Zimbabwe

AfricaCapital city: HarareCapital metro: HararePresident: Emmerson Mnangagwa
2026 population
17.1M
Rank #76 globally
Area
391k km² (151k sq mi)
Metros tracked
6
28% of population in metros
Composite score
6.7
Rank #116 globally

population: Official projection (1 Jul 2025) · indicators as of 5 Sep 2026 · 6 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography6 metros

Zimbabwe metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
6 polygons

Select a metro for its rank and a link to its page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 6 tracked metros
6 metros
#602Harare★ Capital▲ Largest
Harare · Mashonaland East · 2.9M · Emerging Metro
3.9
Bulawayo · 779K · Emerging Metro
1.8
#1994Mutare
Manicaland · 532K · Local Metro
0.4
#2449Kwekwe
Midlands · 120K · Local Metro
0.3
Masvingo · 90K · Local Metro
0.3
#3127Gweru
Midlands · 283K · Local Metro
0.1
🗂️ Administrative subdivisions

10 entries listed under Zimbabwe across 2 types. Select any to see its metros and footprint.

10 total

Cities (1)

📋 At a glance
Official languages
Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Northern Ndebele, Nambya +11 more
Currency
Euro (€)
Legislature
Parliament of Zimbabwe
Demonym
Zimbabweans
Time zone
UTC+02:00
Driving side
Left
Calling code
+263
Internet TLD
.zw
ISO 3166
ZW
Established
1980
Highest point
Mount Nyangani (2,592 m (8,504 ft))
National anthem
National Anthem of Zimbabwe

Facts via Wikidata.

🗣️ Languages of Zimbabwe

Shona first; 3 languages share the country; 3 official.

LanguageShareStatus
Shona81%Official
English42%Official
Zimbabwean Ndebele12%Official
Manyika6.5%None
Ndau6.1%None
Kalanga5.3%None

Shares count first and second language, so they overlap and can add past 100%.

English reach
42%
Tier 3 country
Effective languages
1.2
Official-language gap
19%
Shona is spoken by 81%

Zimbabwe on the languages board · Language power

💹 Economy and developmentLower middle income
Human Dev. Index
#151 / 191
0.598
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#94 / 193
$51.2B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#143 / 193
$3.0k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#145 / 190
$6.5k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#146 / 192
$2.7k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#178 / 194
63.1 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
17.8 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#150 / 194
40%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
1.9%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#141 / 193
42/km² (109/mi²)
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#121 / 193
2.6%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#142 / 175
0.18
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#159 / 166
50.3
World Bank · 2019
Internet users
#152 / 193
42%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#182 / 185
104.7%
World Bank · 2022
CO₂ per capita
#50 / 192
0.8 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#59 / 186
57%
Ember · 2024

Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.

Alliances & Organisations3 full memberships

Political & Economic

Regional

Subregional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History5 leaders · click to expand
Emmerson Mnangagwa✦ Current
President · 8y 7m
2017–Present
Phelekezela Mphoko
Acting President · 0y 0m
2017–2017
Robert Mugabe
President · 29y 10m
1987–2017
Robert Mugabe
Prime Minister · 7y 8m
1980–1987
Canaan Banana
President · 7y 8m
1980–1987
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#110 · 0.1%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)

The power line is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.

⚔️ Wars and conflicts1 interstate war · click to expand
Combat deaths: 20,560+

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.” Figures marked “COW battle deaths” are Correlates of War battle-death counts, which run lower than total deaths.

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
16.3m
#74 in the world
Since 1800
15×
from 1.1m
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.20%
0.11% in 1800
4.3m8.6m13.0m17.3m18001850190019502000

Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Note that people and share of world can move in opposite directions. A country can grow steadily and still become a smaller part of humanity, which is what happened to almost every rich country after 1960.

👥 To 2100

The UN’s probabilistic projection for Zimbabwe: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.

Peak on the median
after 2100
still growing at 2100
2050
25.9m
95% band 21.1m to 31.8m
2100
37.2m
95% band 20.9m to 70.2m
2100 against 2025
2.19×
median still rising in 2100
18.4m36.9m55.3m73.7m1950197520002025205020752100
estimateUN median80% and 95% bandshigh and low fertilityzero migration

What drives it

Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.

1950
140k born · 47k died · -5k net migration
TFR 7.04 · life expectancy 49.4 · median age 17.4
1960
181k born · 54k died · -8k net migration
TFR 7.19 · life expectancy 53.5 · median age 15.3
1970
238k born · 59k died · -24k net migration
TFR 6.98 · life expectancy 57.8 · median age 14.7
1980
316k born · 75k died · +391k net migration
TFR 6.52 · life expectancy 59.1 · median age 14.6
1990
360k born · 95k died · +5k net migration
TFR 4.88 · life expectancy 58.3 · median age 15.2
2000
430k born · 193k died · -165k net migration
TFR 4.01 · life expectancy 46.0 · median age 16.7
2010
506k born · 170k died · -109k net migration
TFR 4.04 · life expectancy 51.9 · median age 17.3
2020
481k born · 126k died · -89k net migration
TFR 3.75 · life expectancy 61.5 · median age 17.4

Every country to 2100 →

Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.

💰 Billionaires1 · $2.1B combined · click to expand
Telecom · Telecom
$2.1B

Source: Forbes real-time billionaires (via the rtb-api project). Net worth as of the latest monthly snapshot.

🏆 National Teams

Zimbabwe on the international stage. Select a card for the full record.