Country Comments

A small tropical Island nation in the Indian Ocean Heritage Foundation reports Mauritius has undergone a remarkable economic transformation from a low-income, agriculturally based economy to a diversified, upper-middle-income country that has attracted considerable foreign investment and has one of the Africa region’s highest per capita GDPs.(1)

Based on its population size and consumption of limited resources the country has four to five times more people than can be supported sustainably. Intentional government campaigns have lowered fertility to where rates have remained below replacement since the turn of the century. Population growth is slowing down and likely to start declining in the next few years bringing much needed relief to the environmental problems of water pollution, soil erosion, and preservation of its wildlife that Mauritius experiences and an opportunity for it to move toward sustainability.

(1) https://www.heritage.org/index/country/mauritius