Maldives

Maldives: population, cities

Population

According to Countryaah website, the Maldives have approx. 345,000 residents.

Ethnic composition

Sinhalese, Dravidians, Arabs and Africans live in the Maldives.

Religious

affiliation Mainly Sunni Muslims live in the Maldives.

National language

The national language of the Maldives is Divehi. The script is of Arabic origin and is called Thaana.

Capital, other cities

Malé

The capital of the Maldives is Malé on the South Malé Atoll with a population of approx. 124,000. Other cities are:

• Hithadhoo with around 10,000 residents
• Fuvammulah with around 8,000 residents
• Kulhudhuffushi with around 7,500 residents
• Thinadhoo with around 5,000 residents

Maldives: geography, map

Defined by DigoPaul, the Maldives are located in the Indian Ocean, about 700 km southwest of India. They consist of around 1,190 islands in the Indian Ocean. The length of the island state is around 750 km - with a width of around 120 km. The Maldives are among the popular holiday destinations.

Surface

The Maldives are an archipelago of around 1,190 islands in the Indian Ocean. The length of the island state is around 750 km - with a width of around 120 km.

The Maldives cover a total land area of 300 km² and a water area of around 89,700 km² - so a total area of around 90,000 km².

Of the land area are:

• Forest

  Around 3% of the country is forested.

• Meadow, pasture land

  Around 3% of the land is used as meadow or pasture land.

• Fields and fields

  Around 10% of the land is used as arable land or fields, especially for growing millet, maize, sweet potato and sugar cane.

Maldives islands

The 1,190 islands are spread over 19 archipelagos and 26 atolls. About 220 islands are inhabited by locals and there are tourist resorts on about 90 islands. The islands that make up the Maldives have a sea coast with a length of around 644 km.

A selection of the atolls

• Haa Alifu Atoll
• Haa Dhaalu Atoll
• Shaviyani Atoll
• Noonu Atoll
• Raa Atoll
• Baa atoll
• Lhaviyani Atoll
• Kaafu Atoll
• Alifu Atoll
• Vaavu Atoll
• Meemu Atoll
• Faafu atoll
• Dhaalu Atoll
• Thaa atoll
• Laamu Atoll
• Gaafu Alifu Atoll
• Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll
• Gnaviyani Atoll
• Seenu Atoll

Longitude and latitude

The Maldives extend over the following geographical latitude (abbr. Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbr. Δλ):

You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and Latitude.

Legal time

For the Maldives, the following value applies to Central European Time (CET), i.e. the time without summer time. A minus sign means that it is earlier there, a plus sign that it is later than CET:

Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones, time.

The highest point of the sun in Malé

Male lies at a north latitude of around φ = 04 ° and thus in the middle of the tropics.

If the declination of the sun has a value of 04 ° north, and thus the image point of the sun is exactly above Malé, the sun is perpendicular there. This happens exactly twice a year, roughly 15 days after March 21st and 15 days before September 21st.

Attention

If the image point of the sun and thus the declination δ is north of the latitude of Malé, the sun is not in the south at noon, as in our latitudes, but in the north. In this case, the sun moves from east to north to west, where, like us, it sets.

Surveys

The highest natural (nameless) elevation is on Wilingili Island in the Addu Atoll with a height of just over 2.4 m.

With a height of over 15 m, a mountain of rubble and rubbish in Male is the highest (artificial) elevation in the island state.

The Indian Ocean

The islands of the Maldives are completely surrounded by the Indian Ocean.

The Indian Ocean covers an area of 74.9 million km², making it the third largest ocean after the Pacific and the Atlantic. The vast majority of this ocean is in the southern hemisphere. It has its greatest depth of 8,047 m in the so-called Diamantina Deep.