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Seychelles POPULATION
According to a July 1994 estimate, the nation's
population
was 72,113--double what it had been in 1951. The growth
rate of
0.8 percent annually had slackened from the 2.1 percent
rate
recorded in the late 1970s. The infant mortality rate in
1994 was
estimated at 11.7 per 1,000 live births. There were
twenty-two
births per 1,000 of population annually and only seven
deaths per
1,000; the outward migration rate of seven per 1,000
helped stem
population growth.
About 90 percent of all Seychellois live on Mahé; most
of the
remainder live on Praslin (6,000) and La Digue (1,800).
The
population of the outer coralline group is only about 400,
mostly
plantation workers gathering coconuts for copra. To
restrict
population growth on Mahé, the government has encouraged
people
to move to Praslin and other islands where water is
available.
The birth rate has declined by one-third from
thirty-two per
1,000 in 1974 and is relatively lower than most African
and Asian
countries. By 1980 about one-third of all Seychellois
women of
reproductive age were reported to be using some form of
contraception, which is considered unusually high compared
with
other African and Asian countries. Death rates are
exceptionally
low, in part because of the young age structure, but also
because
of the availability of free medical services to all
segments of
society, and the healthy climate and living conditions.
The
average life expectancy at birth in 1994 was 66.1 years
for males
and 73.4 for females.
Data as of August 1994
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