Data story: How different are Central, Eastern, Northern and Western Uganda, and which is pulling ahead?
Northern Uganda is growing fastest, Eastern slowest
Central is the largest region with 13.0 million people. Since 2014 Northern grew 3.4% a year and Eastern 2.4%. Differences in water, power, schooling and work between the regions are wider than the population gap.
- Central: 13.0 million (3.2% a year · 28.3% of Uganda)
- Eastern: 11.4 million (2.4% a year · 24.8% of Uganda)
- Northern: 10.0 million (3.4% a year · 21.7% of Uganda)
- Western: 11.6 million (2.7% a year · 25.2% of Uganda)
What comes next: Each region's share of Uganda in 2034
Central 28.3% → 29.0%; Eastern 24.8% → 23.5%; Northern 21.7% → 22.7%; Western 25.2% → 24.8%. Shares move slowly, but a region growing one point a year faster gains roughly a million extra people per decade.
How this was worked out: Trend projection by Pearl Insights, not an official UBOS projection: the average annual growth rate between the August 2014 and May 2024 censuses is carried forward unchanged. The range shows the same rate 0.5 percentage points lower and higher. Real growth will differ as birth rates, migration and refugee arrivals change. Each region's own 2014-2024 rate is carried forward.
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Source: Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), National Population and Housing Census 2024 (final results, drill-down tables). Published on Pearl Insights (https://pearl-insights.org), an independent civic data platform, not an official government website.