Madagascar - Tourism and Travel

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located off the eastern coast of southern Africa, in the Indian Ocean.

Madagascar is known for its unique wildlife.

With an area of 226,658 square miles (587,041 kilometers), Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world, after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo.

Most of Madagascar consists of high plateau. In the east, there is a strip of coastline. There are scrubby plains in the west.

In the east, there are many short, fast-moving rivers.

Rivers in the west, where the terrain is lower, are larger and move more slowly.

Madagascar has a tropical climate. In the northern and eastern parts of the island, rainfall is heavy.

The capital of Madagascar is Antananarivo.

19,625,000 people live in Madagascar.

Most of them live on the plateau.

26% of the people are Merina, 15% are Betsimisaraka, 12% are Betsileo and 46% belong to other Malay ethnic groups.

Malagasy, French and English are official languages.

52% of the people practice traditional religions, 41% are Christian, most of them Roman Catholic, and 7% are Muslim.

Agriculture forms the basis of the economy, despite the fact that there is not much arable land.

Important industries include agricultural processing, oil refining and textile processing.

Main exports are vanilla, coffee, sugar, shrimp and cotton cloth.

Madagascar depends heavily on foreign aid.

The official currency of Madagascar is the ariary, which is equal to five iraimbilanja.

Madagascar has a presidential system of government.