Background:

The colonial boundaries created by Britain to delimit Uganda grouped together a wide
range of ethnic groups with different political systems and cultures. These differences
complicated the establishment of a working political community after independence
was achieved in 1962. The dictatorial regime of Idi AMIN (1971-79) was responsible for
the deaths of some 300,000 opponents; guerrilla war and human rights abuses under
Milton OBOTE (1980-85) claimed at least another 100,000 lives. The rule of Yoweri
MUSEVENI since 1986 has brought relative stability and economic growth to Uganda.

Executive Summary

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The Statistical Abstract is an annual publication compiled by Uganda Bureau
of Statistics, which provides the statistical summary on various socio-economic
indicators for Uganda. Some figures in this edition may vary from those in the
earlier editions due to the updates. Note that some of the CY 2018 and FY
2018/19 data presented in this edition are provisional and could be revised in
subsequent publications.

This publication is divided into four major chapters which are preceded by a
glossary of definitions and general information on Uganda. A set of Statistical
Appendix Tables that are serialized, using a combination of numbers and
alphabets, such as Table 1.1A, Table 2.3 B etc., are also provided for the
readers’ information. The reader is encouraged to refer to such tables while
reading the text. It should be noted that the number of districts has been
increasing.

Chapter one presents environmental statistics covering land, climate, forestry and
water supply with the following highlights:
Land Area by coverage by 2015

• Uganda has a total area of 241,554.96 square kilometres.

• Open water bodies covered 37,495.81 square kilometres.

• Wetlands cover 7,154.81 square kilometres.

• Land area is 196,906.34 square kilometres.

Forests

• Total area under forest reserve 529,595 hectares

• Value of output for round-wood timber 985,410 million shs

Climate

• Entebbe had the highest number of rain-days, followed by Kitgum, Tororo and
Kampala during the year 2018
• Entebbe and Gulu received the highest total precipitation of the long term
average rainfall at

1,697 and 1,564 millimetres in 2018

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Water Supply

• Water production by NWSC was 130.8 million cubic meters in 2018 compared
to 133.4 million cubic meters produced in the 2017

Chapter Two presents Demographic and Socio-Economic Statistics relating to

Population, Education, Labour Force, Employment and Earning, Income and
Expenditure, Public Health and Crime. Below are highlights of the chapter:

Demographic and Socio-Economic Statistics

• According to 2014 National Population and Housing Census (UNHS) results; o

The population is projected to be 40.3 million by mid year 2019.
o Annual population growth rate between 2002 and 2014 censuses
was 3.03 percent. o 2014 population density was 174 persons
per square kilometre.
o Sex ratio was 94.5 percent in 2014.

• According to the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS); o

Total fertility was 5.4 children per woman. o Infant mortality rate was
43 deaths per 1,000 live birth. o Under five mortality rate was 64 deaths per
1,000 live birth.
o Life expectancy at birth is 63.7 years.
• The population is projected to be 40.3 miillion by mid year 2019.

• Uganda’s population pyramid is broad based, implying that the majority of the
population is young, a characteristic of a country with high fertility levels.
Education

• A total of 655,701 pupils sat for PLE in 2018. 77,133 passed in division one, a
majority 272,861 passed in division two and 56,108 failed (Div.U).
• A total of 329,628 students sat for UCE in 2018. A total of 287,304 passed at a
rate 87.2 percent whereas 47,031 failed.
• 98,545 students sat for UACE in 2018 and 99.1 percent passed.

Labour force, Employment and Earnings

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 • According to 2016/17 UNHS, Uganda’s working age population stood at
19,104,000 of which 78.8 percent were working.
• The proportion of employed females was 44.4 percent.(UNHS 2016/17)

• In 2016/17 43.2 percent of the working population was engaged in the

subsistence agriculture sector only.
• 62.9 percent of the employed persons had completed at least secondary school.
Income and expenditure

• There was a 0.7 percent decrease in the monthly household consumption

expenditure from 328,200 UShs to 325,800 in 2016/17.
• The Northern region registered the highest growth in Per capita consumption
expenditure at 21.3 percent.
• The proportion of the poor population increased from 19.7 percent to 21.4
percent corresponding to about 8 million people.
• 45.5 percent of the household expenditure was on food and non-alcoholic
beverages.

• Nationally, on average, income inequality increased from 0.40 to 0.42 between

2012/13 and 2016/17.
Health

• The number of functional healthcare facilities increased to 6,937 in 2017/18

from 6,404 facilities in 2016/17 showing 533 additional health facilities.
• Government allocation on health in the year 2017/18 was 6.4 percent of the
total national budget down from 8.9 percent spent in 2016/17.
• The per capita public health expenditure in 2017/18 was Uganda shillings
51,239 compared to Uganda shillings 49,637 registered in the previous year
2016/17.
• In 2017/18, the number of patients diagnosed with cancer was 25,365 lower
than 41, 574 patients recorded in 2016/17.
Crime

• The Annual Crime Rate (ACR) stood at 612 per 100,000 people in 2018.

