Introduction

The People's Republic of Mozambique (P.R.M.) had adopted the socialist planning of its economy as the fundamental concern in its development. One of the essential bases for this planning is an exact knowledge of the nature of the population, not only its growth, but also the territorial distribution of population and the existing production relations.

For this purpose, a general population census of the whole country was carried out in August 1980. This showed a national population of 12,130,000 with an annual growth rate of 2.4 per cent for the period 1970–80. The mean demographic density is 14 per sq km, but the density is irregular, varying from 2 to over 30 per sq km. The birth and mortality rates are 45 and 19 per thousand respectively, with an average life expectancy of about 45 years old; more than 50 per cent of the population is less than 20 years old. Zambezia and Nampula, two of the ten provinces of the country, contain 40 per cent of the total population, with an average density of 23.6 and 28.6 respectively. In contrast, the largest province, Niassa, is the one with the smallest population, having an average demographic density of only 2 per sq km. The rural population makes up about 88 per cent of the total and is for the most part widely scattered.

The allocation of the rural population before national independence

Before independence in 1975, the territorial distribution of the Mozambiquan rural population was characterized by very irregular and scattered settlement, closely related to the form and distribution of land occupation and ownership.