The Maldives population: what the 2022 census shows

The Population and Housing Census is the country’s largest statistical exercise. The 2022 count was run by the Maldives Bureau of Statistics, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). Census night was midnight at the start of 13 September 2022, and enumerators visited homes, resorts and work islands over the following two weeks.

It was the 30th census in Maldivian history. The first count was taken in 1911, and the first modern census in 1977. Counts were held every five years from 1985 to 2000. The census due in 2005 was pushed back to 2006 after the 2004 tsunami, and the gap before the 2022 count was eight years.

Key figures from the bureau’s final report:

• Total population: 515,132
• Resident Maldivians: 382,639
• Resident foreigners: 132,493 (about 26%, or roughly one in four people)
• Households: 94,424
• Median age of resident Maldivians: 30
• Growth of the resident Maldivian population: 1.56% a year between 2014 and 2022

A “resident” here means someone who has lived in the Maldives for a year or more, or plans to. Tourists and short stays are not counted, so the figures describe the people who live and work here, not visitors.

The Maldives is one of the most spread-out countries in the world. Its people live on many small islands rather than in one big territory, and the census sorts them by the type of island they live on.

Administrative islands are the inhabited islands with their own councils, schools and mosques. These are the “local islands” that independent travellers visit. Resort islands are home to tens of thousands of staff, and industrial islands host ports, fuel depots, boatyards and similar work.

Malé and the capital region

Malé is the political and economic centre, and it is one of the most crowded cities on earth. The bureau gives its area as just 5.8 square kilometres. The greater Malé region, which includes Villimalé and the reclaimed island of Hulhumalé, held 211,908 residents in 2022. About a quarter of them were foreigners.

People have moved to the capital for work, study and health care. New housing on Hulhumalé and Villimalé has absorbed much of that growth. The bureau’s report links the population rise in Malé directly to migration from the atolls, by women as well as men. If you are passing through, our guides to Malé and Hulhumalé cover what to see.

The atolls

Outside Malé, numbers vary a great deal between atolls. The bureau’s atoll table for resident Maldivians shows:

• Largest numbers: Addu and South Thiladhunmathi (Haa Dhaalu), each with just over 20,000 resident Maldivians.
• Smallest: Felidhu (Vaavu), with 1,453 resident Maldivians, the least populated atoll.
• Fastest growth: North Ari (Alif Alif), followed by Malé Atoll (Kaafu).
• Falling numbers: Vaavu, Gaafu Alif, Gaafu Dhaalu and Gnaviyani all had fewer resident Maldivians in 2022 than in 2014.

The bureau ties these changes mainly to people moving to the capital in search of jobs and services. Our atolls guide explains how the atolls are named and grouped, and where is the Maldives? puts the whole chain on the map.

The Maldives is still a young country, but it is ageing fast. The census figures show a clear shift over a single generation.

Age groups

• Under 15: 103,913 people, about 20% of residents (27% in 2014)
• 15 to 64: 390,369 people, about 76% (68% in 2014)
• 65 and over: 20,850 people, about 4%

The largest five-year age group in 2022 was 30 to 34. In 2014 it was 25 to 29. The large group born in the 1980s has simply moved up the age ladder.

Median age and fertility

The median age of resident Maldivians rose from 16 in 1990 to 30 in 2022. The bureau calls this the most significant change of the century. Half of all Maldivians are now older than 30, where in 1990 half were younger than 16.

Behind this is a sharp drop in births. The total fertility rate was 1.7 children per woman in the 2022 census, compared with about 6.4 in the 1990s, according to the bureau.

Among resident Maldivians, there were 103 men for every 100 women in 2022. That ratio has been steady since 2000. A century ago it was much higher, at 119 in 1911.

The picture changes once you include foreign residents. Of the 132,493 foreigners living in the Maldives, 117,432 were men and only 15,061 were women. Most come to work. The bureau links this to local labour markets, which is why the central atolls of Kaafu, Alif Alif, Alif Dhaal and Vaavu have far more men than women. In Malé itself the ratio has fallen from 109 in 2000 to 98 in 2022, as women as well as men have moved to the capital.

On many local islands you will notice this in daily life: foreign workers are part of the community alongside Maldivian families.

The census counted 94,424 households. Almost half of them (42,571, or 45%) were in the Malé area, and the rest in the atolls.

• 87% of households live in houses, flats or apartments.
• 11% live in collective quarters, such as staff housing on resorts and work islands.
• 2% live on boats or in other kinds of housing.

For households in houses and flats, the average size was 4.7 people. It was 4.5 in Malé and slightly higher, 4.8, on the administrative islands. On a local island, an extended family often shares one walled compound, with relatives building rooms or upper floors as the family grows. If you are invited in, our guide to visiting a Maldivian home explains the etiquette.

The first census, in 1911, counted 72,237 people. For the next 40 years the number barely moved, staying between about 70,000 and 80,000, because high death rates offset high birth rates.

Growth took off in the 1960s and peaked at 3.43% a year between 1985 and 1990, as health care improved and families stayed large. Since then it has slowed. The resident Maldivian population grew at 1.56% a year between 2014 and 2022.

The total population, foreigners included, grew by 107,472 people between 2014 and 2022, an increase of 26%. Much of that rise came from foreign workers rather than births. For the wider story, see our history of the Maldives.

Dhiffushi is a typical local island in Malé Atoll (Kaafu), about 37 km north-east of Malé. The 2022 census counted about 1,270 people living here, which makes it a small, close community by most standards.

That number is useful context for visitors. On an island this size, people know their neighbours, the school and the mosque are at the centre of daily life, and a new face is noticed quickly. The island council handles local services, and our history of Dhiffushi and island life tells the island’s own story.

Kaafu as a whole grew by about 11% in resident Maldivians between 2014 and 2022. The bureau credits its closeness to the capital and the long-established tourism in the central atolls.

• Most of the country is local islands. Nearly half of all residents live on administrative islands. Visiting one shows you how most Maldivians live. Our local islands guide explains how they work.
• Malé is busy. With four in ten residents in the capital region, expect traffic, crowds and a city pace that is very different from the atolls.
• You will meet foreign residents. One in four residents is from overseas. You will meet them in many workplaces.

To see how residents compare with visitor numbers, read our Maldives tourism statistics guide.