Mauritius
|
| Basic Facts |
| Country name |
conventional long form: Republic of Mauritius
conventional short form: Mauritius local long form: Republic of Mauritius local short form: Mauritius |
| Gevernment type | parliamentary democracy |
| Capital |
name: Port Louis
geographic coordinates: 20 10 S, 57 30 E time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) |
| Flag description | four equal horizontal bands of red (top), blue, yellow, and green |
| Currency | Mauritian rupee (MUR) |
| Internet country code | .mu |
| Ports and terminals | Port Louis |
| Agriculture products | sugarcane, tea, corn, potatoes, bananas, pulses; cattle, goats; fish |
| Industries | food processing (largely sugar milling), textiles, clothing, mining, chemicals, metal products, transport equipment, nonelectrical machinery, tourism |
| Geography |
| Location | Southern Africa, island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar |
| Coordinates | 20 17 S, 57 33 E |
| Continent | Political Map of the World |
| Area |
total: 2,040 sq km
land: 2,030 sq km water: 10 sq km note: includes Agalega Islands, Cargados Carajos Shoals (Saint Brandon), and Rodrigues |
| Boundaries | 0 km |
| Coastline | 177 km |
| Climate | tropical, modified by southeast trade winds; warm, dry winter (May to November); hot, wet, humid summer (November to May) |
| Terrain | small coastal plain rising to discontinuous mountains encircling central plateau |
| Natural resources | arable land, fish |
| Natural hazards | cyclones (November to April); almost completely surrounded by reefs that may pose maritime hazards |
| People |
| Population | 1,240,827 (July 2006 est.) |
| Ethnic groups | Indo-Mauritian 68%, Creole 27%, Sino-Mauritian 3%, Franco-Mauritian 2% |
| Religions | Hindu 48%, Roman Catholic 23.6%, other Christian 8.6%, Muslim 16.6%, other 2.5%, unspecified 0.3%, none 0.4% (2000 census) |
| Languages | Creole 80.5%, Bhojpuri 12.1%, French 3.4%, English (official; spoken by less than 1% of the population), other 3.7%, unspecified 0.3% (2000 census) |
