Morocco accounts for about 29.9 million inhabitants

The population in Morocco has reached 29.891.708 inhabitants, including 29.840.273 Moroccans and 51.435 foreigners, that is a 14.6 percent increase compared to 1994, announced on Wednesday the High Commissioner for Planning.

According to the first results of the general census of population and housing, organized from 2 to 20 September 2004, the Moroccan population in urban areas is estimated at 16.463.634, and at 13.428.074 in rural zones, i.e. the urbanization rate is estimated at 55.1 percent.

The average rate of annual demographic growth is estimated at 1.4 percent against 2.1pc between 1982 and 1994, said the same source.

Almost the third of the population is concentrated in the region of Casablanca (3.6 millions), Souss-Massa-Draa (3,1 millions), and Marrakech-Tensift-Al Haouz (3,1 millions). The rest is partitioned in proportions varying between 0.3pc in Oued Eddahab-Lagouira (south) and 8.3pc in Tangier-Tétouan (north).

More than 50,000 people were deployed to conduct the census that concerned all Moroccans living in Morocco as well as foreign nationals residing for more than six months in the Kingdom.

The last census of population and housing in Morocco was conducted in 1994.