Jack Kerner

Population 8 Billion

2/8/2022

Madagascar Country Profile Population Overview

Madagascar is in a unique position as the fourth largest Island in the world found off the

coast of southeastern Africa. Its seclusion from the mainland has made the island nation host

uniquely adapted wildlife found nowhere else on the planet, as well as home to a culturally

unique and diverse population of millions of people. As a poverty-stricken, developing country,

Madagascar is facing many population challenges from high infant mortality rates to rapid

deforestation, but the country is making great progress in facing these threats and creating a

brighter future.

The growing population on the island poses a threat to the native wildlife, but rapid

growth is beginning to slow as the country urbanizes. In the year 2000, the population of

Madagascar was 15,684,814, this has nearly doubled in the past twenty years reaching

26,898,646 by 2020 (International Database, 2012). This rapid growth is not only unsustainable

for the island nation but is also causing an immediate threat as increasing demand for food is

driving slash and burn farming of the island’s remaining forested areas of which only about 20

percent remains (Madagascar at a Glance, 2022). The country is taking steps to stop human

encroachment onto forested land that serves as an important carbon sink for the earth as well as

an economic driver of ecotourism. Though illegal deforestation is still an issue, the country is

fighting to protect its natural wonders (Worldbank 2021). Though speaking for the diverse

population of around twenty ethnic groups, the population trends of the country are pointing

towards a more sustainable future. Progress is being made in curbing this population growth as
the country's total fertility rate drops to 3.9, still rather high globally but low compared to the

nearest neighbor on the continent, Mozambique, with a total fertility rate of 4.6 (World

Population Dashboard 2019). As the country becomes more urbanized and modernized, it is

becoming more environmentally sustainable, and also making a better environment for the

people that live there.

Coming out of years of political instability ever since their independence from France in

1960, Madagascar faces high rates of poverty and poor living conditions. The rough beginnings

of Democracy have made it difficult to improve living conditions from Madagascar's colonial

existence, but as their political system is becoming less and less dictatorial (Madagascar at a

Glance 2022), living conditions are improving. Poverty is still high in the country, about ninety

percent of the population makes less than $2 a day, representative of the rural to urban split of

one to four (Orr, 2017). The agrarian lives of many of the Malagasy people are beginning to

change as that ratio moves further towards urban life, but poverty in Madagascar remains a

massive problem in need of great attention. The contrasting method of exploiting the country’s

national resources to promote economic development, or conserving the forest to promote

tourism and development seem like viable choices to many of the different people on the island

but ultimately the way to combat the poverty on the island is through education. Education is

improving but still needs great work to empower more of the people spread across the large

country. Currently, the literacy rates are at seventy-five percent and improving (Orr, 2017), but it

will take a lot more work to curb Madagascar’s poverty problem.

In the face of difficult population challenges, Madagascar is treading the difficult wire of

developing further towards a modern existence while protecting the natural environment that

makes it so unique.
 Bibliography

“International Database.” United States Census Bureau, June 2012.

https://www.census.gov/data-tools/demo/idb/#/country?

menu=countryViz&COUNTRY_YEAR=2022&FIPS=MA&mapMeasures=POP&FIPS_S

INGLE=MA&COUNTRY_YR_ANIM=2022.

“Madagascar at a Glance.” U.S. Agency for International Development, February 01, 2022.

https://www.usaid.gov/madagascar/madagascar-glance#:~:text=Major%20cities%2C

%20in%20addition%20to,Toamasina%2C%20Mahajanga%2C%20and%20Fianarantsoa.

Orr, Tamra B. Madagascar. New York, NY: Children's Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.,

2017.

World Bank Group. “Madagascar Signs Landmark Agreement with the World Bank to Reduce

Poverty, Deforestation and Carbon Emissions.” World Bank. World Bank Group,

February 8, 2021.

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/02/05/madagascar-signs-

landmark-agreement-with-the-world-bank-to-reduce-poverty-deforestation-and-carbon-

emissions.

“World Population Dashboard: United Nations Population Fund.” World Population Dashboard |

United Nations Population Fund, 2019. https://www.unfpa.org/data/world-population-

dashboard.