Cameroon
- Capital:
- Yaoundé
- Continent:
- Africa
- Region(s):
- Middle Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa
- Abbreviation:
- CMR
* As of 6/9/2025
1 birth
Every 32.2 seconds
1 death
Every 2.5 minutes
1 emigrant
Every 34.3 minutes
1 person
Every 41.6 seconds
Cameroon’s population is made up of its indigenous ethnicity, the Baka, also known as the pygmies. These are the longest, continuously residing indigenous peoples next to the Cameroon Highlanders which comprise approximately 31% of the population. Equatorial Bantu make up an estimated 19% of the population. Kirdi and Fulani peoples are also a good percentage of the residents of Cameroon.
Cameroonians usually have large, extended families with both polygamous and monogamous marriages in practice. Thanks to the encouragement of large families with many children, more than 60% of the current Cameroonian population is under 25 years of age. The current median age of those residing in Cameroon is 18.5 years of age, with a total life expectancy of approximately 59 years.
Languages in use here include the official use of English and French, with at least 24 major African language groups that are used regularly.
Religious affiliation within Cameroon boasts a whopping 70% Christian belief base. 21% is of the Islamic faith, and a marginal 6% still maintain indigenous belief systems dating back to the cultural inception thousands of years ago (CIA, 2018). Islamic believers are concentrated in the north of Cameroon while Christian believers are dense in the southern and western region of the country.
After a 2017 ranking of 107 and a happiness rating of 4.695, Cameroon has jumped to position 99 in 2018 on the World Happiness Report with an overall happiness rating of 4.975 out of a possible 10.
The indigenous people, called the Baka (or Pygmies), have inhabited the land of Cameroon for more than 2000 years. Europeans started trading with the nation in the late 1400s, with the Germans eventually laying claim to the land in the late 1800s. However, after Germany’s defeat in the first world war, the land was split between the French and the British. The people of Cameroon gained independence on the first day of 1960.
Since their independence, the growth rate increase to over 2% annually, and was even higher than 3% in the 1980s.