Demographics & population — Chad
Population size, age structure, migration, ethnicity, language, education, and health indicators.
Profile updated 2026-06-02
⚡ Demographics & population at a glance
Population size, age structure, migration, ethnicity, language, education, and health indicators. Key figure for Chad: 19,093,595
Immigration rules and fees change frequently — confirm current requirements on official government or embassy websites.
Population overview
- Population
19,093,595
- Population Growth Rate
3.01%
- Population Distribution
- the population is unevenly distributed due to contrasts in climate and physical geography
- the highest density is found in the southwest, particularly around Lake Chad and points south
- the dry Saharan zone to the north is the least densely populated
- Urban Population
- urban population: 24.4%
- of total population rate of urbanization: 4.1% annual rate of change
- Population in Major Urban Areas
1.592 million N'DJAMENA (capital)
- Population: Male/Female
- male: 9,464,699
- female: 9,628,896
Age & family
- Age Structure
- years: 45.8% (male 4,428,132/female 4,323,398) 15-64
- years: 51.7% (male 4,831,744/female 5,031,383) 65
- years and over: 2.5% (male 204,823/female 274,115)
- Median Age
- total: 16.7
- years male: 16.3
- years female: 17.2 years
- Birth Rate - births/1,000 population
39
- Death Rate - deaths/1,000 population
9
- Total Fertility Rate - children born/woman
5.24
- Gross reproduction rate
3
- Child Marriage
- women married by age 15: 24.2%
- women married by age 18: 60.6%
- men married by age 18: 8.1%
- Contraceptive Prevalance Rate - female 12-49
8.1%
- Contraceptive Prevalence Rate - female 12-49
8.1%
- Currently married women (ages 15-49)
70.6%
- Mean Age for Mother's First Birth (age 25-49)
18.1
- Mother's mean age at first birth
18.1
- Sex Ratio at Birth - male/female
- at birth: 1.04
- male(s)/female 0-14 years: 1.02
- male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.96
- male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.75
- male(s)/female total population: 0.98 male(s)/female
Migration
- Net Migration Rate - migrant(s)/1,000 population
-0.1
- Demographic profile
Despite the start of oil production in 2003, around 40% of Chad’s population lived below the poverty line as of 2018.
The population will continue to grow rapidly because of the country’s very high fertility rate and large youth cohort – more than 65% of the populace is under the age of 25 as of 2022 – although the mortality rate is high and life expectancy is low.
Chad has the world’s second highest maternal mortality rate as of 2017.
Among the primary risk factors are poverty, anemia, rural habitation, high fertility, poor education, and a lack of access to family planning and obstetric care.
Impoverished, uneducated adolescents living in rural areas are most affected.
To improve women’s reproductive health and reduce fertility, Chad will need to increase women’s educational attainment, job participation, and knowledge of and access to family planning.
Less than a quarter of women are literate, less than 10% use contraceptives, and more than 40% undergo genital cutting.
As of December 2022, more than 403,000 refugees from Sudan and more than 120,000 from the Central African Republic strain Chad’s limited resources and create tensions in host communities.
Thousands of new refugees fled to Chad in 2013 to escape worsening violence in the Darfur region of Sudan.
The large refugee populations are hesitant to return to their home countries because of continued instability.
Chad was relatively stable in 2012 in comparison to other states in the region, but past fighting between government forces and opposition groups and inter-communal violence have left more than 380,000 of its citizens displaced in the eastern part of the country as of 2022.
Ethnicity & language
- Ethnic Groups
Sara (Ngambaye/Sara/Madjingaye/Mbaye) 30.5%, Kanembu/Bornu/Buduma 9.8%, Arab 9.7%, Wadai/Maba/Masalit/Mimi 7%, Gorane 5.8%, Masa/Musseye/Musgum 4.9%, Bulala/Medogo/Kuka 3.7%, Marba/Lele/Mesme 3.5%, Mundang 2.7%, Bidiyo/Migaama/Kenga/Dangleat 2.5%, Dadjo/Kibet/Muro 2.4%, Tupuri/Kera 2%, Gabri/Kabalaye/Nanchere/Somrai 2%, Fulani/Fulbe/Bodore 1.8%, Karo/Zime/Peve 1.3%, Baguirmi/Barma 1.2%, Zaghawa/Bideyat/Kobe 1.1%, Tama/Assongori/Mararit 1.1%, Mesmedje/Massalat/Kadjakse 0.8%, other Chadian ethnicities 3.4%, Chadians of foreign ethnicities 0.9%, foreign nationals 0.3%, unspecified 1.7%
- Language Note
French (official), Arabic (official), Sara (in south), more than 120 different languages and dialects
- Nationality Noun
- Chadian(s) adjective: Chadian
Education
- Literacy - total population
26.8%
- Literacy - male
35.4%
- Literacy - female
18.2%
- Literacy Definition
age 15 and over can read and write French or Arabic
- Education Expenditures - percent of GDP
2.9%
- Total School Life Expectancy - (primary to tertiary)
- total: 7
- years male: 9
- years female: 6 years
Health & living conditions
- Life Expectancy at Birth
- total population: 60
- years male: 58.1
- years female: 62 years
- Infant Mortality Rate
- total: 62.5 deaths/1,000
- live births male: 68.1 deaths/1,000
- live births female: 56.7 deaths/1,000 live births
- Infant Mortality Rate - total deaths/1,000 live births
- total: 62.5 deaths/1,000
- live births male: 68.1 deaths/1,000
- live births female: 56.7 deaths/1,000 live births
- Maternal Mortality Rate - deaths/100,000 live births
1,063
- Physicians Density - physicians/1,000 population
.06
- Hospital Bed Density - beds/1,000 population
.43
- Health Expenditures - percent of GDP
5.4%
- Major Infectious Diseases - degree of risk
- very high food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E,
- and typhoid fever vectorborne diseases: malaria, dengue fever,
- meningococcal meningitis note: on 31 August 2023, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Africa; Chad 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
6.1%
- Tobacco Use
- total: 8.3%
- male: 13.8%
- female: 2.7%
- Alcohol consumption per capita
- total: 0.55
- liters of pure alcohol beer: 0.37
- liters of pure alcohol wine: 0.01
- liters of pure alcohol spirits: 0.01
- liters of pure alcohol other alcohols: 0.16 liters of pure alcohol
- Drinking Water Source - percent of urban population improved
- urban: 90.2%
- of population rural: 51.9%
- of population total: 60.9%
- urban: 9.8%
- of population rural: 48.1%
- of population total: 39.1% of population
- Sanitation Facility Access - percent of urban population improved
- urban: 57.5%
- of population rural: 4.9%
- of population total: 17.3%
- urban: 42.5%
- of population rural: 95.1%
- of population total: 82.7% of population
- Underweight - percent of children under five years
18.9%