All demographic data ofWestern Sahara is widely regarded as being extremely prone to error. It is among theworld's most sparsely populated territories and the last official census there was conducted bySpain in 1970. Currently,Western Sahara's political status is disputed betweenMorocco and theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which is governed by thePolisario Front. About 80% of Western Sahara is underMoroccan occupation, while the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic controls the rest of the territory that lies to the east of the Moroccan-builtBerm. The entirety of Western Sahara is classified by theUnited Nations as anon-self-governing territory that is stillawaiting decolonization.
Hundreds of thousands ofMoroccan settlers have migrated into occupied Western Sahara since theGreen March in 1975. As of 2015[update], it is estimated that Moroccan settlers account for at least two thirds of Western Sahara's entire population of 500,000 people.[1] Under international law, Morocco's settlement schemes in the occupied territory constitute a direct violation ofArticle 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.[2]
The dominant religion in Western Sahara isSunni Islam. Major ethnic groups includeArabs andBerbers. The most common languages in the territory areHassaniya Arabic andMoroccan Arabic.[3]
The following demographic statistics are from theCIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Modern Standard Arabic andSpanish are theofficial languages of thePolisario Front, based inTindouf,Algeria.Hassaniya, an Arabic dialect, is the native language spoken in Western Sahara and in the refugee camps in Tindouf in Algeria. There is also a significant presence ofBerber language speakers in the northern parts of the territory of Western Sahara.
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Hassaniya, primarily spoken at home, is dominated by the Moroccan dialect spoken in the streets, workplace, and schools. This is because the great majority of the population consists of Moroccans who settled in Western Sahara.French is also commonly used by the Moroccan occupation. In the urban areasMoroccan Arabic is now spoken, asMorocco occupies most of the territory of Western Sahara and all of its cities, and considers it an inseparable part of the country. TheMoroccan constitution stipulates two official languages for the Kingdom of Morocco, including Western Sahara: Berber (Tamazight) and Arabic.
Spanish is common amongSahrawi people and especially among the Sahrawi diaspora, with theSahrawi Press Service, official news service of theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, being available in Spanish since 2001[4] and theSahara Film Festival, Western Sahara's only film festival, showing mainly Spanish-language films. Spanish is used to document Sahrawi poetry and oral traditions and has also been used in Sahrawi literature.[5] Despite Spanish having been used by the Sahrawi people for over a century, theCervantes Institute does not provide support or Spanish-language education to Sahrawis in Western Sahara and theSahrawi refugee camps in Algeria. A group of Sahrawi poets known as 'Generación de la Amistad saharaui' produces Sahrawi literature in Spanish.
Sunni Islam is the major religion in Western Sahara.[6] Sunni Muslims constitute about 99.9% of the population. Prior to 1975, there were over 20,000Roman Catholics in Western Sahara, but as of 2007[update] there were only around 100.[7]
Noun:Western Saharan(s)
adjective:Western Saharan
400,000 (November 2014 est.)
0–14 years:44.9% (male 92,418/female 89,570)
15–64 years:53.8% (male 105,191/female 108,803)
65 years and over:2.3% (male 3,881/female 5,337) (2010 est.)
3.097% (2011 est.)
39.54 births/1,000 population (2010 est.)
11.49 deaths/1,000 population (2010 est.)
−6.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2000 est.)
Morocco has a policy of subsidizing Moroccan settlers in the territory.[8]
69.66 deaths/1,000 live births (2010 est.)
total population:54.32 years
male:52 years
female:56.73 years (2010 est.)
4.3 children born/woman (2011 est.)
definition:NA
total population:50%
male:75%
female:25%
The events triggered by the Moroccan and Mauritanian joint invasion ofWestern Sahara at the end of 1975 are directly linked to the large displacement of theSaharawi population, most of whom live as refugees in south-westAlgeria. The major bulk of Saharawis became refugees during the war between thePolisario Front andMorocco. The south-western desert region nearTindouf offered a potential safe region. Algeria, in its rivalry with Morocco, offered the Sahrawis a safe place to settle and actively supported the Polisario.
The next Saharawi exodus, although on a smaller scale, took place in 1979 whenMauritania withdrew from the conflict and Morocco annexed the rest of Western Sahara. Exact figures cannot be provided for the numbers that fled the territory in those two waves, but the estimations are between 1/3 and 2/3 of the total population at that time. The current size of the population in the refugee camps is believed to be around 165,000.
Used by the Algerian government, this figure is the most widely quoted by NGOs and is also used by the UNHCR and the World Food Programme to raise funds for food aid to the refugees. In the 2004 WFP meeting in Rome, the number of refugees was officially recognized at 158,000.[9]