Madagascar has experienced steady population growth throughout the twentieth century. Since the first systematic census was undertaken by colonial authorities at the turn of the twentieth century, the population has grown from 2.2 million in 1900 to 7.6 million in 1975 and to a population around by the IMF in mid-1993 at 11.86 million. It is expected that the population will approach 17 million by the end of the twentieth century, underscoring a more than fivefold increase in less than a hundred years. Moreover, the average rate of population growth itself has increased from 2.3 % in 1975 to 3.1 % over the 1980 to 1990 decade. This rate has made Madagascar one of the most rapidly growing countries in Africa, with a large youthful population--in 1992 nearly 55 % of the population was under twenty years of age.

Madagascar's population consists almost entirely of the 18 to 20 Malayo-Indonesian tribal groups that inhabit the island. About half the total population is composed of the Merina, Betsmisaraka, and Betsileo groups. Since the departure of the French following freedom in 1960, Madagascar's main foreign population minorities have been Comorians, Indians and Pakistanis, and Chinese. Almost half the population are orthodox animists in religion, half are Christians and a small %age are Muslims. Malagasy languages are spoken by all the tribal groups in several dialects, and the official dialect is Merina; French is also an official language.