The People of Namibia – Who Lives Where, and What the 2023 Census Found
Namibia had 3,022,401 people at the 2023 census, at 3.7 per square kilometre. The largest single groups recorded were the Aakwanyama at 23.6%, Aandonga at 10.3% and Ovaherero at 5.9%. The 2023 census counts sub-groups, not umbrella categories., the dry winter. Rainfall is near zero, wildlife concentrates at Etosha’s waterholes, and roads are at their best. July and August are the peak — and the coldest, near 6 °C at dawn.
Most articles about Namibia’s peoples were written from the same handful of round numbers, and those numbers are now out of date. The 2023 census changed both the count and the way the counting is done, and it quietly retired several figures that are still being repeated everywhere else. It is also worth saying at the outset that these are living communities with current political concerns, not a set of cultural exhibits — which shapes how the rest of this page is written.
The headline numbers
Namibia is very often described as the second least densely populated country in the world. On World Bank 2023 data it is third, behind Mongolia at 2.23 and Australia at 3.47 per square kilometre, and the ranking shifts again depending on whether territories like Greenland are counted. “Among the least densely populated countries on earth” is true on every dataset. The specific rank is not.
What the 2023 census changed
Earlier Namibian censuses used language spoken at home as a proxy for ethnicity. The 2023 census records ethnicity directly — and it records sub-groups rather than umbrella groups. There is no census row for Ovambo, Kavango, Caprivian or San. Instead there are rows for Aakwanyama, Aandonga, Aakwambi, Vakwangali, Vagciriku, Masubia, Mafwe, Juǀʼhoansi, Haiǁom and so on.
This matters more than it sounds. The familiar line that the Ovambo are about half of all Namibians cannot be sourced to the 2023 census, because the census does not count Ovambo as a single category. The largest single groups it does record are the Aakwanyama at 23.6% (712,165 people), the Aandonga at 10.3% (311,211) and the Ovaherero at 5.9% (178,987). The smallest recorded group, the ǀAuni and Nu-ǁen, numbered 31.
Who lives where
The regional census profiles are the most useful thing in this whole subject, because they are primary data rather than generalisation. A few that shape a traveller’s route:
- Kunene — 120,762 people at 1.0 per km². Ovahimba 23.3%, Ovaherero 19.7%, Ovadhimba and Ovazemba 10.0%, Damara 8.4%, Haiǁom 3.8%, Ovatjimba 2.0%.
- Zambezi — 142,373 at 9.7 per km². Masubia 33.8%, Mafwe 26.3%, Matotela 7.8%, Mayeyi 5.7%, Hambukushu 4.8%. The census records no group called “Caprivian” — that is a regional label, not an ethnicity.
- Omaheke — 102,881 at 1.2 per km². Ovaherero 23.9%, Damara 14.1%, San 12.6%, Ovambanderu 7.5%. The only region where Tswana appears in the top ten, at 4.3% — it borders Botswana.
- ǁKharas — 109,893 at 0.7 per km², the emptiest region in the country. Nama 24.8%, Coloured 11.6%, Aakwanyama 10.4%.
- Erongo — 240,206 at 3.8 per km². Aakwanyama 19.3%, Damara 12.9%, Aandonga 9.8%, Ovaherero 9.4%, white Namibians 6.1%, Coloured 5.9%.
The Himba, and the dam
The Ovahimba are Herero-speaking semi-nomadic pastoralists of north-western Namibia and south-western Angola, and they are the group most photographed by visitors and least reported on accurately. The current story is not cultural, it is infrastructural: the Baynes hydropower project, an 840 MW dam proposed for the Lower Kunene, would flood roughly 40 km² of the Baynes Mountains area.
Over 600 OvaHimba and OvaTjimba community members demonstrated against the scheme at a meeting in Omuhonga, against around 70 supporters from Orukaue. The objections are displacement from ancestral land, loss of grazing and cattle posts, inundation of grave sites, and an absence of free, prior and informed consent. The Namibian government recognises the San, Himba, Ovatue, Ovatjimba and Ovazemba as particularly marginalised groups. If you visit Kunene, this is what is actually happening there.
The San
There is no single census figure for the San, because the 2023 census counts Juǀʼhoansi, Haiǁom, Khwe and “San not elsewhere classified” separately. Credible estimates put the total between 27,000 and 38,000, under 2% of the population. They remain the most marginalised community in Namibia: more than half have never accessed formal education, around 62% of San-speaking children are enrolled in lower primary school, fewer than 1% reach senior secondary, and roughly ten to twelve San students are at university nationwide.
Land is the underlying issue. The Nyae Nyae Conservancy, established in 1998, is one of the country’s more successful, and the Juǀʼhoansi there retain the right to hunt traditionally with bow and arrow. Nǂa Jaqna, created in 2003, has far less wildlife and tourism potential. In 2019 the High Court dismissed a Haiǁom claim to Etosha National Park — all 23,150 km² of it — on the procedural ground that the traditional authority rather than individual applicants was the competent body to bring it.
1904 to 1908, and what has not been settled
General Lothar von Trotha issued the extermination order against the Ovaherero on 2 October 1904 and against the Nama on 22 April 1905. Survivors were held in concentration camps. Estimates of the dead vary by source: Amnesty International puts it at over 75,000, roughly 80% of the Ovaherero and 50% of the Nama population; other scholarly estimates give 50,000 to 65,000 Ovaherero and about 10,000 Nama. These are estimates, not counts, and they are contested.
Germany and Namibia concluded a Joint Declaration in 2021, with about €1.1 billion over 30 years framed as development support rather than reparations, revised in December 2024. It is not a closed matter: Ovaherero and Nama leadership rejected it over lack of meaningful participation, filed in Namibia’s High Court in 2023 seeking to have it declared unlawful, and neither parliament has ratified it. Anyone telling you Namibia and Germany have settled this is ahead of the facts.
Visiting people, rather than looking at them
The Namibian Chamber of Environment’s guidance is short and worth following. Photographs of people are taken with permission and with minimal intrusion. Do not hand out sweets to children. Where you want to see how people live, the community-run living museums exist precisely for that and the money stays local — which is a better arrangement for everyone than photographing a family going about its day. If you want to help a community, ask at the conservancy office or the school rather than handing things out at the roadside.
For the languages these communities speak, greetings in Namibian languages is the practical companion to this page, and the Herero goes deeper on one group. If you want a route built with a guide who can introduce you properly, that is what our guided itineraries are for.
Frequently asked questions
How many people live in Namibia?
3,022,401 at the 2023 census, taken on the night of 24 September 2023, at a density of 3.7 people per square kilometre. That makes Namibia one of the least densely populated countries on earth — though not, as is often claimed, the second least.
What is the largest ethnic group in Namibia?
At the 2023 census the largest single group recorded was the Aakwanyama at 23.6% of the population, or 712,165 people, followed by the Aandonga at 10.3% and the Ovaherero at 5.9%. Note that the 2023 census counts sub-groups rather than umbrella categories, so there is no single row for Ovambo.
How many Himba are there in Namibia?
The 2023 census recorded 28,096 Ovahimba in the Kunene Region, 23.3% of that region’s population. This is a census count and supersedes the widely quoted estimate of about 25,000, which predates the census. Himba also live outside Kunene, so the national total is higher.
Desert Tracks arranges self-drive and fly-in itineraries across Namibia, Botswana and East Africa. We are based in Swakopmund, and we would rather point you at a community-run project than at a photo opportunity. Tell us what you want out of the trip rather than when you can travel, and we will tell you honestly whether your dates fit — including when the answer is that they do not. Get in touch with Desert Tracks.