Oshana Region
Oshana's Oshakati serves as northern Namibia's commercial hub, 53% urban population achieving second-highest density while 2024 drought stressed rural livelihoods.
Oshana contains Oshakati, the commercial center that serves Namibia's densely populated north, population of 230,801 achieving the second-highest density in the country at 26.7 persons per km². Unlike southern regions where vast emptiness defines settlement patterns, Oshana demonstrates what better water supply enables—over half (53.2%) of residents living in urban areas, unusual for a country where rural poverty predominates.
The region's economy depends on services that urban concentration creates, Oshakati functioning as northern Namibia's hub for commerce, healthcare, and education. This service-sector concentration provides formal employment that subsistence agriculture cannot match, attracting migration from surrounding regions while creating the inequality between urban prosperity and rural poverty that characterizes developing economies.
The 2024 drought caused very poor grazing conditions throughout Oshana, the cattle that represent wealth and livelihood threatened by rainfall failure that floods in some areas paradoxically accompanied. Annual population growth of 2.2% suggests continued urbanization that may outpace employment creation, the demographic pressure that successful development attracts potentially overwhelming the infrastructure it requires.