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 • The number of crimes reported to Police increased from 252,065 in 2017 to
238,746 in 2018.

• All the reported cases were investigated, however, only 165,711 of the cases
were pending prosecution in 2018.
• Common assaults continued to be the most reported type of crime by victims
from 30,794 crimes in 2017 to 29,735.
• There were more males (154,652) than female (84,832) victims of crime in 2018.

• A total of 12,805 road traffic crashes were recorded by the Uganda Police Force
in 2018. 48 percent of the accidents in 2018 were serious.
• Kampala Metropolitan south had the highest number of road accidents
recorded at 2,515.

• The national occupancy rate in prison for 2018 was 322 percent.

Chapter three presents statistics on production, which for purposes of this

Abstract includes; Agriculture and Fisheries; Industry; Producer Prices;
Energy; Building and Construction; Transport and Communications; and
Tourism and Migration. Below are the highlights of the chapter:
Agriculture

• The number of cattle increased from 14.2 million in 2017 to 14.6 million in
2018 registering a 2.7 percent increase.
• Fish production decreased to 345,803,000 tonnes in 2018 from 366,531,000
tonnes in 2017.

Index of production

• The Index of Production (IoP) for the manufacturing sector, recorded in 2018
was 275.95 from 243.45 recorded in 2017. This was a 13.3 percent increase.
• There was a 13 percent increase in the average prices of Petrol, a 19 percent
increase in the average prices of Diesel and a 17 percent increase in the average
prices of Kerosene from 2017 to 2018.
• Electricity purchased by Uganda Electricity Transmission Company from the
generating companies increased by 6 percent from 3,865 GWh in 2017 to 4,078
GWh in 2018
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Energy

• The import volume of petrol and diesel on average increased by 4 percent, jet
fuel 6 percent and Kerosene by 2 percent in 2018 compared to 2017
• The total sales of petroleum products in 2018 (in million litres), petro 926,
diesel 1,012.5, kerosene 60.5 and Jet fuel 144.6.
• The total installed capacity of electricity power sources increased by 5 percent
from 937.8 MW in 2017 to 984.5 MW in 2018
• The national on grid electricity generated increased by 6.2 percent from 3,801.4
GWh in 2017 to 4,038.8 GWh in 2018.
• Total number of electricity consumers increased by 14.8 percent from
1,194,914 consumers in 2017 to 1,372,166 consumers in 2018.

Construction

• The average prices of inputs in the construction industry increased by 2.5

percent in 2018 compared to 2017.
Minerals

• During 2018, there was an increase in the production of Wolfram by 204

percent, Pozollana by 39 percent, Vermiculite by 153 percent, Synthetic
Aggregate by 76 percent and Iron ore by 94 percent. However there was a
decrease in production of Limestone by 27 percent, Kaolin by 69 percent and
tin by 39 percent. Infrastructure

Transport
• The total National road length during the financial year 2018/19 increased by
nearly two percent from 20,544.0 km in 2017/2018 to 20,856.0 km.
• There was a 10.2 percent increase in paved road length while un-paved road
length declined by

1.0 percent in 2018/19.

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• The total number of privately owned newly registered vehicles and motorcycles
increased by 1.4 percent in 2018 compared to 15.5 percent in 2017, from
135,032 in 2017 to 136,977 in 2018.
• The total number of newly registered Government vehicles reduced by 28.43
percent in 2018 compared to those registered in 2017 from 3,120 in 2017 to
2,235 vehicles in 2018.
• There was an 8.1 percent increase in the aircraft movement at Entebbe Airport
in 2018 compared

1.8 percent registered in 2017.

Communication
• The telecommunications sub-sector registered a 6.2 percent increase in the
number of subscribers in the year 2018.
• There was an increase in telephone subscribers from 23.2 million subscribers
in 2017 to 24.7 million subscribers in 2018.

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 The total number of mobile money registered customers increased by 4.7
percent from 23.4 Million customers in 2017 to 24.5 Million customers
in 2018. The value of mobile money transactions increased by 12.7
percent from 63.1 trillion shillings in 2017 to 71.1 trillion shillings in
2018.
• The total volume of letters handled by Posta Uganda increased by 43
percent in 2018 compared to 6.4 percent 2017 from 800,179 letters to
letters 1,140,623 letters

Migration and Tourism

• The country recorded a total of 3.9 million travellers in 2017.

• The number of visitors to national parks increased from 286,000 in 2016

to 246,000 in 2017.

• The most popularly visited national park in 2017 was Murchison fall (33
percent), followed by Queen Elizabeth (29 percent).
• 43 percent of the visitors to national parks were foreigners who are non-
residents, 28 percent East African residents and 23 percent Ugandan
students.

