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Where is Tanzania?
About Tanzania
The Land
The People
Life and Death
Health, Energy and the Environment
Education and Work
Travel, Communication and the Media

Tanzania is a vast country in the east of central Africa.

Tanzania borders the Indian Ocean.

The land is plains along the coast with highlands north and south.

The geographical coordinates for the centre of Tanzania, also known as lines of latitude and longitude, are:-
Latitude - 6 00S
Longitude - 35 00E

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Check the weather in Dodoma now.

This is the time in Dodoma now

The Tanzanian flag is divided diagonally by a yellow-edged black band from the lower flagpole side corner. The upper triangle created is green and the lower triangle is blue. Green represents the natural vegetation of the country, gold its rich mineral deposits and black the native Swahili people. Blue is for the country's many lakes and rivers, as well as the Indian Ocean.

The capital of Tanzania is Dodoma.

Tanzania is a presidential republic with a president as head of state and head of the government.

In elections everyone over the age of 18 can vote.

The currency in Tanzania is the Tanzanian shilling. Tanzania is a member of the Commonwealth.

Kiswahili, Swahili and English are the official languages.

Hear the National Anthem


These are the anthem words

The words ×

These are the words to the Tanzanian National Anthem called God Bless Africa. It was adopted in 1961. This is a translation of the words.

If anthem fails to play click here

God Bless Africa.
Bless its leaders.
Let Wisdom Unity and
Peace be the shield of
Africa and its people.

Bless Africa,
Bless Africa,
Bless the children of Africa.

God Bless Tanzania.
Grant eternal Freedom and Unity
To its sons and daughters.
God Bless Tanzania and its People.

Bless Tanzania,
Bless Tanzania,
Bless the children of Tanzania.

We have already written our own history of England but are asking schools in Tanzania to provide us with a detailed history of their own country. Check how here.


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The total land area of Tanzania is 885,800 sq kms which is the 14th largest in Africa.

Tanzania has lakes, rivers and canals which total 61,500 sq kms.

Tanzania has boundaries with 8 countries

• Mozambique 840 kms
• Kenya 775 kms
• Burundi 589 kms
• Malawi 512 kms
• Democratic Republic of Congo 479 kms
• Uganda 391 kms
• Zambia 353 kms
• Rwanda 222 kms

Tanzania has a coastline of 1,424 kms which is the 11th longest in Africa.

The highest point in Tanzania is Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa, at 5,895 metres.

The pie chart below shows how the land is split between agricultural land (crops and pastures), forests and other, which can be towns, villages, desert or frozen waste called tundra.

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The total population of Tanzania is 55.45 million people, making it the 6th largest country in Africa by population.

Of this number 27.79 million are females and 27.66 million are males.

A person from Tanzania is called a Tanzanian.

To be a citizen of Tanzania, one of your parents must be a citizen of Tanzania. If a child is born abroad, the father must be a citizen of Tanzania. It is not sufficient to be born in Tanzania. You have to live in Tanzania for 5 years before you can begin to apply for citizenship.

The largest five cities in Tanzania, by population are:-

• Dar es Salaam 2,698,652 people
• Mwanza 436,801
• Zanzibar 403,658
• Arusha 341,136
• Mbeya 291,649

For each country we will give you a diagram showing the population density. This is the average number of people for each square kilometre. Each little Owlbut is 1 person and the big yellow rectangle is 1 sq km. After a while you can compare countries and see which ones are the most crowded. Remember it is only an average as more people live closer together in towns and cities than in villages out in the country.



33.8% of the people live in cities or towns.

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The birth rate in Tanzania is 35.3 births per 1,000 of population

The death rate in Tanzania is 7.5 deaths per 1,000 people.

Check this against the birth rate. If the death rate is higher than the birth rate then the population will decrease unless immigrants arrive in the country.

There are 36.6 deaths of girls under 1 year per 1,000 of births and 40.8 deaths of boys.

The median age for females is 18.2 and for males is 17.6. The median age is that age which divides the population exactly in half so there are the same number of people above the median age as below it.

The average age of a woman when she has her first child is 19.8.

The elderly dependency ratio is 6.0. This is the number of elderly people (ages 65+) per 100 people of working age (ages 15-64).

The potential support ratio is 16.6. This is the number of working-age people (ages 15-64) per one elderly person (ages 65+). As a population ages, the potential support ratio tends to fall, meaning there are fewer potential workers to support the elderly.

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Tanzania spends 5.6% of its total income on health care.

There are 0.04 doctors per 1,000 people.

There are 0.7 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

8.4% of the population are estimated as obese.

77.2% of the urban population and 45.5% of the rural population have drinking water that is either piped into their home or they have access to a public tap, a protected borehole, well, spring or protected rainwater collection facility.

31.3% of the urban population and 8.3% of the rural population have access to a flushing toilet that is connected to a sewer, a pit latrine (that is a permanent hole in the ground that is looked after) or a composting toilet.

Tanzania releases 10.0 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels in the process of producing and consuming energy. This puts it as the 13th highest in Africa.

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Tanzania spends 3.5% of its total income on education.

Children usually start school at age 7 in Tanzania. Primary education is for seven years until age 14 and secondary education can continue till 20. This may be followed by further education at a university or college.

Generally the school year consists of 4 terms and starts in the middle of January and finishes at the end of November. There is usually a 2 week break in April and June and a 1 week break in September.

73.1% of females and 83.2% of males are able to read and write by the age of 15.

3.9% of all people aged between 16 and 24 are not in work. Among females 4.6% are unemployed while with males 3.1% can't find work.

The total number of people available for work in Tanzania is 24.89 million.

They work in the following sectors.

• Agriculture includes farming, fishing and forestry work
• Industry includes mining, manufacturing, construction and energy workers
• Services is everything else

10.3% of the workforce are unemployed.

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There are 10 paved airports in Tanzania, which is the 21st highest number in Africa.


There are 2,722 kilometres of railways in Tanzania, the 11th longest in Africa.


There are 86,060 kilometres of roads in Tanzania, which means Tanzania is in 11th place for the most kilometres of roads in Africa.

There are 3 major national newspapers in Tanzania.

There are39.95 million mobile phone users.

Less than 1% of the people have a fixed landline.



6.82 million people have access to the internet at home via any device (computer or mobile).

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