Editing Rhodesia (section)

==Demographics==

=== Population ===
{{See also|White Zimbabweans}}
A central feature of the white community in Rhodesia was its transience, as white settlers were just as likely to leave Rhodesia after a few years as permanently settle; for example, of the 700 British settlers who were the first white settlers, arriving in 1890, only 15 were still living in Rhodesia in 1924.<ref name="Brownell"/>{{rp|6593}} As the white population of Rhodesia had a low birth rate (18 per 1,000 compared to the African rate of 48 per 1,000<ref name="Paxton">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O0zODQAAQBAJ|title=The Statesman's Year-Book 1971–72: The Businessman's Encyclopaedia of all nations|last=Paxton|first=John|publisher=[[Springer Nature]]|year=1971|isbn=978-0-230-27100-5|edition=108th|location=London|page=522}}</ref>), to maintain white population growth was largely dependent upon taking in new white immigrants with immigration accounting for 60% of the growth of the white Rhodesian population between 1955 and 1972.<ref name="Brownell"/>

In the ten years after the nation's declaration of independence from Britain, around 70,000 from the white population of Rhodesia emigrated out of the nation. 45% of the emigration was to South Africa due to it being geographically adjacent and sharing similarities in climate, topography, economic standards and social customs. The remaining mainly headed to other mainly white, English-speaking nations at the time, which being the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Rhodesia: Economic Aspects of White Resettlement |date=23 July 1976 |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |language=en}}</ref>

However, the American historian Josiah Brownell noted that the turnover rate for white residents in Rhodesia was very high, as Rhodesia took in a total of 255,692 white immigrants between 1955 and 1979 while the same period a total of 246,583 whites emigrated. Even during the boom years of the late 1950s, when Rhodesia took in an average of 13,666 white immigrants per year, mostly from the United Kingdom and South Africa, an average of about 7,666 whites emigrated annually. Between 1961 and 1965, Rhodesia took in an average of 8,225 white immigrants per year while also having an average white emigration of 12,912 per year. Many prospective white immigrants in Rhodesia arrived seeking economic opportunities and departed with fluctuations in the security situation as the Bush War intensified. A substantial number were uninterested in settling there permanently and did not apply for Rhodesian citizenship, despite a much-publicised 1967 campaign urging them to do so.<ref name="Brownell"/>

