Since the country's independence in 1960, three general census of population and dwellings (RGPH) have been conducted by the national statistics office INSTAT under the supervision of the ministry of economy. The first census in 1975 counted 7.4 million Malagasy people, the second one in 1993 censused 12.3 million citizens and the 18h May to 10 June 2018 census numbered 25 674 186 inhabitants. [1]
Population
Demographics of Madagascar, Data of Our World in Data, year 2022; number of inhabitants in millions.Population density of Madagascar as of 2004
The problem with population estimation in Madagascar is that data is very old and limited. The last population census was carried out in 1993, after an initial 1975 census. There was an attempt at a census in 2009, but this attempt ultimately failed due to political instability. Therefore, the demographic situation is inferred but reliability of any estimates from any source has a large margin of error.
According to the 2022 revision of the World Population Prospects[1][2] the total population was 28,915,653 in 2021, compared to only 4,084,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 43.1%, 53.8% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 3.1% was 65 years or older.[3]
Total population
Population percentages
aged 0–14
aged 15–64
aged 65+
1950
4 084 000
38.2%
58.6%
3.2%
1955
4 548 000
40.2%
56.6%
3.2%
1960
5 104 000
42.6%
54.1%
3.3%
1965
5 764 000
44.6%
52.0%
3.4%
1970
6 549 000
45.1%
51.3%
3.6%
1975
7 502 000
45.6%
50.6%
3.8%
1980
8 609 000
45.9%
50.5%
3.6%
1985
9 785 000
45.1%
51.6%
3.3%
1990
11 281 000
44.7%
52.1%
3.2%
1995
13 129 000
44.5%
52.4%
3.1%
2000
15 364 000
45.3%
51.6%
3.1%
2005
17 886 000
44.6%
52.3%
3.1%
2010
20 714 000
43.1%
53.8%
3.1%
Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (01.VII.2019) (Unrevised data. Data refer to projections based on the 1993 Population
Census.):[4]
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Region
Total fertility rate
Percentage of women age 15–49 currently pregnant
Mean number of children ever born to women age 40–49
The island of Madagascar is predominantly populated by people broadly classified as belonging to the Malagasyethno-linguistic group. This group is further subdivided a number of ethnic groups, often into the standard eighteen.
In addition, communities of Indians in Madagascar and Arabs and Somalis have long been established on the island and have assimilated into local communities to varying degrees, in some places having long since become identified "Malagasy" ethnic groups, and in others maintaining distinct identities and cultural separation. More recent arrivals include Europeans and Chinese immigrants.
Madagascar was probably uninhabited prior to Austronesian settlement in the early centuries AD. Austronesian (particularly Malay) features are most predominant in the central highlands peoples, while coastal peoples are phenotypically more East African, sometimes with minor Arab, Somali, European and Indian admixtures. The largest coastal groups are the Betsimisaraka (1,500,000) and the Tsimihety and Sakalava (700,000 each). Malagasy society has long been polarized between the politically and economically advantaged highlanders of the central plateaux and the people along the coast. For example, in the 1970s there was widespread opposition among coastal ethnics against the policy of "Malagasization" which intended to phase out the use of the French language in public life in favour of a more prominent position for the Malagasy language, whose orthography is based on the Merina dialect.
Indians in Madagascar descend mostly from traders who arrived in the newly independent nation looking for better opportunities. The majority of them came from the west coast of India known as Karana (Muslim) and Banian (Hindu). The majority speak Hindi or Gujarati, although some other Indian languages are also spoken. Nowadays[update] the younger generations speak at least three languages, including French, Gujarati and Malagasy. A large number of the Indians in Madagascar have a high level of education, particularly the younger generation.[citation needed]
A sizeable number of Europeans also reside in Madagascar, mostly of French descent.
According to the 1993 national census, 41% of Malagasies practised Christianity and 52% practise traditional religion,[11] which tends to emphasize links between the living and the razana (ancestors); by 2020, only 4.5% of Malagasies exclusively practised folk religions and 85% were Christian (according to the Pew Research Center).[12] The Association of Religion Data Archives noted that in 2020, 58.1% of the population is Christian, 2.1% is Muslim and 39.2% practices traditional faiths, while 0.6% of the population is non-religious or adheres to other faiths.[13]
Madagascar's traditional religions tend to emphasize links between the living and the dead. They believe that the dead join their ancestors in the ranks of divinity and that ancestors are intensely concerned with the fate of their living descendants. This spiritual communion is celebrated by the Merina and Betsileo reburial practice of famadihana, or "turning over the dead". In this ritual, relatives' remains are removed from the family tomb, rewrapped in new silk shrouds, and returned to the tomb following festive ceremonies in their honor. In the festivities, they eat, drink, and literally dance with the dead. After one or two days of celebrating, they shower the body with gifts and rebury it.
Followers of Islam constitute approximately 3% of the population in 2022, according to the US Department of State;[14] there are also small numbers of Hindus and Jews.
A small community started practicing Judaism in 2010, and formally converted in 2016 with the assistance of Kulanu, a nonprofit organization focusing on remote Jewish communities.[16][17]
Freedom of religion
In 2023, the country scored 3 out of 4 for religious freedom.[18]
Other demographic statistics
Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2022.[19]
One birth every 35 seconds
One death every 3 minutes
One net migrant every 360 minutes
Net gain of one person every 42 seconds
The following demographic are from the CIA World Factbook[20] unless otherwise indicated.
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: malaria and dengue fever
water contact diseases: schistosomiasis
animal contact diseases: rabies
note: on 21 March 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Africa; Madagascar is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine
Matthew E. Hules, et al. (2005). The Dual Origin of the Malagasy in Island Southeast Asia and East Africa: Evidence from Maternal and Paternal Lineages. American Journal of Human Genetics, 76:894-901, 2005.
