent years.
The risk of infectious diseases in this country is very high. Food or waterborne diseases include bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever; vectorborne diseases include malaria; water contact diseases include schistosomiasis; and animal contact diseases include rabies.
Note that 13.1 percent of GDP is spent on health expenditures in this country.
Human Development
One notable indicator used to measure a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which is compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main areas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a ranking of 169 countries, the HDI placed Burundi in the low human development category -- near the very end of the ranking -- at 166th place.
Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief, www.countrywatch.com; supplementary sources: Lemarchand, Rene; see Bibliography for general list of research sources.
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