Chapter four presents Macro-Economic Statistics including National Accounts,

Prices, External Trade, Public Finance, Banking, Currency and Insurance.
Below are the highlights of the chapter:

National Accounts

Following the rebasing process, the economy is estimated to have grown by 6.5
percent in 2018/19. This growth is 0.3 percentage points higher than the
growth of 6.2 percent registered in FY 2017/18.
• The Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sector activities grew by 5.0
percent in FY 2018/19 from 3.8 percent registered in FY 2017/18.

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 • Industry sector activities grew by 10.8 percent in FY 2018/19 compared
to 8.0 percent in 2017/18.

• Services sector activities grew by 4.9 percent in FY 2018/19 compared to

the 7.0 percent growth registered in 2017/18
Consumer Price Index (CPI)

• The 2018 Calendar Year registered a lower annual average inflation of

2.6 percent compared to the annual average inflation of 5.6 percent
recorded for the 2017 Calendar Year.
• The annual average Core Inflation decreased to 2.4 percent in 2018 from
the 4.4 percent recorded during the 2017 Calendar Year
• The annual average Food Crops inflation for 2018 Calendar Year
decelerated to 1.5 percent from

13.0 percent recorded for the 2017 Calendar Year.

PPI-Manufacturing and Utilities, Hotels and Restaurants

• The PPI-M&U (Combined) decreased on average by 1.2 percent to 182.17

for the 2018 calendar year from 184.41 recorded in 2017 calendar year.
• The PPI-M (Local) on average rose by 0.4 percent from 171.47 in 2017 to
172.09 in 2018.
The PPI-M (Export) for the calendar year 2018 decreased by 5.9 percent
from an annual average of 226.02 in 2017 to 212.70.
• The annual average producer prices for Hotels and Restaurants Sector
rose by 5.7 percent in the year 2018 from 177.16 in 2017 to 187.23.
Construction sector indices

• The average prices of inputs in the construction industry increased to

243.74 in 2018 from 237.77 in 2017 showing a growth of 2.5 percent
from a 1.33 percent growth 2017.
External Trade

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 • During Calendar Year (CY) 2018, total export earnings (formal and
informal exports combined) increased by 5.0 percent to US$ 3,633.9
million from US$ 3,450.7 million recorded in 2017.
• The overall annual trade deficit increased to US$ 3,155.5 million in 2018
compared to the value of US$ 2,225.9 million recorded in 2017.

• In 2018, Formal exports accounted for US$ 3,087.4 million while

informal exports were worth US$ 546.6million.

• The total formal import bill in 2018 stood at US $ 6,729.4 million and
informal bill worth US $ 60.0 million while the formal imports bill in
2017 was US$ 5,595.9 million and informal bill was US$80.7 million.

Government Finance Statistics

• In the FY 2017/18, the net Central Government revenue (excludes tax

refunds and government taxes) was shs 15,281.1 billion compared to
shs. 13,905.4 billion collected in the FY 2016/17.
This was about 9.9 percent increment in the net central government
revenue.

• Central Government expenditure for the FY 2017/18 was shs. 17,980.6

billion compared to shs. 15,524.8 billion spent in the FY 2016/17. This
was a 15.8 percent increase in Central Government Expenditure.

Balance of Payments

The overall BOP balance stood at a deficit of 69 million US dollars in 2018/19

following a previous surplus of 161 million US dollars recorded in 2017/18
(See Appendix Table 4.1 L (ii)).

• The current account balance registered a deficit of 3,370 million US

dollars in 2018/19 compared to a deficit of 1,783 million US dollars in
2017/18

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 • The capital account balance declined by 5.4 percent from 105 million US
dollars surplus recorded in 2017/18 to 100 million US dollars surplus
recorded in 2018/19

Banking and Currency

• The Net Foreign Assets (NFA) increased by 16.0 percent from 12,894
billion shillings as at June 2017 to 14,953 billion shillings as at June
2018.
The Net Domestic Assets (NDA) grew by 7.1 percent from 7,276 billion
shillings in June 2017 to 7,795 billion shillings in June 2018.
• Domestic claims and claims on other sectors each increased from 15,249
billion shillings to 16,836 billion shillings and 12,793 billion shillings to
14,120 billion shillings respectively.
• Money supply (M3) increased by 12.8 percent from 20,170 billion
shillings in June 2017 to 22,749 billion shillings in June 2018.
• The total assets of commercial banks increased by 10.1 percent from
25,156 billion shillings as at June 2017 to 27,685 billion shillings as at
June 2018.
• The Central Bank Rate (CBR), which is the rate at which commercial
banks borrow from the Central Bank stood at 9.0 percent in June 2018
down from 10.0 percent recorded in June 2017.
• The average buying rate for foreign exchange (US dollar) depreciated from
3,596 shillings in 2017 to 3,707 shillings in 2018.

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