The Mauritian society is multiethnic. Indo-Mauritians make up the bulk of the population with the rest being descendants of people from Subsaharan Africa, including Madagascar, China and Western Europe, mostly France.
Mauritius also hosts foreign nationals from mostly India, Bangladesh and France with the rest from South Africa, Madagascar and Subsaharan Africa. As of 2023, Mauritius had the highest population density in Africa.
According to , the total population was in , compared to 479,000 in 1950.
The proportion of the population aged under 15 was 21.9% in 2010. 71.2% were between 15 and 65 years of age, with 6.9% being 65 years or older.
Mauritius has a population of 1,235,260 (608,090 males, 627,170 females), according to the 2022 Census. The population on the island of Mauritius was 1,191,280 (586,590 males and 604,690 females); Rodrigues island was 43,650 (21,330 males and 22,320 females); and Agaléga island was 330 (170 males and 160 females).
The average age of the population was 38 years; the proportion of children aged under 15 years decreased from 20.7% (in 2011) to 15.4% (in 2022); and the number of adults aged 60 years and over increased from 12.7% (2011) to 18.7% (2022).
Population Estimates by sex and age group (01.VII.2012) (Based on the results of the 2011 Population Census.) :
Population by sex and age group (Census 04.VII.2019) (Excludes the islands of St. Brandon and Agalega.):
The table below presents the population development of Mauritius since 1900. The figures up to 1945 are for the island of Mauritius only. As of 1946, the island of Rodrigues is included.
Figures are from Statistics Mauritius and United Nations Demographic Yearbook.
Indo-Mauritians represent roughly sixty-eight percent of the population. The Indo-Mauritian population consists of Hindu and Muslim descendants of Indian laborers.
Mauritian Creoles, descendants of African slaves, represent twenty-seven percent of the population. The Creole community also includes the country's mixed-race communities, which consist of people with any admixture of the island's other groups. Rodriguais and Chagossians are usually incorporated within the Creole ethnic group.
Sino-Mauritians from the Hakka and other ethnolinnguistic groups make up around three percent of Mauritian society.
White Mauritians, of mostly French descent, make up roughly two percent of the population of Mauritius.
While the government officially groups Mauritians into four ethnic groups â Hindus, Muslims, Chinese, and General Population â the general population includes all who do not practice Hinduism or Islam and are not Chinese by ethnicity. The general population is mostly made-up of Christian Creole and White Mauritians.
Small groups of foreign students from Europe or the Indian Ocean region are also present. Recent years have seen a steady flow of foreign workers into the textile industry (primarily Bangladeshi men), the construction industry (primarily Indian and Bangladeshi workers), and harbor-related activities.
The main languages spoken in Mauritius are Mauritian Creole, English, French, and Bhojpuri. English is the official administrative language of the parliament, though French is also permitted. However, the lingua franca is Mauritian Creole, and the newspapers and television programs are usually in French. The Mauritian currency features the Latin, Tamil and Devanagari scripts.
Mauritian Creole, which is spoken by 90 percent of the population, is considered to be the native language of the country and is used most often in informal settings. It was developed in the 18th century by enslaved Africans who used a pidgin language to communicate with each other and with French enslavers and colonizers. The pidgin evolved with later generations to become a casual and main language.
Mauritian Creole is a French-based creole.
More than 90% of the Sino-Mauritian community are Christian; the remainder are largely Buddhist.
According to the United Nations, there were 28,713 international migrants in Mauritius in 2017.
Their most common countries of origin were as follows: