arable land: 6.4%
permanent crops: 0.3%
permanent pasture: 49.6%

Mozambique is a poor sparsely populated country with high fertility and mortality rates and a rapidly growing youthful population – 45% of the population is younger than 15. Mozambique’s high poverty rate is sustained by natural disasters disease high population growth low agricultural productivity and the unequal distribution of wealth. The country’s birth rate is among the world’s highest averaging around more than 5 children per woman (and higher in rural areas) for at least the last three decades. The sustained high level of fertility reflects gender inequality low contraceptive use early marriages and childbearing and a lack of education particularly among women. The high population growth rate is somewhat restrained by the country’s high HIV/AIDS and overall mortality rates. Mozambique ranks among the worst in the world for HIV/AIDS prevalence HIV/AIDS deaths and life expectancy at birth.
Mozambique is predominantly a country of emigration but internal rural-urban migration has begun to grow. Mozambicans primarily from the country’s southern region have been migrating to South Africa for work for more than a century. Additionally approximately 1.7 million Mozambicans fled to Malawi South Africa and other neighboring countries between 1979 and 1992 to escape from civil war. Labor migrants have usually been men from rural areas whose crops have failed or who are unemployed and have headed to South Africa to work as miners; multiple generations of the same family often become miners. Since the abolition of apartheid in South Africa in 1991 other job opportunities have opened to Mozambicans including in the informal and manufacturing sectors but mining remains their main source of employment.

18.9 years
median age at first birth among women 25-29 (2011 est.)

urban: 80.6% of population
rural: 37% of population
total: 51.1% of population
urban: 19.4% of population
rural: 63% of population
total: 48.9% of population (2015 est.)

urban: 42.4% of population
rural: 10.1% of population
total: 20.5% of population
urban: 57.6% of population
rural: 89.9% of population
total: 79.5% of population (2015 est.)

Democratic Movement of Mozambique (Movimento Democratico de Mocambique) or MDM [Daviz SIMANGO]
Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frente de Liberatacao de Mocambique) or FRELIMO [Filipe NYUS]
Mozambique National Resistance (Resistencia Nacional Mocambicana) or RENAMO [Afonso DHLAKAMA]

At independence in 1975 Mozambique was one of the world's poorest countries. Socialist policies economic mismanagement and a brutal civil war from 1977 to 1992 further impoverished the country. In 1987 the government embarked on a series of macroeconomic reforms designed to stabilize the economy. These steps combined with donor assistance and with political stability since the multi-party elections in 1994 propelled the country’s GDP from $4 billion in 1993 following the war to about $35 billion in 2016. Fiscal reforms including the introduction of a value-added tax and reform of the customs service have improved the government's revenue collection abilities.
In spite of these gains more than half the population remains below the poverty line. Subsistence agriculture continues to employ the vast majority of the country's work force. Citizens rioted in September 2010 after fuel water electricity and bread price increases were announced. In an attempt to lessen the negative impact on the population the government implemented subsidies decreased taxes and tariffs and instituted other fiscal measures.
A substantial trade imbalance persists although aluminum production from the Mozal Aluminum Smelter has significantly boosted export earnings in recent years. In 2012 the Mozambican Government took over Portugal's last remaining share in the Cahora Bassa Hydroelectricity Company a significant contributor to the Southern African Power Pool. The government has plans to expand the Cahora Bassa Dam and build additional dams to increase its electricity exports and fulfill the needs of its burgeoning domestic industries.
Mozambique's once substantial foreign debt was reduced through forgiveness and rescheduling under the IMF's Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and Enhanced HIPC initiatives. However in 2016 information surfaced revealing that the Mozambican Government was responsible for over $2 billion in government-backed loans originally secured between 2012-14 by state-owned defense and security companies without parliamentary approval or national budget inclusion which prompted the IMF and international donors to halt direct budget support to the Government of Mozambique. This sizable external debt burden donor withdrawal elevated inflation and currency depreciation contributed to weak growth in 2016 and forebode weaker economic growth in the next few years.
Mozambique grew at an average annual rate of 6%-8% in the decade leading up to 2015 one of Africa's strongest performances but growth slowed in 2016 to about 3.5% as low commodity prices reduced export earnings. However many forecasts predict an increase in growth in 2017 as coal exports grow. Two major international consortiums are seeking approval to develop massive natural gas deposits off the coast of Cabo Delgado province in what has the potential to become the largest infrastructure project in Africa. The government predicts sales of liquefied natural gas from these projects could generate several billion dollars in revenues annually sometime after 2022.

$35.08 billion (2016 est.)
$33.35 billion (2015 est.)
$30.96 billion (2014 est.)

3.8% (2016 est.)
6.6% (2015 est.)
7.4% (2014 est.)

$1200 (2016 est.)
$1200 (2015 est.)
$1200 (2014 est.)

5.6% of GDP (2016 est.)
5% of GDP (2015 est.)
17.2% of GDP (2014 est.)

22.4% (2014 est.)
17% (2007 est.)

45.6 (2008)
47.3 (2002)

121.2% of GDP (2016 est.)
72.1% of GDP (2015 est.)

19.2% (2016 est.)
3.6% (2015 est.)

9.5% (17 January 2013)
3.25% (31 December 2010)

21.18% (31 December 2016 est.)
14.87% (31 December 2015 est.)

$3.411 billion (31 December 2016 est.)
$4.758 billion (31 December 2015 est.)

$5.142 billion (31 December 2016 est.)
$7.265 billion (31 December 2015 est.)

$4.242 billion (31 December 2016 est.)
$5.565 billion (31 December 2015 est.)

$-4.307 billion (2016 est.)
$-5.968 billion (2015 est.)

$3.328 billion (2016 est.)
$3.413 billion (2015 est.)

$4.733 billion (2016 est.)
$7.577 billion (2015 est.)

$2.081 billion (31 December 2016 est.)
$2.582 billion (31 December 2015 est.)

$10.48 billion (31 December 2016 est.)
$10.06 billion (31 December 2015 est.)

meticais (MZM) per US dollar -
63.067 (2016 est.)
63.067 (2015 est.)
39.983 (2014 est.)
31.367 (2013 est.)
28.38 (2012 est.)

1.03% of GDP (2016)
0.99% of GDP (2015)
1.02% of GDP (2014)
0.99% of GDP (2013)
0.91% of GDP (2012)