4. Demographic situation
6. According to the projection of the National Institute of Statistics (INSTAT), the
Malagasy population, estimated at 18,555,667 in 2007 rose to 21,842,167 in 2013, of
which 83% live in rural areas.
7. In terms of spatial distribution, the Analamanga and Vakinankaratra Regions, both
located in the province of Antananarivo, are the most populated, comprising 24.1% of
the total population.
8. This population is young since 16.1% are under the age of 5 years, 46.6% are under
15 and 56.3% are below or equal to 19 years. The population under 18 represents
approximately 51.6%. The female population represents 50.6% against 49.4% for
males.
9. The population is characterized by high fertility. An upward trend was recorded
between the periods 2008-2009 and 2012-2013. Indeed, the average number of live
births of a woman had increased at the end of their reproductive life or Synthetic
Fertility Index from 4.8 in 2008-2009 to 5.0 in 2012-2013.
10. Infant and child mortality has respectively dropped from 48 ‰ and 72 ‰ in 20082009 to 42 ‰ and 62 ‰ 2012-2013, thanks to setting the implementation of a series
of activities for improving health of the mother and child, particularly in the area of
immunization coverage and the prevention and treatment of malaria.
11. In parallel, overall life expectancy at birth has increased steadily rising from 55.7
years in 2007 to 66.9 years in 2012.
5. Economic, social and cultural contexts
a. Economic indicators
12. Madagascar is an agricultural country because agriculture employs about 80% of the
total population. Yet it is limited to subsistence farming since the area economically
exploited for agriculture is on average 1.4 ha for the whole country. In addition,
techniques and tools are rudimentary which explains the low yield. Therefore, the
weight of the primary sector in GDP was only 34.8% in 2013 against 13.1% in the
secondary sector and 56.1% for the tertiary sector.
13. During the last decade, Madagascar has experienced two major political crises:
those of 2002 and 2009. Thus, the change in macroeconomic indicators of the
country is mainly conditioned by the political situation which prevailed in the country.
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