arable land: 6%
permanent crops: 1%
permanent pasture: 64.1%

Madagascar’s youthful population – just over 60% are under the age of 25 – and high total fertility rate of more than 4 children per women ensures that the Malagasy population will continue its rapid growth trajectory for the foreseeable future. The population is predominantly rural and poor; chronic malnutrition is prevalent and large families are the norm. Many young Malagasy girls are withdrawn from school marry early (often pressured to do so by their parents) and soon begin having children. Early childbearing coupled with Madagascar’s widespread poverty and lack of access to skilled health care providers during delivery increases the risk of death and serious health problems for young mothers and their babies.
Child marriage perpetuates gender inequality and is prevalent among the poor the uneducated and rural households – as of 2013 of Malagasy women aged 20 to 24 more than 40% were married and more than a third had given birth by the age of 18. Although the legal age for marriage is 18 parental consent is often given for earlier marriages or the law is flouted especially in rural areas that make up nearly 65% of the country. Forms of arranged marriage whereby young girls are married to older men in exchange for oxen or money are traditional. If a union does not work out a girl can be placed in another marriage but the dowry paid to her family diminishes with each unsuccessful marriage.
Madagascar’s population consists of 18 main ethnic groups all of whom speak the same Malagasy language. Most Malagasy are multi-ethnic however reflecting the island’s diversity of settlers and historical contacts (see Background). Madagascar’s legacy of hierarchical societies practicing domestic slavery (most notably the Merina Kingdom of the 16th to the 19th century) is evident today in persistent class tension with some ethnic groups maintaining a caste system. Slave descendants are vulnerable to unequal access to education and jobs despite Madagascar’s constitutional guarantee of free compulsory primary education and its being party to several international conventions on human rights. Historical distinctions also remain between central highlanders and coastal people.

urban: 81.6% of population
rural: 35.3% of population
total: 51.5% of population
urban: 18.4% of population
rural: 64.7% of population
total: 48.5% of population (2015 est.)

urban: 18% of population
rural: 8.7% of population
total: 12% of population
urban: 82% of population
rural: 91.3% of population
total: 88% of population (2015 est.)

Ravlomanana Movement or MR [Marc RAVALOMANANA]
Sambo Fiaran'i Noe or SFN
Union Party or Tambatra [Pety RAKOTONIAINA]
Vondrona Politika Miara dia Malagasy Miara Miainga or VPM MMM [Milavonjy ANDRIASY]

Agriculture including fishing and forestry is a mainstay of the economy accounting for more than one-fourth of GDP and employing roughly 80% of the population. Deforestation and erosion aggravated by the use of firewood as the primary source of fuel are serious concerns.
After discarding socialist economic policies in the mid-1990s Madagascar followed a World Bank- and IMF-led policy of privatization and liberalization until the onset of a political crisis which lasted from 2009 to 2013. The free market strategy had placed the country on a slow and steady growth path from an extremely low starting point. Exports of apparel boomed after gaining duty-free access to the US in 2000; however Madagascar's failure to comply with the requirements of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) led to the termination of the country's duty-free access in January 2010 a sharp fall in textile production and a loss of more than 100,000 jobs.
Madagascar regained AGOA access in January 2015 following the democratic election of a new president the previous year. In November 2015 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a Rapid Credit Facility to Madagascar worth about $42.1 million to help the government meet its balance of payments needs. The IMF also approved a staff monitoring program to guide policy implementation and indicated that Madagascar must demonstrate the capability to sustain reforms to qualify for future requests for a credit facility.

$35.44 billion (2015 est.)
$34.39 billion (2014 est.)
$33.29 billion (2013 est.)

3% (2015 est.)
3.3% (2014 est.)
2.3% (2013 est.)

$1500 (2015 est.)
$1500 (2014 est.)
$1500 (2013 est.)

15% of GDP (2015 est.)
14.7% of GDP (2014 est.)
10.2% of GDP (2013 est.)

NA% (2015 est.)
3.6% (2014 est.)

47.5 (2001)
38.1 (1999)

7.4% (2015 est.)
6.1% (2014 est.)

60% (31 December 2015 est.)
60% (31 December 2014 est.)

$1.375 billion (31 December 2015 est.)
$1.506 billion (31 December 2014 est.)

$2.745 billion (31 December 2015 est.)
$2.399 billion (31 December 2014 est.)

$1.645 billion (31 December 2015 est.)
$1.658 billion (31 December 2014 est.)

-$211 million (2015 est.)
-$34 million (2014 est.)

$2.238 billion (2015 est.)
$2.144 billion (2014 est.)

$2.683 billion (2015 est.)
$2.766 billion (2014 est.)

$832 million (31 December 2015 est.)
$773.8 million (31 December 2014 est.)

$3.332 billion (31 December 2015 est.)
$2.853 billion (31 December 2014 est.)

Malagasy ariary (MGA) per US dollar -
2,934 (2015 est.)
2,415 (2014 est.)
2,415 (2013 est.)
2,195 (2012 est.)
2025.1 (2011 est.)

0.69% of GDP (2012)
0.73% of GDP (2011)
0.69% of GDP (2010)