People

Namibia is a racially and ethnically diverse nation of slightly over 2,000,000* people.     About 50% of the population belongs to the Ovambo tribe.   Other tribes include the Herero, Damara, Nama, Caprivian, Kavango and San (sometimes known as Bushmen).   About 13% of the population is of European or mixed racial decent. While English is the national language, many other languages are spoken.   Oshiwambo is most widely spoken as a first language, followed by several other tribal languages as well as Afrikaans and German.  Most Namibians are proficient in more than one language.

*The US State Department lists the population of Namibia at 2,030,692with the following notation:

” estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2005 est.)”