How many babies are born in Zambia each year?

An estimated 721 thousand babies are born in Zambia in 2026, according to the UN World Population Prospects 2024 medium projection. That is about 1,974 a day and 0.54% of all births worldwide.

What is the birth rate in Zambia?

Zambia has an estimated 32.0 births per 1,000 people in 2026, and a total fertility rate of 3.91 children per woman.

Africa · Eastern Africa

How many babies are born in Zambia?

721 thousand babies born in Zambia in 2026 — 0.54% of all births worldwide, and the 41st largest of any country. UN projection

1,974births per day
82per hour
1per minute
32.0births per 1,000 people
3.91children per woman
22.52 millionpopulation

Plus or minus about 6%. These years have not happened yet or have not been counted yet. They are the medium variant of the UN's projection, not a record of births that took place.

Births in Zambia through history

Estimated annual births in Zambia, 0 CE to 2026, on a logarithmic scale. The shaded band on the left marks the years where births are modelled rather than recorded. The marker sits on 2026.

Every figure refers to the area inside Zambia's present-day borders. Before 1800 the state did not exist in its current form — see how borders are handled.
Year	Estimated births	Population	Per 1,000	Evidence
1 CE	~1.6K	~39K	41.4	Modelled estimate
1000	~6.3K	~150K	41.7	Modelled estimate
1500	~12K	~300K	41.0	Modelled estimate
1800	~34.6K	~747K	46.3	Historical reconstruction
1900	~74.7K	~1.61M	46.3	Historical reconstruction
1950	116K	2.32M	50.1	UN estimate
2000	455K	10M	45.5	UN estimate
2024	697K	21.3M	32.7	UN projection
2026	721K	22.5M	32.0	UN projection

What the numbers show

Annual births in Zambia are at their highest in the whole run of estimates in 2026, at about 721K. That is roughly 452 times the estimated ~1.59K births a year in 1 CE.

At 3.91 children per woman, fertility in Zambia is above the level of about 2.1 that would hold a population steady over the long run without migration.

See Zambia on the map

Where these numbers come from

2026 figures are the UN World Population Prospects 2024 medium variant. Earlier years come from the UN's estimates (1950 onward), Gapminder's reconstructions (1800–1949) and a model applied to HYDE population estimates (before 1800). The full chain is set out in the methodology, and every source is listed on the sources page.