Brownell asserted that patriotism in the white community was "shallow" due to its essentially expatriate character. He also claimed that the majority of white immigrants in the late 1960s and early 1970s were unskilled laborers who competed with the country's black African workforce and did not contribute badly needed technical or professional skills to the country, arguing that this was due to government policy aimed at making white immigration as "unselective as possible" and guaranteeing every white immigrant a job. The population of Rhodesia boomed during the late 1960s due to immigration and an exceptional rate of natural increase among its black citizens, the highest in sub-Saharan Africa at the time.<ref name="Brownell"/>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto;"
|+Numbers of white and black inhabitants before and during the [[Central African Federation]]<ref>{{cite book |title=An Introduction to the History of Central Africa |last=Wills |first=A.J. |year=1967 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Durban |edition=2nd |isbn=0-620-06410-2 |page=Appendix IV |chapter=Three Territories |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TLshAAAAMAAJ |access-date=19 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151026201016/https://books.google.com/books?id=TLshAAAAMAAJ |archive-date=26 October 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
! rowspan=2 | Year || colspan=2 | Southern Rhodesia || colspan=2 | Northern Rhodesia || colspan=2 | Nyasaland || colspan=2 | Total
|-
! White || Black || White || Black || White || Black || White || Black
|-
| '''1927''' || 38,200 (3.98%) || 922,000 (96.02%) || 4,000 (0.4%) || 1,000,000 (99.6%) || 1,700 (0.13%) || 1,350,000 (99.87%) || 43,900 (1.32%) || 3,272,000 (98.68%)
|-
| '''1946''' || 80,500 (4.79%) || 1,600,000 (95.21%) || 21,919 (1.32%) || 1,634,980 (97.68%) || 2,300 (0.10%) || 2,340,000 (99.90%) || 104,719 (1.84%) || 5,574,980 (98.16%)
|-
| '''1955''' || 150,000 (5.88%) || 2,400,000 (94.12%) || 65,000 (3.02%) || 2,085,000 (96.98%) || 6,300 (0.25%) || 2,550,000 (99.75%) ||  221,300 (3.05%) || 7,035,000 (96.95%)
|-
| '''1960''' || 223,000 (7.30%) || 2,830,000 (92.70%) || 76,000 (3.14%) || 2,340,000 (96.85%) || 9,300 (0.33%) || 2,810,000 (99.66%) ||  308,300 (3.72%) || 7,980,000 (96.28%)
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto;"
|+Population of White, Black, Asian and Coloured inhabitants of Southern Rhodesia, 1911–1969<ref name="Paxton"/>
|-
! rowspan=1 | Year !! | White !! | Black (Est.) !! | Asiatic & Coloured !! | Total Population (Est.)
|-
| '''1911''' || 23,606 (3.06%) || 744,559 (96.56%) || 2,912 (0.38%) || 771,077
|-
| '''1921''' || 33,620 (3.73%) || 862,319 (95.90%) || 3,248 (0.36%) || 899,187
|-
| '''1931''' || 49,910 (4.42%) || 1,076,000 (95.22%) || 4,102 (0.36%) || 1,130,000
|-
| '''1941''' || 68,954 (4.66%) || 1,404,000 (94.93%) || 6,521 (0.44%) || 1,479,000
|-
|'''1951''' || 135,596 (5.84%) || 2,170,000 (93.53%) || 10,283 (0.44%) || 2,320,000
|-
|'''1961''' || 221,504 (5.74%) || 3,618,150 (93.80%) || 17,812 (0.46%) || 3,857,466
|-
|'''1969''' || 258,580 (5.08%) || 4,840,000 (95.09%) || 23,870 (0.47%) || 5,090,000
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto;"
|+White Rhodesian vital statistics, 1963–1969<ref name="Paxton"/>
|-
! rowspan=1 | Year !! | Births !! | Deaths !! | Marriages !! | Immigrants
|-
| '''1963''' || 4,457 || 1,449 || 2,008 || 5,093
|-
| '''1964''' || 4,017 || 1,306 || 2,046 || 7,000
|-
| '''1965''' || 3,863 || 1,369 || 2,071 || 11,128
|-
|'''1966''' || 3,782 || 1,460 || 2,035 || 6,418
|-
|'''1967''' || 4,031 || 1,512 || — || 9,618
|-
|'''1968''' || 4,004 || 1,646 || — || 11,864
|-
|'''1969''' || 4,089 || 1,633 || — || 10,929
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto;"
|+Population of the main urban areas in 1969<ref name="Paxton"/>
|-
! rowspan=1 | City !! | White !! | Black !! | Other !! | Total
|-
| '''Salisbury''' || 96,420 (25.07%) || 280,090 (72.84%) || 8,020 (2.09%) || 384,530
|-
| '''Bulawayo''' || 50,090 (20.40%) || 187,590 (76.38%) || 7,910 (3.22%) || 245,590
|-
| '''Umtali''' || 8,340 (17.93%) || 36,220 (77.88%) || 1,950 (4.20%) || 46,510
|-
|'''Gwelo''' || 8,390 (18.23%) || 36,880 (80.12%) || 760 (1.65%) || 46,030
|-
|'''Que Que''' || 3,160 (9.62%) || 29,250 (89.01%) || 450 (1.37%) || 32,860
|-
|'''Gatooma''' || 1,880 (8.97%) || 18,770 (89.55%) || 310 (1.48%) || 20,960
|-
|'''Wankie''' || 2,160 (10.72%) || 17,980 (89.28%) || — || 20,140
|-
|'''Shabani''' || 1,560 (9.87%) || 14,170 (89.63%) || 80 (0.51%) || 15,810
|-
|'''Fort Victoria''' || 2,530 (22.29%) || 8,470 (74.63%) || 350 (3.08%) || 11,350
|}

=== Language ===

{{Main|Languages of Zimbabwe}}

White Rhodesians mostly spoke English, with a minority that spoke [[Afrikaans]].  Approximately 70% of black Rhodesians spoke [[Shona language|Shona]], and around 20% spoke [[Northern Ndebele language|Ndebele]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/nde|title=Ndebele|work=Ethnologue|access-date=2018-01-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725153454/https://www.ethnologue.com/language/nde|archive-date=25 July 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> A majority of [[Indians in Zimbabwe|Rhodesia's Indian community]] spoke [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]] and a minority spoke [[Hindi]].

=== Religion ===

{{Main|Religion in Zimbabwe}}

Rhodesia predominantly adhered to [[Christianity]], with [[Protestantism]] being the largest denomination. However, many native Africans still adhered to [[traditional African religions]].