Mauritania People - 2023
SOURCE: 2023 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK
Population
4,244,878 (2023 est.)
Nationality
noun: Mauritanian(s)
adjective: Mauritanian
Ethnic groups
Black Moors (Haratines - Arabic-speaking descendants of African origin who are or were enslaved by White Moors) 40%, White Moors (of Arab-Berber descent, known as Beydane) 30%, Sub-Saharan Mauritanians (non-Arabic speaking, largely resident in or originating from the Senegal River Valley, including Halpulaar, Fulani, Soninke, Wolof, and Bambara ethnic groups) 30%
Languages
Arabic (official and national), Pular, Soninke, Wolof (all national languages), French; note - the spoken Arabic in Mauritania differs considerably from the Modern Standard Arabic used for official written purposes or in the media; the Mauritanian dialect, which incorporates many Berber words, is referred to as Hassaniya
major-language sample(s):
كتاب حقائق العالم، المصدر الذي لا يمكن الاستغناء عنه للمعلومات الأساسية (Arabic)
The World Factbook, the indispensable source for basic information.
Religions
Muslim (official) 100%
Demographic profile
With a sustained total fertility rate of about 3.5 children per woman and almost 60% of the population under the age of 25 as of 2020, Mauritania's population is likely to continue growing for the foreseeable future. Mauritania's large youth cohort is vital to its development prospects, but available schooling does not adequately prepare students for the workplace. Girls continue to be underrepresented in the classroom, educational quality remains poor, and the dropout rate is high. The literacy rate is only about 50%, even though access to primary education has improved since the mid-2000s. Women's restricted access to education and discriminatory laws maintain gender inequality - worsened by early and forced marriages and female genital cutting.
The denial of education to black Moors also helps to perpetuate slavery. Although Mauritania abolished slavery in 1981 (the last country in the world to do so) and made it a criminal offense in 2007, the millenniums-old practice persists largely because anti-slavery laws are rarely enforced and the custom is so ingrained. According to a 2018 nongovernmental organization's report, a little more than 2% of Mauritania's population is enslaved, which includes individuals subjected to forced labor and forced marriage, while many thousands of individuals who are legally free contend with discrimination, poor education, and a lack of identity papers and, therefore, live in de facto slavery. The UN and international press outlets have claimed that up to 20% of Mauritania's population is enslaved, which would be the highest rate worldwide.
Drought, poverty, and unemployment have driven outmigration from Mauritania since the 1970s. Early flows were directed toward other West African countries, including Senegal, Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, and Gambia. The 1989 Mauritania-Senegal conflict forced thousands of black Mauritanians to take refuge in Senegal and pushed labor migrants toward the Gulf, Libya, and Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Mauritania has accepted migrants from neighboring countries to fill labor shortages since its independence in 1960 and more recently has received refugees escaping civil wars, including tens of thousands of Tuaregs who fled Mali in 2012.
Mauritania was an important transit point for Sub-Saharan migrants moving illegally to North Africa and Europe. In the mid-2000s, as border patrols increased in the Strait of Gibraltar, security increased around Spain's North African enclaves (Ceuta and Melilla), and Moroccan border controls intensified, illegal migration flows shifted from the Western Mediterranean to Spain's Canary Islands. In 2006, departure points moved southward along the West African coast from Morocco and then Western Sahara to Mauritania's two key ports (Nouadhibou and the capital Nouakchott), and illegal migration to the Canaries peaked at almost 32,000. The numbers fell dramatically in the following years because of joint patrolling off the West African coast by Frontex (the EU's border protection agency), Spain, Mauritania, and Senegal; the expansion of Spain's border surveillance system; and the 2008 European economic downturn.
Age structure
0-14 years: 36.11% (male 769,229/female 763,465)
15-64 years: 59.58% (male 1,197,311/female 1,331,815)
65 years and over: 4.31% (2023 est.) (male 77,123/female 105,935)
Dependency ratios
total dependency ratio: 82.7
youth dependency ratio: 76.8
elderly dependency ratio: 6
potential support ratio: 16.8 (2021 est.)
Median age
total: 21 years
male: 20.1 years
female: 22 years (2020 est.)
Population growth rate
1.96% (2023 est.)
Birth rate
27.61 births/1,000 population (2023 est.)
Death rate
7.33 deaths/1,000 population (2023 est.)
Net migration rate
-0.71 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2023 est.)
Population distribution
with most of the country being a desert, vast areas of the country, particularly in the central, northern, and eastern areas, are without sizeable population clusters; half the population lives in or around the coastal capital of Nouakchott; smaller clusters are found near the southern border with Mali and Senegal as shown in this population distribution map
Urbanization
urban population: 57.7% of total population (2023)
rate of urbanization: 3.84% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
Major urban areas - population
1.492 million NOUAKCHOTT (capital) (2023)
Sex ratio
at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
0-14 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.9 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2023 est.)
Mother's mean age at first birth
21.8 years (2019/21)
note: data represents median age at first birth among women 25-49
Maternal mortality ratio
465 deaths/100,000 live births (2020 est.)
Infant mortality rate
total: 49.95 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 55.84 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 43.89 deaths/1,000 live births (2023 est.)
Life expectancy at birth
total population: 65.57 years
male: 63.1 years
female: 68.12 years (2023 est.)
Total fertility rate
3.46 children born/woman (2023 est.)
Gross reproduction rate
1.71 (2023 est.)
Contraceptive prevalence rate
11.5% (2019/20)
Drinking water source
improved: urban: 98.7% of population
rural: 68.4% of population
total: 85.2% of population
unimproved: urban: 1.3% of population
rural: 31.6% of population
total: 14.8% of population (2020 est.)
Current health expenditure
3.4% of GDP (2020)
Physicians density
0.19 physicians/1,000 population (2018)
Sanitation facility access
improved: urban: 83.5% of population
rural: 25.2% of population
total: 57.5% of population
unimproved: urban: 16.5% of population
rural: 74.8% of population
total: 42.5% of population (2020 est.)
Major infectious diseases
degree of risk: very high (2023)
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: malaria and dengue fever
animal contact diseases: rabies
respiratory diseases: meningococcal meningitis
note: on 21 March 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Africa; Mauritania 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
12.7% (2016)
Alcohol consumption per capita
total: 0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
beer: 0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
wine: 0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
spirits: 0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
other alcohols: 0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
Tobacco use
total: 10.7% (2020 est.)
male: 19.3% (2020 est.)
female: 2.1% (2020 est.)
Children under the age of 5 years underweight
19.2% (2018)
Currently married women (ages 15-49)
66% (2023 est.)
Education expenditures
1.9% of GDP (2020 est.)
Literacy
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 67%
male: 71.8%
female: 62.2% (2021)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)
total: 9 years
male: 8 years
female: 9 years (2020)
Youth unemployment rate (ages 15-24)
total: 23%
male: 20.8%
female: 27.9% (2021 est.)
NOTE: The information regarding Mauritania on this page is re-published from the 2023 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Mauritania 2023 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Mauritania 2023 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.
This page was last modified 06 Dec 23, Copyright © 2023 ITA all rights reserved.