KAMPALA, UGANDA – The 2025 State of Uganda Population Report (SUPRE) has painted a detailed picture of a rapidly growing nation facing a pressing health crisis, projecting that the country’s population will surge to 48.2 million by the end of this year.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The document was unveiled on Thursday, February 13, 2026, at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala, during the launch of the report by the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The report shifts focus from demographic data to the nation’s mental health, declaring under the theme “A Silent Emergency” that a whole-of-society approach is needed to address a challenge central to the country’s future.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, stated that the growth is driven by persistently high fertility rates, revealing that Ugandan women give birth to an estimated 1.5 million babies annually.
Dr. Aceng also revealed the staggering scale of the crisis, stating that mental health conditions affect approximately 14.2 percent of adults and 12.9 percent of children, yet fewer than one in ten people who need care receive appropriate support due to critical infrastructure gaps.
Highlighting the severe economic consequences of inaction, the Minister noted that the monetary value of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost to mental disorders skyrocketed from UGX 283 billion in 2000 to a staggering UGX 2.96 trillion in 2023.
Providing the official current figures, the Executive Director of the National Planning Authority (NPA), Dr. Joseph Muvawala, confirmed that Uganda’s population now stands at 45.9 million, growing at a robust annual rate of 2.9 percent.
“We have a remarkably young population. Half of our people are under 18 years of age. Our youth are our greatest asset, but they can only drive the future we want if we safeguard their mental health today,” Dr. Muvawala noted.
Dr. Muvawala stressed that mental health requires seamless coordination across multiple sectors, including education, labour, and urban planning, and cannot be viewed as the sole responsibility of the health sector.
The call to action was powerfully reinforced by NPA Executive Board Chairperson Pamela Mbabazi, who underscored that mental health is no longer a peripheral issue but is central to Uganda’s development trajectory.
She warned of a mismatch between need and investment, urging a shift from viewing mental health as social expenditure to recognising it as a strategic investment in economic growth and human capital.
“There remains a clear mismatch between mental health need and investment. We must fundamentally shift our perspective. We need to stop viewing mental health as a social expenditure and start recognising it as a strategic investment in our country’s economic growth and human capital,” Ms. Mbabazi stated.
She encouraged the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, development partners, civil society, and other stakeholders to work hand-in-hand with the NPA.
The 2025 State of Uganda Population Report serves not just as a demographic update, but as a roadmap, urging the nation to confront the silent emergency of mental ill-health to secure a prosperous and stable future for its millions of young citizens.
About the Author
