17,963,211 (2022 est.)
noun: Chadian(s)
adjective: Chadian
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% (2014-15 est.)
French (official), Arabic (official), Sara (in south), more than 120 different languages and dialects
major-language sample(s):
The World Factbook, une source indispensable d'informations de base. (French)
كتاب حقائق العالم، المصدر الذي لا يمكن الاستغناء عنه للمعلومات الأساسية (Arabic)
The World Factbook, the indispensable source for basic information.
Muslim 52.1%, Protestant 23.9%, Roman Catholic 20%, animist 0.3%, other Christian 0.2%, none 2.8%, unspecified 0.7% (2014-15 est.)
Despite the start of oil production in 2003, 40% of Chad’s population lives below the poverty line. 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 – although the mortality rate is high and life expectancy is low. Chad has the world’s third highest maternal mortality rate. 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. Only about a quarter of women are literate, less than 5% use contraceptives, and more than 40% undergo genital cutting.
As of October 2017, more than 320,000 refugees from Sudan and more than 75,000 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 nearly 60,000 of its citizens displaced in the eastern part of the country.
0-14 years: 47.43% (male 4,050,505/female 3,954,413)
15-24 years: 19.77% (male 1,676,495/female 1,660,417)
25-54 years: 27.14% (male 2,208,181/female 2,371,490)
55-64 years: 3.24% (male 239,634/female 306,477)
65 years and over: 2.43% (male 176,658/female 233,087) (2020 est.)
total dependency ratio: 98.7
youth dependency ratio: 94.7
elderly dependency ratio: 4
potential support ratio: 24.9 (2021 est.)
total: 16.1 years
male: 15.6 years
female: 16.5 years (2020 est.)
3.09% (2022 est.)
40.45 births/1,000 population (2022 est.)
9.45 deaths/1,000 population (2022 est.)
-0.13 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2022 est.)
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 as shown in this population distribution map
urban population: 24.4% of total population (2023)
rate of urbanization: 4.1% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
1.533 million N'DJAMENA (capital) (2022)
at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
0-14 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
15-24 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
25-54 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
55-64 years: 0.77 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2022 est.)
18.1 years (2014/15 est.)
note: data represents median age at first birth among women 20-49
1,140 deaths/100,000 live births (2017 est.)
total: 65.48 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 71.21 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 59.52 deaths/1,000 live births (2022 est.)
total population: 59.15 years
male: 57.32 years
female: 61.06 years (2022 est.)
5.46 children born/woman (2022 est.)
8.1% (2019)
improved: urban: 90.2% of population
rural: 51.9% of population
total: 60.9% of population
unimproved: urban: 9.8% of population
rural: 48.1% of population
total: 39.1% of population (2020 est.)
4.4% of GDP (2019)
0.06 physicians/1,000 population (2020)
improved: urban: 57.5% of population
rural: 4.9% of population
total: 17.3% of population
unimproved: urban: 42.5% of population
rural: 95.1% of population
total: 82.7% of population (2020 est.)
1.1% (2021 est.)
degree of risk: very high (2020)
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: malaria and dengue fever
water contact diseases: schistosomiasis
animal contact diseases: rabies
respiratory diseases: meningococcal meningitis
note: on 21 March 2022, 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
6.1% (2016)
total: 0.55 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
beer: 0.37 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
wine: 0.01 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
spirits: 0.01 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
other alcohols: 0.16 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
total: 8.3% (2020 est.)
male: 13.8% (2020 est.)
female: 2.7% (2020 est.)
29.2% (2019)
women married by age 15: 24.2%
women married by age 18: 60.6%
men married by age 18: 8.1% (2019 est.)
2.9% of GDP (2021 est.)
definition: age 15 and over can read and write French or Arabic
total population: 22.3%
male: 31.3%
female: 14% (2016)
total: 7 years
male: 9 years
female: 6 years (2015)
total: 1.5%
male: 2.4%
female: 0.7% (2018)
NOTE: The information regarding Chad on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Chad 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Chad 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.
This page was last modified 01 Dec 23, Copyright © 23 ITA all rights reserved.