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Travel to Mauritius — Unbiased reviews and great
deals from TripAdvisorMauritius
| Republic of Mauritius President:
Anerood Jugnauth (2003) Prime
Minister: Navin Ramgoolam (2005)
Current government officials
Land area: 714 sq mi (1,849 sq km);
total area: 788 sq mi (2,040 sq km) Population (2007 est.): 1,250,882 (growth
rate: 0.8%); birth rate: 15.3/1000; infant mortality rate: 14.1/1000;
life expectancy: 72.9; density per sq mi: 1,752
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Port Louis, 577,200 (metro. area), 143,800 (city
proper) Monetary unit: Mauritian
rupee
Languages:
English less than 1% (official), Creole 81%,
Bojpoori 12%, French 3% (2000)
Ethnicity/race:
Indo-Mauritian 68%, Creole 27%, Sino-Mauritian
3%, Franco-Mauritian 2%
Religions:
Hindu 48%, Roman Catholic 24%, other Christian
8%, Islam 17% (2000) Literacy rate:
86% (2003 est.) Economic summary:
GDP/PPP (2007 est.): $14.06 billion; per capita $ $11,200 .
Real growth rate: 4.6%. Inflation: 8.8%.
Unemployment: 8.8%. Arable land: 49%.
Agriculture: sugarcane, tea, corn, potatoes, bananas, pulses;
cattle, goats; fish. Labor force: 552,700; construction and
industry 30%, services 25%, agriculture and fishing 9%, trade,
restaurants, hotels 22%, transportation and communication 7%, finance
6% (2007). Industries: food processing (largely sugar milling),
textiles, clothing, chemicals, metal products, transport equipment,
nonelectrical machinery, tourism. Natural resources: arable
land, fish. Exports: $2.475 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.):
clothing and textiles, sugar, cut flowers, molasses. Imports:
$3.627 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): manufactured goods, capital
equipment, foodstuffs, petroleum products, chemicals. Major trading
partners: UK, UAE, France, U.S., Madagascar, South Africa, China,
India (2006).
Member of Commonwealth of Nations
Communications: Telephones: main
lines in use: 357,300 (2006); mobile cellular: 772,400 (2006).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 4, FM 9, shortwave 0 (2002).
Radios: 420,000 (1997). Television broadcast stations: 2
(plus several repeaters) (1997). Televisions: 258,000
(1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 9,792 (2007).
Internet users: 182,000 (2006). Transportation: Railways: 0 km.
Highways: total: 2,020 km; paved: 2,020 km (including 75 km of
expressways) (2005). Ports and harbors: Port Louis.
Airports: 5 (2007). International
disputes: Mauritius claims the Chagos Archipelago (UK-administered
British Indian Ocean Territory), and its former inhabitants, who
reside chiefly in Mauritius, but were granted UK citizenship and the
right to repatriation in 2001; claims French-administered Tromelin
Island.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Mauritius is a mountainous island in the Indian Ocean east of
Madagascar.
Government
Parliamentary democracy within the British Commonwealth.
History
After a brief Dutch settlement, French immigrants who came in 1715
named the island Île de France and established the first road and harbor
infrastructure, as well as the sugar industry, under the leadership of
Gov. Mahe de Labourdonnais. Blacks from Africa and Madagascar came as
slaves to work in the sugarcane fields. In 1810, the British captured the
island and in 1814, by the Treaty of Paris, it was ceded to Great Britain
along with its dependencies.
Indian immigration, which followed the abolition of slavery in 1835,
rapidly changed the fabric of Mauritian society, and the country
flourished with the increased cultivation of sugarcane. The opening of the
Suez Canal in 1869 heralded the decline of Mauritius as a port of call for
ships rounding the southern tip of Africa, bound for South and East Asia.
The economic instability of the price of sugar, the main crop, in the
first half of the 20th century brought civil unrest, then economic,
administrative, and political reforms. Mauritius became independent on
March 12, 1968.
The effects of Cyclone Claudette in 1979 and of falling world sugar
prices in the early 1980s led the government to initiate a vigorous
program of agricultural diversification and develop the processing of
imported goods for the export market. The country formally broke ties with
the British Crown in March 1992, becoming a republic within the
Commonwealth.
In addition to sugarcane, textile production and tourism are the
leading industries. Primary education is free, and Mauritius boasts one of
the highest literacy rates in sub-Saharan Africa.
With a complicated ethnic mix—about 30% of the population is of African
descent and the remainder is mostly of Indian descent, both Hindu and
Muslim—political allegiances are organized according to class and
ethnicity.
In Feb. 2002, Mauritius went through four presidents in succession. Two
resigned within days of each other, each after refusing to sign a
controversial anti-terrorism law that severely curtailed the rights of
suspects. The law, supported by the prime minister, was ultimately signed
by a third, interim president. At the end of February, a fourth president,
Karl Offman, was elected by parliament.
In Oct. 2003, Paul Berenger, a white Mauritian of French ancestry,
became the first non-Hindu prime minister in the history of Mauritius.
Berenger and the previous prime minister, Anerood Jugnauth, formed a
coalition during Sept. 2000 elections. Under their agreement, Jugnauth
served as prime minister for three years and Berenger assumed the prime
ministership for the remaining two years of the term. Jugnauth then became
president in 2003, and in July 2005, Navin Ramgoolam, prime minister from
1995 to 2000, again assumed that office.
See also Encyclopedia: Mauritius.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Mauritius
Central Statistical Office ncb.intnet.mu/cso.htm .
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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