*1.4.1 Geography and demography*

Sub-Saharan Africa is heterogeneous and has a population estimated at 1.1billion [18]. It is projected that countries in this region would account for more than half of the world's growth by 2050 [19]. This geographical region fully or partially located south of the Sahara Desert occupies an area of about 24 million Km2 (**Figure 3**). It is made up of 47 countries divided into 4 WHO sub-regions. Most countries in this region belong to the LICs and LMICs according to World Bank Classification of economies and are also described as LRCs. Africa is the second largest and second most populous continent; SSA occupies about 80% of the continent [20]. Although the economic growth in Africa has been remarkable in recent years, the gap between the rich and poor is wide and many people still do not have access to basic amenities such as potable water, good sanitation and basic health services [20].


#### **Table 1.**

*Proportion of countries and population covered by the GODT database in the WHO regions. Year 2015 [17].*

*Organ Donation and Transplantation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Opportunities and Challenges DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94986*


#### **Table 2.**

*Absolute numbers and rates of the organ transplant activities per WHO region. 2015 [17].*
