Angola says high birth rate will strain resources

Angola's population will surge by more than 30 percent to 20 million by 2015, straining a country recovering from decades of war, the planning ministry said.

The United Nations Population Fund in Angola (UNFPA) says the sub-Saharan country has the highest fertility rate on the continent - 7.2 children for every woman of reproductive age against an African average of 5.3.

"This high population growth rate will worsen the conditions in Angola," said Julio Leite, UNFPA assistant representative.

"It will perpetuate the poverty cycle... because there are insufficient funds to invest in adequate health and education."

Three decades of civil war that ended in April 2002 left much of the country's infrastructure in ruins. Despite wealth generated from oil and diamonds, government figures show 68 percent of the population live on less than $1.70 a day.

Angola has one doctor per 10,000 people and the United Nations estimates that almost half the country's children - who make up over 60 percent of the population - are out of school.

Pedro Kiala, who coordinated the research at the planning ministry, told state news agency Angop it was vital to invest in health and education services to meet future needs in sub-Saharan Africa's second-biggest oil producing country.

"It is necessary to have greater... awareness of the problems facing our population relative to our programmes of socio-economic development," Angop quoted him as saying.