 In 1989, 46.4 percent of the population was under fifteen years of age, an above-average proportion even for sub-Saharan Africa.The population's rate of growth was a relatively high 3.5 percent per annum in the mid 1980s, up substantially from 2.0 percent in the mid-1970s and 2.1 percent in the mid-1960s.In 1983 the Abdallah regime borrowed US$2.85 million from the International Development Association to devise a national family planning program.