Determinants of population growth in Bukombe district, Shinyanga – Tanzania
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Date
2006
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
A study on determinants of population growth in Bukombe District was conducted in
Bukombe District in Shinyanga Region. The study was prompted by the exceptionally high
population growth rate of 7.4% in the district highest among the districts in Tanzania
mainland. The need to examine the causes of this high population growth was based on the
implication of the deterioration in provision of social services and future environmental
stress. The general objective of the study was to determine factors contributing to high
population growth in Bukombe District. Such information will assist district development
stakeholders in formulating appropriate programmes and plans in order to improve the well
being of the people. A specifically the study sought to estimate the levels of fertility;
mortality and migration effects to the population growth in the district. Also the study
intended to compare between the natural increase and migration contribution to population
growth in the area. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 160
households. But as the study involved all household members, a total of 1076 respondents
from the sampled households were interviewed. Data processing and analysis were done at
SUA Main Campus. SPSS Version 11.5 for Windows was used for analysis. Generally it
was found that fertility in the study area was very high based on the levels of estimated
indices. Findings reveal that mortality is declining in the area compared with the figures in
previous years. Natural increase was found to contribute by 55% to the district population
growth while migration contributed only 45 percent.
The study recommends that:
extensive family planning programmes should be introduced to provide knowledge to the
people in the district with emphasis on the importance of a small family size which every
body can manage to care for. Second, it is recommended that health services
providers/programmes should focus more on education to mothers on health care and
provision of balanced diet to children to reduce child mortality. Third, in order to combat the increasing needs and demands of the high growing population the district authority is
urged to improve provision of social amenities and services in collaboration with the
community and the Central Government.
Description
Masters Dissertation
Keywords
Population growth, Bukombe district, Shinyanga