Poor Niger's population doubles in a generation

NIAMEY, Jan 5 (Reuters) Landlocked and dusty Niger, officially one of the worst places on earth to live, has seen its population double in just 22 years, a growth rate more than twice the world average, data showed.

The former French colony's population rose 3.3 per cent during 2006 to top 13 million, figures from the National Statistics Institute (INS) showed. Global population growth was 1.2 percent in 2005, according to World Bank figures.

Niger has one of the highest infant death rates in the world, but also one of the highest birth rates, with women giving birth to an average 7.1 children each.

The high figure reflected a tendency for birth rates in poor countries to be higher than in developed ones, the product of poor education, high infant mortality and the needs of subsistence agriculture.

Life expectancy, at 44.7 years in 2004 according to World Bank statistics, is among the lowest in the world, making Niger one of the youngest societies, with nearly 49 per cent of people under 15 years old.

Located on the southern side of the Sahara and named after the Niger river which traces a fertile band through Africa's otherwise arid and dusty Sahel region, the country suffers chronic food shortages.

A succession of failed harvests and a plague of locusts caused widespread hunger in 2005. Despite improved harvests, more than 500 people died from malnutrition in 2006, government health statistics show.

But the INS statistics showed progress in several fields, with the number of emaciated children falling to 10 per cent from nearly 25 per cent eight years ago, and infant mortality falling to 81 per 1,000, from 123 eight years ago.

Schooling levels in last academic year rose to 53.5 percent from just 30.4 per cent six years earlier.

The most recent United Nations Human Development Index, published in November, placed Niger bottom of the 177 countries ranked by quality of life based on income, education, health care and life expectancy.

REUTERS MQA VC1032