KAMPALA – The Uganda National Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) has recalled the 2024 National Population and Housing Census report amid uproar from the public over contradicting population figures.
Several members of the public raised concerns over the authenticity of the report after the census report released last Thursday wrongly showed that the Acholi population dropped from 2,131,443 to 1,941,913, and that of the Bagisu population from 2,390,975 to 2,096,149. The report showed the populations of all tribes in the country shooting upwards.
Mr Vincent Senono, the Ubos principal statistician and acting deputy executive director, said they would pull down the report from the website to make corrections.
“It is not that we forged the report or changed it. You know when you are writing a report and there are many people, sometimes you ignore small things. So I know Ubos is going to come back to you people to officially clarify. We are removing it (report) from the website now and then upload the re vised one,” Mr Senono said.
He said the error was only in the figures indicated for 2014, but those for 2024 remain accurate.
Appearing on Capital Fm talkshow on Saturday, Mr Chris Mukiza, the Ubos executive director, described the mixup as a human error.
“The population figures in the census 2014 for Bakiga and Bagisu; Langi and Acholi were erroneously interchanged at the time of printing, but every tribe experienced growth over the past 10 years,” Mr Mukiza said.
The current 2024 population for the Bakiga stands at 2,947,837,and the Langi standing at 2,703,277. The report had also indicated wrong figures for the Bakiga and the Langi in the 2014 census, showing 1,470,884 for the Bakiga, and 1,647,382 for the Langi, instead of the 2,390,446 for the Bakiga, and 2,131,495 for the Langi.
Statistics for the 2024 census indicate that the Baganda remained the dominant ethnic group with 7,037,404 million people, up from 5,555,319 million in 2014. They are followed by the Banyankore standing at 4,200,782 million, Basoga (3,703,535 million), lteso (3,146,079 million), Bakiga (2,947,837 million) and Langi (2,703,277 million). They are followed by the Bagisu with 2,096,149 million people, Acho-li (1,941,913 million), the Lugbara at 1,230,384, the Banyoro (1,218,121 mil-lion), the Alur (1,152,858 million), the Bakonzo (1,104,462 million), the Ba-tom (1,005,433 million), the Bafumbira (949,860), with other tribes combining to contribute 8,934,046 million people. Uganda’s total population stands at 45,935,046 million people.
