Wajir County

Introduction

Wajir County is located in North Eastern Province and had a total population of 893,000 in 2024. According to the 2019 census, Wajir had a total population of 781,263 people, consisting of 127,932 households and an average household size of 6.1 people per household.

Wajir County has a total land area of 56,773.1 square kilometres and had a population density of 14 people per square kilometre in 2019.

Wajir County is bordered to the North by Mandera, the East by Somalia, the South by Garissa, the South-West by Isiolo, the West by Marsabit, and the North-West by Ethiopia.

Sub-counties in Wajir County include Buna, Eldas, Habaswein, Tarbaj, Wajir East, Wajir North, Wajir South, and Wajir West.

Wajir County Economy

Between 2018 and 2022, Wajir County's average Gross County Product at current prices was Ksh 62 billion, representing an average county contribution to Gross Value Added of 0.5%.

The county contributed, on average, 0.8% to agriculture, forestry, and fishing activities and 0.1% to manufacturing activities. The county's average contribution to service activities was 0.4%. 

Wajir County had a Gross County Product per capita of Ksh 73,021 in 2022.

Poverty Rates

Wajir County's overall headcount poverty rate was 66.3%, with an estimated 545,000 people living in poverty in 2021. Kenya's overall headcount poverty rate was 38.6% in the same year.

The hardcore poverty rate of Wajir County was 22%, with 181,000 people estimated to live in extreme poverty in 2021. Overall, in the same year, Kenya had a hardcore poverty rate of 5.8%.

Wajir also had a food poverty rate of 40.1%, with 329,000 people estimated to live in food poverty. In Kenya, the food poverty rate in 2021 was 30.5%.

The table below shows the distribution of poverty by constituency in Wajir County in 2019: Eldas 62.3%, Tarbaj 63.2%, Wajir East 64.9%, Wajir North 56.4%, Wajir South 54%, and Wajir West 67.6%.

In 2021, the mean monthly food and non-food expenditures in Wajir County were Ksh 3,403 and Ksh 1,226, respectively. The percentage share of mean monthly food and non-food expenditures in the same period was 78.2% and 21.8%, respectively. 

The major sources of household food consumption in Wajir County are purchase or stock (80.5%), own production (7.5%), and gifts (12%).

In 2021, the mean and median per adult equivalent consumption expenditure in Wajir County were Ksh 4,629 and Ksh 3,722, respectively.

Wajir County Demographics

In 2019, Wajir County had a total population of 781,263 people, 415,374 males, 365,840 females, and 49 intersex. Wajir had a median age of 13 years in 2019.

The table below shows the population distribution in Wajir County by sub-county and sex in 2019. 

Marital Status

The percentage distribution of women aged 12 and above in Wajir County who were never married was 40.6% in 2019. The distribution of women married monogamous was 52.4%, while that of women married polygamous was 2.0%. The widowed were 2.3%, while the distribution of the divorced and separated was 2.1% and 0.4%, respectively, in 2021.

Among men aged 12 and above in Wajir, 53% were never married, 40% married monogamously, 5.3% married polygamously, 0.5% were widowed, 0.6% divorced, and 0.5% separated.

According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, the median age at first marriage among women aged 20-49 in Wajir County was 19.5 years in 2022. The median age at first marriage among women aged 25-49 in the county was 19.2 years.

In 2022, the median age at first marriage among men aged 30-54 in Wajir was 26 years.

Polygyny

The percentage distribution of women aged 15-49 in Wajir County who had one or more co-wives was 37.5%, 30.9% with one co-wife, and 6.6% with more than two co-wives in 2022. The percentage of women with no co-wives in Wajir was 62.5% in the same year.

Among men aged 15-49 in Wajir County, 16.5% had more than two wives, and 83.5% had one wife in 2022.

Marriage Registration

In 2022, 7.5% of women aged 15-49 in Wajir County had their marriages registered with civil authorities, while the % of those with registered marriages and marriage certificates was 6.6%.

Teenage Marriages

The proportion of married males aged 12-15 and 12-18 in Wajir County was 6% and 7%, respectively. The proportion of married females aged 12-15 and 12-18 in Wajir County was 6.7% and 11.4%, respectively.

The rate of teenage pregnancies in Wajir County, consisting of women aged 15-19 who have ever been pregnant, was 14.8% in 2022.

Total Fertility Rate

The Total Fertility Rate in Wajir County was 6.7 births per woman in 2019, an increase of 3.5% from 6.5 births per woman in 2009. By comparison, Kenya had a total fertility rate of 3.4 births per woman in 2019, a decline of 28.6% from 4.8 births per woman in 2009.

In 2019, Wajir County's total youth fertility rate was 0.7 births per woman, compared to the national youth fertility rate of 1 birth per woman in Kenya.

Wajir County had a Crude Birth Rate of 44.2 births per 1,000 population in 2019, a decline of 15.4% from a crude birth rate of 52.2 births per 1,000 population in 2009. Nationally, Kenya had a Crude Birth Rate of 27.9 births per 1,000 population in 2019, a decline of 27.2% from a Crude Birth Rate of 38.4 births per 1,000 population in 2009.

Place of Birth and Notification Status

In 2019, 49.2% of recent births in Wajir County occurred in a health facility, while 50% occurred in a non-health facility. In Kenya, 85.8% occurred in a health facility, while 14% occurred in a non-health facility.

In 2019, 64.6% of recent births in Wajir were notified, while 35% were not. 90.4% of recent births in Kenya were notified, while 9.3% were not.

Place of Death and Notification Status

In 2019, 26% of deaths in Wajir County occurred in a health facility, while 68.8% occurred in the community. In Kenya, 59% of deaths in 2019 occurred in a health facility, while 40% did not occur in a health facility.

The share of deaths in Wajir County that were notified in 2019 was 39.1%. Overall, the share of deaths that were notified in Kenya in 2019 was 85.6%.

Wajir County had a Crude Death Rate (CDR) of 11.6 deaths per 1,000 population in 2019. Overall, Kenya Crude Death Rate was 10.5%.

Religious Affiliation

Most residents of Wajir County are Islam 767,312, followed by Catholic 3,060, and Other Christians 2,280.

Development

1. The Rural Access Index (RAI) in Wajir County was 2% in 2019, representing the percentage of the population living within two kilometres of an all-weather road.
2. Household access to electricity in Wajir County was 14.6% in 2019, up from 3.4% in 2009.
3. In 2019, 29.8% of households in Wajir County had access to improved sanitation, up from 7.5% in 2009.
4. Household access to safe drinking water in Wajir County was 49.2% in 2019, up from 46% in 2009.
5. Wajir had 23.2% of its public primary schools connected to electricity, ranking 44^th nationally in 2019.

The share of the population in Wajir County owning mobile phones in 2019 was 27.9%. Among women, 64.5% owned any type of mobile phone in Wajir County in 2022, while 24.1% owned a smartphone.

Among men, 76.8% in Wajir owned any kind of mobile phone in 2022, while 42.4% owned a smartphone. The percentage of men and women who had used a mobile phone for financial transactions in the year preceding the 2022 KDHS survey was 86.7% and 72.8%, respectively^.

See Also

1. Garissa County
2. Mandera County
3. Marsabit County

References

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19. Commission on Revenue Allocation. (2022). Kenya County Factsheet (3rd ed., p. 120).