Maldives Country Info - Asia

Description and Basic Information

Maldives with its capital Malé is located in Asia (Southern Asia, group of atolls in the Indian Ocean). It covers some 301 square kilometres (about 1.7 times the size of Washington, DC) with 379,000 citizens. Divehi and English are the some of the languages spoken by the majority in Maldives.

Maldives are an archipelago of 1,192 coral islands grouped into 26 coral atolls (200 inhabited islands, plus 80 islands with tourist resorts) in the Indian Ocean. Tourism, Maldives largest industry, accounts for 20% of GDP and more than 60% of the Maldives' foreign exchange receipts. The Maldives are tropical, with plenty of sunshine and temperatures around 30°C throughout the year. However, rainfall increases considerably during the April-October southwest monsoon, particularly from June to August. Aside from making the water bungalow rock on your honeymoon, the primary activity on the Maldives is scuba diving. The atolls are all coral reefs hundreds of kilometers away from any major landmass, meaning that water clarity is excellent and underwater life is abundant.

Pictures from Capital (Malé)

Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners.

About Maldives

The terrain offers flat, with white sandy beaches. The average density of population is about 1,263 per km². The climate in Maldives can be described as tropical with hot, humid, dry, northeast monsoon (November to March), rainy, southwest monsoon (June to August). Possible natural disasters include tsunamis or low elevation of islands makes them sensitive to sea level rise.

To reach someone in Maldives dial +960 prior to a number. There are 49,913 installed telephones. And there are 461,149 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 900 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".mv". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 230V - 50Hz. The following list are the 20 regions/states in Maldives we know off.

Demographic Statistics

In the year 2010, the total Maldivian population shrinked at a rate of -0.18% (or by 704 citizens). With 1,456 deaths and 5,737 babies born, the natural increase rate lies at 1.08%. -4,985 persons more in total emmigrated from the country than immigrated.

An overview of age distribution in Maldives: Each pair of bars represents a single age group (male/female). Each group is spanning 5 years. E.g. 0 to 5 years, 5 to 10 etc. and group "0 to 5" being at the left end and "100 +" at the right end of the chart.

Based on content from wikitravel.org. The original article can be found here based on the work of these users.
Geographic information is based on the data provided by geonames.org, CIA factsbook and Unesco.