People in Africa

Africa has the second highest population on the planet; the continent with the highest population is Asia. The country with the largest population in Africa is Nigeria, which was estimated to be just over 170 million in 2012. The country with the smallest population in Africa is Saint Helena. The two major religions in Africa are Christianity and Islam although many communities and tribal groups have their on religion. Islam is the largest religion in North Africa and the horn of Africa. A recent estimate is that 47% of the population of Africa practices Islam. There are about 2,000 different languages in Africa there are four major linguistic families that exist in Africa: Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo, and Khosian. Afro-Asiatic family contains about 200 languages that are spoken by around 285 million people. The Niger-Congo family is the largest linguistic family in the entire world and can be found all over sub-Saharan Africa. The African Union is a union of 54 African countries that is similar to the European Union. Morocco is the only country in Africa that isn’t in the African Union. Three countries are currently suspended members, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau and the Central African Republic. They were all suspended due to internal conflict. Africa is being predicted to have 2.4 billion people living there by 2050. Some people call this a mixed blessing as it should bring economic growth to Africa but there is a bad side to it. The increase in population means that African nations have more people to support on crumbling infrastructure that in most cases cant support its current population.