Burundi Population

Burundi has high fertility and ranks among the world's poorest and most densely populated countries, a combination that puts severe pressure on farmland. Its overwhelmingly young, rural population continues to grow quickly. Easing that land squeeze depends on a fertility decline that has so far been slow.

Burundi is the world's 78th most populous country, home to about 14.6 million people in 2026. A country of Eastern Africa, its trajectory to 2100 is governed by how births, deaths and migration play out. Population density stands at about 568 people for every square kilometre of land.

Growth continues for Burundi until around 2100, the year its population is set to crest at about 37.8 million. From there a slow fall takes it to roughly 37.8 million by century's end.

Fertility is high, around 4.79 births per woman, the engine of rapid, sustained growth. Emigration adds a further drag, as departures outnumber arrivals year to year.

Half of Burundi is currently younger than about 16, but by 2100 the median age is projected to reach around 34, while life expectancy, near 64 years, keeps rising. For now it remains one of the world's youngest populations, with a large generation about to reach working age. That ageing slowly changes everything from the size of the workforce to the cost of care and pensions.

These figures follow the UN's medium variant, the most widely cited scenario. The low and high variants, driven mainly by differing fertility assumptions, fan out into a wide range by 2100, so treat each number as a central estimate rather than a precise forecast.