Advanced search
image
Travel & living abroad

Asia and Oceania

Maldives

 Flag of Maldives

Last reviewed: 27 October 2009

Country information

GEOGRAPHY

The Republic of Maldives, lying about 420 miles south west of Sri Lanka, consists of a chain of 26 natural coral atolls comprising some 1,190 islands. 200 of these islands are inhabited, more than 90 are designated tourist islands, and 20 are industrial islands. The average height of the Maldives islands are 1.5m above sea level. The capital Malé is an area of under 2 square kilometres, and the highest point above sea level in the Maldives is 2.4m.

The Maldives was seriously affected by the tsunami on 26 December 2004 which killed 83 people and virtually destroyed 14 inhabited islands, three of which have been permanently abandoned. 5% of the population lost their homes, 12,000 people were displaced, 8% of the fishing fleet sustained damaged, and a quarter of the resort islands closed for repairs.

Population

The population is approximately 395,000(2009) . Over 40% of the population is under 15 years old. The growth rate is 2.86%. Malé is home to approximately 120,000 people, of which at least 20,000 are foreign labourers from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.  Around 80% of islands have less than 1000 inhabitants.

Tourism

There are currently over 200 tourist establishments in Maldives, with over over 90 islands dedicated to tourism. The average length of stay is 8.5 days. There were some 683,000 tourists in 2008, and the annual growth rate averages 8%. One quarter of the tourists come from Italy, over 16% from the UK, 14% from Germany and 9% from Japan. The number of UK tourists has risen substantially in recent years (approx. 110,000 in 2008).

Country information

Pick Another Country :

Share this with: