Africa-Press – Cape verde. Santa Catarina do Fogo celebrates its Municipal Day today, and statistical data paints a detailed picture of the municipality, revealing achievements in education and disparities in the job market and living conditions.
With a population representing 14 percent (%) of Fogo Island and 0.9% of Cape Verde, Santa Catarina do Fogo is characterized by a young population, with an average age of 29.1 years and 32% of its inhabitants under 15 years old, according to the latest data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) relating to Santa Catarina do Fogo.
One of the most positive data points in the IBGE report published in 2024 is the literacy rate among young people aged 15 to 24, which reaches an “impressive” 100%.
Overall, the literacy rate of the adult population (15 years and older) is 85.1%; however, there is a clear gender disparity, with 90.7% of men literate compared to 79.2% of women.
Almost half of the population (49.6%) has primary education as their highest level of schooling.
The labor market is one of the areas showing strong asymmetries, and the employment rate for the population aged 15 and older is only 32.3%.
The gender breakdown indicates that 42.6% of men are employed, compared to only 21.5% of women, and the overall unemployment rate is 10.3%, more than double among women (16.3%) than among men (7.2%), while youth unemployment (15-24 years) is at 13.1%.
Regarding living conditions, the data shows good coverage of essential services, but with room for improvement.
The public water supply is the main source of water for 80.9% of families, and 88% use electricity for lighting. Almost all families (99.7%) use containers for waste disposal.
However, when it comes to cooking fuel, gas is dominant (79.6%), but a significant portion of 18.1% of families still depend on firewood, reflecting economic and access challenges.
Regarding access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), cell phone ownership is widespread among the population aged 10 and over (59.5%).
Television is present in 77.2% of households; however, access to computers (22.8%) and, above all, to the Internet in the home (18.9%) is still limited, indicating a challenge in the municipality’s digital landscape.
The municipality has 1,301 households, with an average of 3.5 people per family. Nuclear single-parent families (24.1%) and nuclear conjugal families (22.1%) are the most common typologies.
The data, referring to 2023, provide a crucial basis for planning public policies, highlighting the need for interventions aimed at promoting gender equality in employment, strengthening digital skills, and improving the living conditions of families in Santa Catarina.
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