About Uganda

Area of Influence

Country Profile

Uganda is a Sub-Saharan African country with one of the highest rates of poverty reduction. Uganda remains among the poorest in the world.  Uganda lacks important non-monetary resources such as sufficient sanitation, access to electricity, health and well-being, education, and nutrition. Families in Uganda are often large, lacking often finances and resources, larger families are highly likely to fall below the poverty line. Poor health also reduces a family’s work productivity, causing poverty to be passed down through generations. This culture creates a “live for today” mentality that is very difficult to overcome.

Uganda has one of the youngest and most rapidly growing populations in the world, with 48% of the population under the age of 15. The country receives influxes of refugees fleeing socio-political and military conflicts in its bordering neighbors of Congo and South Sudan. The country’s north and northeast regions lag developmentally behind the rest of the country as a result of the long-term conflict of more than 20 years of fighting between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and Ugandan government forces. This ongoing inter-communal violence, combined with periodic natural disasters and unregulated environmental hazards contributes to further poverty and susceptibility to conflict, disease, and decreased agricultural outputs.

The poverty headcount ratio is $5.50 per day, this is the average daily salary per family.

1000 shillings is worth approx. $.29 cents in US currency.
So, 100,000 shillings is about $28.80

Uganda’s poverty rate for 2016 was 87.60%, a 0.6% increase from 2012.
Uganda’s poverty rate for 2012 was 87.00%, a 2.3% decline from 2009.
Uganda’s poverty rate for 2009 was 89.30%, a 3.3% decline from 2005.
Uganda’s poverty rate for 2005 was 92.60%, a 1.8% decline from 2002.

Map of Uganda
(JFM Serves mostly in the area of Uganda’s largest city, Kampala)

Ugandan Fact Sheet
Capital CityKampala
(0.3476° N, 32.5825° E)
Largest CityKampala
(0.3476° N, 32.5825° E)
Areatotal: 241,038 sq km
land: 197,100 sq km
water: 43,938 sq km
Population43,252,966 (July 2020 est.)
Literacy76.5%
Suffrage18 years of age; universal
Official LanguageEnglish, Swahili
DemonymUgandan
ContinentAfrica
BordersKenya, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Tanzania
CurrencyUgandan shilling (UGX)
ReligionProtestant 45.1% (Anglican 32.0%, Pentecostal/Born Again/Evangelical 11.1%, Seventh Day Adventist 1.7%, Baptist .3%), Roman Catholic 39.3%, Muslim 13.7%, other 1.6%, none 0.2% (2014 est.)
Life expectancy68.2 years (2020)
Life expectancy at birth indicates the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life.
Climatetropical; generally rainy with two dry seasons (December to February, June to August); semiarid in northeast
Terrainmostly plateau with rim of mountains
Lowest pointAlbert Nile 614 m
Highest pointMargherita Peak on Mount Stanley 5,110 m
Natural resourcescopper, cobalt, hydropower, limestone, salt, arable land, gold
Agricultural land71.2%
Government typepresidential republic
PresidentYoweri Museveni
Vice PresidentEdward Kiwanuka Ssekandi
Birth rate42.3 births/1,000 population (2020 est.)
Death rate5.3 deaths/1,000 population (2020 est.)
Sex ratio0.94 male(s)/female (2020 est.)
National symbolgrey crowned crane
National colorsblack, yellow, red
National anthem“Oh Uganda, Land of Beauty!”
Industriessugar, brewing, tobacco, cotton textiles; cement, steel production
Exports$3.339 billion (2017 est.)
coffee, fish and fish products, tea, cotton, flowers, horticultural products; gold
Imports$5.036 billion (2017 est.)
capital equipment, vehicles, petroleum, medical supplies; cereals
GDP – per capita (PPP)$2,400 (2017 est.)
Time ZoneEAT (UTC+3)
Internet country code.ug
Calling Code+256
Drives on theLeft