Demographics of Mauritius
The island of Mauritius is situated in the Indian Ocean and is completely encircled by coral reefs and is to the east of Madagascar. This island is approximately 600 meters above the sea level. Piton de la Riviere Noire, Le Pouce and Pieter Both are among the highest mountains in the island of Mauritius. The island of Mauritius is been divided into nine districts namely Black River, Grand Port, Flacq, Moka, Port Louis, Savanne, Riviere du Rempart, Plaines Wilhelm’s and Pamplemousses. Mauritius is the part of Mascarenes islands along with Rodrigues and Reunion. This archipelago was initially formed due to the result of underwater volcanic eruptions that took place millions of years ago.
This island of Mauritius was initially discovered by Portuguese during the 15th century and it was first occupied by the Dutch sailors in the year 1638. The name Mauritius was given to this island by the Dutch’s in the honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau. During the 18th century, French controlled this island and renamed it as lle de France. Later, this island was under the rule of British since 1814 and yet again the name was changed to the original one. In the year 1968, Mauritius attained independence and in 1992 it became republic. Since then, Mauritius has been a secure democratic country with regular elections and an optimistic record of human rights, has engrossed significant foreign investments earning the position of being the highest per capita incomes in Africa.
French and English are the two official languages of Mauritius of which French is widely spoken and used language in the country. Besides that, Creole language which influenced from European languages is also spoken by few of the people of Mauritius. Other languages spoken in the region are Urdu and Hindi. Hindi and Urdu languages are mostly used by Indian decedents which form almost 70 percent of the population of this region. Around 50 percent population belongs to Indo-Mauritian which is Hinduism, while other major religions of this region consist of Christianity and Islam. The remaining population of this region is Chinese, African and French decedents.
The average temperature at the day time varies from about 20 degrees in the month of August to 26 degrees in the month of February. Along the coastal regions usually the temperature stays about 3 to 5 degrees higher. In the northern and western regions the climate stays dry and warm compared to the regions in south and east. At present the estimated population of this country is 1,157,290, however in the year 2000 the population was estimated at 1,193,464. The population of Mauritius has grown up to 1.09 percent in the year 2000 against 1.15 percent in the year 1999. Due to the mixed colonial history of Mauritius the culture of this region is diverse and this can be very well seen in their cuisine. The cuisine of Mauritius is the mixture of French, Dutch, Creole and Indian. Several religious festivals also resemble the diverse ethnic composition of this region. Eid ul Fitr, Diwali, Christmas, Cavadee and Ganesh Chaturthi are few of the famous religious festivals celebrated by the people of Mauritius.
