Madagascar People - 2022
SOURCE: 2022 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK
Population
28,172,462 (2022 est.)
Nationality
noun: Malagasy (singular and plural)
adjective: Malagasy
Ethnic groups
Malayo-Indonesian (Merina and related Betsileo), Cotiers (mixed African, Malayo-Indonesian, and Arab ancestry - Betsimisaraka, Tsimihety, Antaisaka, Sakalava), French, Indian, Creole, Comoran
Languages
Malagasy (official) 99.9%, French (official) 23.6%, English 8.2%, other 0.6% (2018 est.)
note: shares sum to more than 100% because some respondents gave more than one answer on the census
Religions
Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar/Malagasy Lutheran Church/Anglican Church 34%, Roman Catholic 32.3%, other Christian 8.1%, traditional/Animist 1.7%, Muslim 1.4%, other 0.6%, none 21.9% (2021 est.)
Demographic profile
Madagascar’s youthful population – nearly 60% are under the age of 25 as of 2022 – and moderately high total fertility rate of more than 3.6 children per woman ensures that the Malagasy population will continue its rapid growth trajectory for the foreseeable future. The population is predominantly rural and poor; chronic malnutrition is prevalent, and large families are the norm. Many young Malagasy girls are withdrawn from school, marry early (often pressured to do so by their parents), and soon begin having children. Early childbearing, coupled with Madagascar’s widespread poverty and lack of access to skilled health care providers during delivery, increases the risk of death and serious health problems for young mothers and their babies.
Child marriage perpetuates gender inequality and is prevalent among the poor, the uneducated, and rural households – as of 2018, 40% of Malagasy women aged 20 to 24 were married. Although the legal age for marriage is 18, parental consent is often given for earlier marriages or the law is flouted, especially in rural areas that make up approximately 60% of the country. Forms of arranged marriage whereby young girls are married to older men in exchange for oxen or money are traditional. If a union does not work out, a girl can be placed in another marriage, but the dowry paid to her family diminishes with each unsuccessful marriage.
Madagascar’s population consists of 18 main ethnic groups, all of whom speak the same Malagasy language. Most Malagasy are multi-ethnic, however, reflecting the island’s diversity of settlers and historical contacts (see Background). Madagascar’s legacy of hierarchical societies practicing domestic slavery (most notably the Merina Kingdom of the 16th to the 19th century) is evident today in persistent class tension, with some ethnic groups maintaining a caste system. Slave descendants are vulnerable to unequal access to education and jobs, despite Madagascar’s constitutional guarantee of free compulsory primary education and its being party to several international conventions on human rights. Historical distinctions also remain between central highlanders and coastal people.
Age structure
0-14 years: 38.86% (male 5,278,838/female 5,196,036)
15-24 years: 20.06% (male 2,717,399/female 2,689,874)
25-54 years: 33.02% (male 4,443,147/female 4,456,691)
55-64 years: 4.6% (male 611,364/female 627,315)
65 years and over: 3.47% (male 425,122/female 509,951) (2020 est.)
Dependency ratios
total dependency ratio: 74.5
youth dependency ratio: 68.8
elderly dependency ratio: 5.8
potential support ratio: 17.4 (2021 est.)
Median age
total: 20.3 years
male: 20.1 years
female: 20.5 years (2020 est.)
Population growth rate
2.27% (2022 est.)
Birth rate
28.68 births/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Death rate
6 deaths/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Net migration rate
0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Population distribution
most of population lives on the eastern half of the island; significant clustering is found in the central highlands and eastern coastline as shown in this population distribution map
Urbanization
urban population: 40.6% of total population (2023)
rate of urbanization: 4.26% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
Major urban areas - population
3.700 million ANTANANARIVO (capital) (2022)
Sex ratio
at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
0-14 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
15-24 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
25-54 years: 1 male(s)/female
55-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
total population: 1 male(s)/female (2022 est.)
Mother's mean age at first birth
19.5 years (2021 est.)
note: data represents median age at first birth among women 25-29
Maternal mortality ratio
335 deaths/100,000 live births (2017 est.)
Infant mortality rate
total: 39.04 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 42.33 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 35.65 deaths/1,000 live births (2022 est.)
Life expectancy at birth
total population: 68.17 years
male: 66.8 years
female: 69.57 years (2022 est.)
Total fertility rate
3.62 children born/woman (2022 est.)
Contraceptive prevalence rate
49.7% (2020)
Drinking water source
improved: urban: 85% of population
rural: 38% of population
total: 56.1% of population
unimproved: urban: 15% of population
rural: 62% of population
total: 43.9% of population (2020 est.)
Current health expenditure
3.7% of GDP (2019)
Physicians density
0.2 physicians/1,000 population (2018)
Hospital bed density
0.2 beds/1,000 population
Sanitation facility access
improved: urban: 49.2% of population
rural: 22.1% of population
total: 32.6% of population
unimproved: urban: 50.8% of population
rural: 77.9% of population
total: 67.4% of population (2020 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate
0.4% (2021 est.)
Major infectious diseases
degree of risk: very high (2020)
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, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine
Obesity - adult prevalence rate
5.3% (2016)
Alcohol consumption per capita
total: 0.89 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
beer: 0.5 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
wine: 0.07 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
spirits: 0.32 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
other alcohols: 0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
Tobacco use
total: 27.8% (2020 est.)
male: 42.7% (2020 est.)
female: 12.8% (2020 est.)
Children under the age of 5 years underweight
26.4% (2018)
Child marriage
women married by age 15: 12.7%
women married by age 18: 40.3%
men married by age 18: 11.8% (2018 est.)
Education expenditures
3.1% of GDP (2020 est.)
Literacy
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 76.7%
male: 78.4%
female: 75.1% (2018)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)
total: 10 years
male: 10 years
female: 10 years (2018)
Youth unemployment rate (ages 15-24)
total: 3.4%
male: 3.9%
female: 3% (2015 est.)
NOTE: The information regarding Madagascar on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Madagascar 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Madagascar 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.
This page was last modified 01 Dec 23, Copyright © 23 ITA all rights reserved.