Women outnumber men in marriage — report

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Uganda's rising population is accompanied by a disparity in marriage rates, with a higher proportion of women getting married compared to men.

The 2024 census findings released last week at Kampala Serena Hotel show that the females comprise most individuals currently married or living together with their partners as if married.

According to the Uganda National Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) report, the females who are currently married or living together with their partner as though married stand at 60.7%, while the males are 51.3%.

The report also indicates that females who are never married stand at 35.6% while males at 47.2%.

It also shows that the females who have divorced or separated are 2.9% while males are 1.3%. Females who have been widowed account for 0.9%, whereas males account for 0.3%.

In terms of marriage status, the majority of females (25.3%) and males (20.2%) are married under customary law, followed by Christian marriages, with 10.2% of females and 7.9% of males. On the other hand, female Muslims who are married constitute 3.9% while males 3.1%.

Population and housing censuses are the most comprehensive and reliable national data resource that provides critical input into national development planning and programme development.

The census further provides data to monitor and evaluate the impact of various national and international development frameworks such as the third National Development Plan (NDP III), Vision 2040, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), among others.

While presenting the findings of the report recently, UBOS executive director, Dr Chris Mukiza, explained that the results released earlier had been revised downwards by about 200,000 people to accommodate errors. He noted that these errors arose from duplicates from the preliminary report that was released in June.

Background on census

Mukisa said, population and housing censuses are regarded as the most significant and gigantic statistical undertaking in the world.

“In Uganda, population censuses remain the main source of demographic and socioeconomic data,” he said recently.

Uganda has conducted 11 national population censuses, six of which were in the post-independence period. In the pre-independence period, population counts were conducted in 1911, 1921 and 1931, while scientific censuses in 1948 and 1959.

The African and non-African populations were enumerated separately in each of these censuses.

In the post-independence period, population censuses were conducted in 1969, 1980, 1991, 2002, 2014 and 2024.

“These were national in nature with both African and non-African populations being enumerated simultaneously. Overtime, census undertaking has improved in quality and scope, with every census being more comprehensive than the preceding one,” he added.

The UBOS boss also said in the 2024 census, an ICT environment was established to manage the data collection and retrieval of individual records of over 47 million persons (projected population) and over 70,000 community records during the enumeration exercise.