Reunion Island
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Geography and Demography of Reunion Island
General Information The French Revolutionary slogan: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity Official Language: French Prefecture: Saint-Denis Sub-prefectures: Saint-Benoit, Saint-Paul, Saint-Pierre Arrondissements: 4 Cantons: 49 Communes: 24 President of regional council: Paul Verges President of general council: Nassimah Dindar Surface Area: 2 512 sq km Population (1999): 706 300 Population Density: 282 per sq km Currency: Euro Time Zone: GMT +4 Internet: .re Country Dialing Code: 262 Download the Reunion island's map Geography
Renion Island burst from the Earth's volcanic crust 3 million years ago and today has one of the most active volcanic mountains. The island has three calderas: Salazie, Cilaos and Mafate (mafate is only accessible by foot or helicopter). Reunion Island is about 200 km south west of Mauritius, 800km east of Madagascar and 9200 km away from Paris, at a longitude of 55°3 east and latitude 21°5 south, above the Tropic of Capricorn. Climate: There are two distinct seasons in Reunion Island: the cool, dry winter from March to September and the hot, rainy summer from December to March. Temperature on the coast varies from 16° to 25° in the winter and 18° to 33° in the summer. Note that, the island is subjected to tropical depressions in the summer. Located in the north, Saint Denis is the main town of the island. The sub-prefectures are situated in Saint Pierre (south), Saint-Paul (west) and Saint-Benoit (east). Other important towns are: Le Tampon, Saint-Louis, Saint-André, Le Port and Saint-Gilles Les Bains. Half of the island boasts breathtaking waterfalls and luxuriant tropical vegetation. Besides, the west coast of the island offers several kilometers of white and black volcanic sandy beaches. Satellite view of Reunion Island. In the shape of a three-leaf clover, the three calderas are visible in the central northern part of the island. Covered with clouds, Le Piton de la Fournaise is situated on the south-east coast of the island. DemographyBased on the last two censuses of 1990 and 1999, the demographic growth of Reunion Island is higher than that of mainland France for the same period.This population growth was mainly due to the increase in birth rate and immigration rate (a slightly positive net migration rate).
Approximately 37% of the population was less than 20 years old in 2003 (Source: INSEE). On January 1st 2003, the current population was estimated to consist of about 760 000 inhabitants. / In 2003, January 1st, the estimation of the current population was about 760 000 inhabitants. The population growth is likely to increase in the following years around 830 000 and 1 million inhabitants in 2010 and 2020 respectively. The Reunionese population is multi-racial and is composed of several ethnic groups: African (Cafres), Indian (malbars and z'arabes), Chinese, Malagasy, Comorian and European. During the different colonisation eras and development periods of the island, these people settled there.  Journalist, writer, and author of several piece of works on Reunion island, Daniel Vaxelaire explains in "histoire de la Reunion des origines à 1848” that since the arrival of the first settlers, mixed race has become one of the distinctive features of the island. Soon after their settlement, the colonisers get married to Malagasy women. Hence, this explains why Daniel Vaxelaire said that the grand mother of all the Reunionese is Malagasy. This early mixed population probably enabled to alleviate more quickly the grief of the proslavery period which ended on 20th December 1848 in Reunion island. | ||||||||||||||||
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