Demographics
Main article: Demographics of Mauritius See also: Hinduism in Mauritius, Christianity in Mauritius, and Islam in MauritiusThe population estimate (as of 1 July 2012) for the whole republic is 1,291,456, the female population outnumbered the male population by about 19,430. For the island of Mauritius only it is 1,253,000 and Rodrigues island 38,167. Agalega and St. Brandon had an estimated population of 289. Mauritius is a secular country and freedom of religion is a constitutional right. Statistics on ethnics are not available because it has been removed from the population census. The people of Indian descendent (Indo-Mauritian) follows mostly Hinduism and Islam. The Franco-Mauritians, Creoles and Sino-Mauritian's follows Christianity. A minority of Sino-Mauritians also follow Buddhism and other Chinese-related religion. According to the 2011 census made by the Central Statistic Office, Hinduism is the major religion at 49%, followed by Christianity 32%, Islam 17% and Buddhist 0.4% in terms of number of adherents. In 2011, Mauritius was ranked third in Africa in the Human Development Index and 78th out of 187 countries worldwide.
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