Demographics of East Timor

East Timor's population (1861-2011).

This article is about the demographic features of the population of East Timor, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Vital statistics

UN estimates

Period	Live births per year	Deaths per year	Natural change per year	CBR1	CDR1	NC1	TFR1	IMR1
1950-1955	21 000	15 000	5 000	46.5	34.3	12.2	6.44	264.4
1955-1960	22 000	15 000	7 000	46.0	30.9	15.1	6.35	241.6
1960-1965	24 000	15 000	9 000	45.9	28.0	17.8	6.37	220.7
1965-1970	25 000	15 000	11 000	44.2	25.2	19.0	6.16	201.1
1970-1975	25 000	14 000	11 000	40.0	22.2	17.8	5.54	183.3
1975-1980	21 000	18 000	3 000	33.0	28.2	4.9	4.31	253.4
1980-1985	27 000	14 000	14 000	44.0	22.0	22.0	5.39	183.5
1985-1990	30 000	14 000	16 000	42.1	19.3	22.7	5.21	161.0
1990-1995	35 000	13 000	23 000	44.5	15.9	28.6	5.69	129.0
1995-2000	39 000	11 000	28 000	46.1	12.9	33.2	7.01	100.6
2000-2005	37 000	9 000	28 000	40.4	10.0	30.4	6.96	78.9
2005-2010	42 000	9 000	33 000	39.4	8.7	30.7	6.53	66.8
1 CBR = crude birth rate (per 1000); CDR = crude death rate (per 1000); NC = natural change (per 1000); TFR = total fertility rate (number of children per woman); IMR = infant mortality rate per 1000 births

Fertility and Births

Total Fertility Rate (TFR) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):

Year	CBR (Total)	TFR (Total)	CBR (Urban)	TFR (Urban)	CBR (Rural)	TFR (Rural)
2003	52.1	7.8	50.5	7.4
2009-2010	33.2	5.7 (5.1)	33.1	4.9 (4.2)	33.2	6.0 (5.4)
2016	26.8	4.2 (3.5)	28.4	3.5 (3.0)	26.2	4.6 (3.8)

Life expectancy at birth

Average life expectancy at age 0 of the total population.

Period	Life expectancy in Years	Period	Life expectancy in Years
1950–1955	30.0	1985–1990	46.5
1955–1960	32.5	1990–1995	50.5
1960–1965	35.0	1995–2000	57.0
1965–1970	37.5	2000–2005	61.5
1970–1975	40.0	2005–2010	66.4
1975–1980	31.2	2010–2015	67.7
1980–1985	39.9

Population pyramids

Census (01/07/2010)

Census (01/07/2010) :

Age group	Male	Female	Total	%
Total	544 198	522 211	1 066 409	100
0-4	79 169	74 165	153 334	14.38
5-9	79 980	74 128	153 108	14.36
10-14	70 513	64 951	135 464	12.70
15-19	58 754	57 781	116 535	10.93
20-24	47 336	47 091	94 427	8.85
25-29	38 269	38 567	76 836	7.21
30-34	25 805	26 106	51 911	4.87
35-39	29 961	27 547	57 508	5.39
40-44	25 407	22 965	48 372	4.54
45-49	20 430	18 487	38 917	3.65
50-54	15 539	14 545	30 084	2.82
55-59	11 796	10 550	22 346	2.10
60-64	17 419	19 914	37 333	3.50
65-69	11 573	11 533	23 106	2.17
70-74	6 285	6 420	12 705	1.19
75-79	3 404	3 721	7 125	0.67
80-84	1 818	1 937	3 755	0.35
85+	1 740	1 803	3 543	0.33

Age group	Male	Female	Total	Percent
0-14	228 662	213 244	441 906	41.44
15-64	290 716	283 553	574 269	53.85
65+	24 820	25 414	50 234	4.71

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook

Population

1,242 (2017)

Birth rate

33.4 births/1,000 population (2017 est.)

Death rate

5.9 deaths/1,000 population (2017 est.)

Population growth rate

2.36% (2017 est.)

Net migration rate

-3.9 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2017 est.)

Infant mortality rate

total: 35.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2017 est)

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 68.4 years

male: 66.8 years

female: 70.1 years (2017 est.)

Total fertility rate

4.97 children born/woman (2017 est)

Nationality

noun: East Timorese

adjective: East Timorese

Ethnic groups

Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian), Papuan, small Chinese and European Portuguese descent.

Religions

Roman Catholic 97.6% (2015 est.)

Protestant/Evangelical 2% (2015 est.)

Islam 0.2% (2015 est.)

Other 0.2% (2015 est.)

Languages

Tetum (official), Portuguese (official), Indonesian (constitutionally defined as a 'working language') and English (constitutionally defined as a 'working language')).

Note: There are a total of about 16 indigenous languages, of which Tetum, Galole, Mambae, and Kemak are spoken by significant numbers of people. The Tetum language is partially influenced by European languages, particularly Portuguese, which is legacy of Portuguese rule.

Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 67.5% (2015 est.)

male: 71.5%

female: 63.4%

After achieving independence, East Timor has a high illiteracy rate, with 55% of women and 46% of men illiterate. Only 18% of the adult population has secondary education and only 1.4% of them have higher education. Attempts to improve education services face challenges in the form of a lack of educated and experienced teachers. Continuing high fertility rates also translates to greater strains on the government to increase education budgets. The United Nations (UN) has assisted in rebuilding the education system increasing the number of teachers and rehabilitating many schools, leading to a rapid increase in school enrollment. However, problems remain as the quality of education was deemed secondary to the need to increase enrollment in East Timor.

Another problem faced in increasing the education levels includes the economic conditions of the population. With high proportions of the population living below the poverty line and large households with many children, the direct costs of schooling is significant for families. Lack of monetary resources to send children to school imposes greater difficulty in increasing enrollment rates in schools. In addition, parents may be disillusioned with the poor quality of education and thus may not even be interested to send their children to schools. Much remains to be done to establish a new curriculum and support it with texts and learning materials to improve the quality of education. The variety of language spoken also means a large number of children do not speak the language of instruction – Portuguese – and this causes them to be marginalised. Many teachers do not speak Portuguese.

The inaccessibility of schools with proper facilities adds to the problem of providing adequate education to the population. Schools are located far away from homes and, coupled with the poor conditions of schools, may inhibit the early enrollment of children or lead to early drop-outs. Schools in rural areas face substantial lack of facilities to render them safe. As for the schools in urban areas, significant urban migration has meant that the supply of schools in urban areas have not managed to keep up with the increasing demand; leading to overcrowding in urban schools.

Besides the problems faced at the level of the individual households and the schools, problems in the governance and management of education are also significant impediments to raising education levels in East Timor. The lack of qualified personnel in critical positions within the education ministry has meant that overall policy making, planning and management functions are restricted. Management of schools at the district level is often under-qualified due to the lack of formal training. Today therefore, East Timor faces many challenges in increasing the literacy rates of their people.