MADEIRA - Population
Population decline
It is only in recent years that one can talk of the Madeira as a collective society, since the topography of the island had previously been more conducive to separate the various community of the island. Although the origins of the population were undoubtedly Portuguese, the customs and the dialects were very different. Today, popular culture has united the population from various parts of the islands into a more homogeneous whole.
The population of the region of Madeira has been slightly decreasing between the 1991-2001 decade by 4.6%. In 2001, there were about 245 000 inhabitants on the islands of the region. Both the birth and the death rates are over the national averages: in 2000, they were respectively estimated at 13.1 and 11.0 per thousand resident inhabitants. The infant mortality rate has been decreasing over the 1990?s, as it went down from 12.3 per thousands live births in 1990 to 5.2 in 1999.
The proportion of residents of foreign nationality is comparable to the national average, and it has been 0.2% of the total population of the region in 2001.
The repartition of the population by age group shows clearly that the population of the region is very young. Among the total population, 37% are aged of less than 25, against a national average of 30%. This is the second highest proportion in Portugal, just after the Açores. However, this proportion has been declining during the last decade, as it was 43% in 1992.
If information is available, please add comments on the following subjects:
- Migration
- Life expectancy
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