Countries

Statistical Snapshot

 

 

Mauritania is the fifth-largest country in the Arab region, with an estimated population of 4.7 million in  2021. It is growing at an annual rate of 2.64 percent, and life expectancy at birth averages 65.3years.[1] With regard to urbanization, 55.3 percent of Mauritania’s population resides in urban areas, slightly below the world average of 56.2 percent.[2] Mauritania experienced high levels of food insecurity, with 901,000 people at risk of food insecurity in 2020.[3] Regional conflict drove refugee flows into Mauritania which hosted 65,947 registered refugees from Mali by December 2020.[4]

 

Mauritania is a lower middle-income country in North-western Africa, with a Gross National Income (GNI) per capita (PPP current prices) of $5,350.[5] Prudent fiscal policy and international prices of minerals have helped Mauritanian economy to attain gradual growth rates.  Real GDP has been witnessing an upward trend, registering a growth of  5.9 percent in 2019, and is projected to increase to an average of 6.2 percent during the 2019-2021 period, up from a low of 1.2 percent in 2016. Growth was spurred by advancements and robust activity in the transport, electricity, telecommunications and primary sectors.[6] At the fiscal level, and after falling into a deficit for four consecutive years, efforts to achieve rebalancing transformed the fiscal deficit of 0.2 percent of GDP in 2017 into a surplus of 2.1 percent in  2019. However, Mauritania’s risk of debt distress remains high at 97.5 percent in 2018. Reaching 3.9 percent in 2020, inflation has been steadily increasing, up from 0.5 percent in 2015.[7] Moreover, Mauritania continues to face several development challenges and considerable risks, given the inefficient use of revenues derived from natural resources, limited diversification, and poor infrastructure.[6]

 

Water and food insecurity are among the main challenges hindering the country’s growth. Periods of drought since 2017, coupled with an increase in food and livestock prices, have left more than 154,000 children, including  52,000 lactating and pregnant women with acute malnutrition as well as 35,000 children with severe acute malnutrition, in need of treatment in 2021. 19.6 percent of children between 6-59 months suffered chronic malnutrition in 2020,[8] and It is estimated that in 2021, 740,000 children will be in need.[3] Poverty remains widespread in Mauritania, with 50.6 percent of the Mauritanian population live in multidimensional poverty according to the 2020 Human Development Report, as well as 31 percent of the population living below the income poverty line of PPP $ 1.90 a day.[9]

 

Labor force participation in Mauritania has been dropping over the past two decades, reaching 44.6 percent in2020, down from 50.5 percent in 2000. Along the same lines, youth unemployment was high at  21 percent in 2019, particularly for women at 25.6 percent. At the sectoral level, 30.8 percent of the workforce works in agriculture, compared to only 17.6 percent in industry.[10]

 

Mauritania has lagged in education, where the gross tertiary enrolment rate was 5.7 percent, compared to a regional average of 33.75 percent in 2019. Nevertheless, the gross primary enrolment rate increased from 83 percent in 2000 to 100 percent in 2019, with a Gender Parity Index (GPI) of 1.06.[11]

 

Facing the COVID-19 outbreak, the Central Bank of Mauritania took measures regarding liquidity conditions and supporting the economy: reduction in the policy rate, in the marginal lending rate and in Banks’ reserve requirements to 5 percent, 6.5 percent and 5 percent respectively. Also, the country has been granted an emergency financing by the IMF of 130 million US Dollars which was augmented by 28.7 million US Dollars.[12]

 

This overview was last updated in February 2021. Priority is given to the latest available official data published by national statistical offices and/or public institutions.

Sources:
 

[1] Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat. 2020. World Population Prospects. 2019 Revision. [ONLINE] Available at: 
https://population.un.org/wpp/ [Accessed 28 February 2021].
[2] Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat. 2019. World Urbanization Prospects.2018 Revision. [ONLINE] Available at: 
https://population.un.org/wup/ [Accessed 28 February 2021].
[3] United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). 2021. Humanitarian action for children: Mauritania. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.unicef.org/media/87276/file/2021-HAC-Mauritania.pdf  [Accessed 28 February 2021].
[4] United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 2020. Operational portal refugee situations. [ONLINE] Available at: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/country/mrt [Accessed 28 February 2021].
[5] The World Bank. 2020. World Development Indicators. [ONLINE] Available at: https://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=wdi-database-archives-(beta) [Accessed 28 February 2021].
[6] The World Bank. 2020. The World Bank in Mauritania, Overview. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/mauritania/overview [Accessed 28 February 2021].
[7] International Monetary Fund. October 2020. World Economic Outlook. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2020/01/weodata/index.aspx [Accessed 28 February 2021].
[8] World Food Programme. October 2020. WFP Mauritania country brief. [ONLINE] Available at: 
https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/WFP%20COUNTRY%20BRIEF%20MAURITANIA%20OCTOBER%202020.pdf [Accessed 28 February 2021].
[9] United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 2019. Human Development Report 2019. [ONLINE] Available at: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr2019.pdf [Accessed 28 February 2021].
[10] ILOSTAT. 2020. International Labour Organization. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.ilo.org/global/lang--en/index.htm [Accessed 28 February 2021].

[11] United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 2020. UNESCO Institute for Statistics. [ONLINE] Available at: http://data.uis.unesco.org/ [Accessed 28 February 2021].

[12] International Monetary Fund. November 2020. Policy Responses to Covid-19 [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/imf-and-covid19/Policy-Responses-to-COVID-19 [Accessed 28 February 2021].