🇱🇸Lesotho

Maseru

Africa

Lower middle income

LSO

Compare

Population

2.4M

1.1%as of 2025

Fertility Rate

2.66

births/woman

Life Expectancy

57.8y

GDP / capita

$1.1K

Pop. Growth

1.10%

Net Migration

-5.2K

Population over time

Total population · observed (solid) and UN medium projection to 2100 (dashed)

Source: World Bank · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Fertility rate over time

Births per woman · dashed line = replacement (2.1)

Source: World Bank

Where immigrants come from

Largest foreign-born communities in Lesotho by country of birth (2024) · arrow shows change since 2010.

🇿🇦South Africa6K(66.4%)

+134%

🇮🇳India522(5.8%)

+134%

🇵🇰

Population projections to 2100

Official UN projections — Low / Medium / High variants

Source: UN World Population Prospects 2024

Population pyramid (2025)

Age & sex structure · share of total population by 5-year cohort

Male1.2MTotal 2.4M1.2MFemale

Source: birthrate.io model

GDP per capita over time

Current US$

Source: World Bank

Life expectancy over time

Years at birth

Source: World Bank

Society, housing & beliefs

Family, crime, housing and religion indicators

Homicide rate

38.2

per 100,000

Divorce rate

—

per 1,000

Births outside marriage

—

of births

Home ownership

—

of households

Homicide rate over time

Intentional homicides per 100,000 people

Source: World Bank / UNODC

GDP over time

Current US$

Source: World Bank

Net migration over time

Net migrants per year (immigrants − emigrants)

Source: World Bank

Foreign-born population over time

Immigrant / diaspora population living in the country

Source: World Bank / UN DESA

Foreign-born share over time

Foreign-born residents as % of the population

Source: World Bank / UN DESA

🇺🇬Uganda313(3.5%)

+134%

🇨🇳China276(3.1%)

+134%

🇧🇼Botswana247(2.7%)

+133%

🇬🇭Ghana203(2.3%)

+133%

🇺🇸United States203(2.3%)

+133%

🇹🇿Tanzania193(2.1%)

+133%

🇿🇲Zambia158(1.8%)

+132%

🇿🇼Zimbabwe158(1.8%)

+132%

🇲🇼Malawi84(0.9%)

+133%

Source: UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024

Where the Lesotho diaspora lives

Top destinations for people born in Lesotho who now live abroad (2024) · arrow shows change since 2010.

🇿🇦South Africa237.7K(96.3%)

+54%

🇲🇿Mozambique8.2K(3.3%)

+13%

🇧🇼Botswana292(0.1%)

+21%

🇸🇿Eswatini226(0.1%)

+14%

🇦🇺Australia157(0.1%)

+40%

🇹🇿Tanzania143(0.1%)

+2%

🇳🇦Namibia139(0.1%)

+10%

🇩🇰Denmark48(0.0%)

+17%

🇬🇳Guinea28(0.0%)

🇳🇴Norway10(0.0%)

+11%

🇸🇰Slovak Republic3(0.0%)

🇭🇺Hungary1(0.0%)

−83%

Source: UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024