Seychelles

Seychelles: population and cities

Population

Population

According to Countryaah website, there are currently around 95,000 people living in the Seychelles, known as Seychellois and Seychelloises. About 26.5% of the population are up to 14 years old, 67.5% between 15 and 64 years and 6% 65 years old and older. The population growth is 0.4%. The birth rate of 16.22 births per 1,000 residents contrasts with a mortality of 6.34 per 1,000 residents. On average, a Seychelloise gives birth to 1.75 children in their lifetime.

Ethnic groups

About 90% of the Seychellois are descendants of the work slaves and the settlers who came to the islands from different French colonial areas. Around 2,000 Indo-Seychellois live on the island as well as European, African, Chinese and Arab minorities.

Religions

About 82% of the Seychellois profess Roman Catholicism. There are also other Christian denominations (6.5% Anglicans, 1.1% Seven-Day Adventists and 3.4% other Christians) who are mostly descendants of British farmers and seafarers. In addition there are the Indian Hindus (2.1%), the Arab Muslims (1.1%) and the Chinese Buddhists (1%).

Languages

Although English is only given as mother tongue by around 5% of the population, it is the official language of the Seychelles. The very mixed population of the islands largely agree on a Seychellois form of Creole. About 92% are able to speak this language.

Victoria - The capital

There is only one real city in the Seychelles, namely the capital Victoria. The other places on the islands are little more than larger villages.

Victoria (also Port Victoria)

The largest settlement with around 30,000,000 residents, the capital and only city of the Republic of the Seychelles nestles on the northeast coast of the main island of Mahé. The city was founded in 1778 as the seat of the British colonial government and, thanks to the international airport established in 1971, is the transport and economic heart of the country. The smallest capital in the world, named after the former English Queen Victoria, is a lovely place with a city center reminiscent of the concept of a British colonial city of the 20th century.

Small boutiques and shops, colorful souvenir shops, a narrow old town and a new town with wide streets and a tropical garden characterize the lovable city, where everyone knows everyone. The center of Victoria is indicated by the clock tower, a copy of London's famous Big Ben, near which the courthouse rises. The pedestrian zone near the Clock Tower impresses with several historic wooden houses and a pleasant liveliness. Other buildings worth seeing are the Catholic Cathedral with the Capuchin House, the National Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market, a colorful place full of chaos and charm.

Seychelles: Geography and Map

Defined by DigoPaul, the Seychelles are located north of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. They consist of 117 islands and are divided into five island groups, the granite islands, the Aldabra group, the Farquhar group, the Alphonse group and the Amiranten group. The island nation has a total of around 93,000 residents. The largest and most famous islands are:

• Mahé with an area of 152 km² and around 72,000 residents
• Praslin with an area of 40 km² and around 7,500 residents
• La Silhouette with an area of 20 km² with only around 150 residents
• La Digue with an area of 9.81 km² and around 2,200 residents

Area and boundaries

The islands of the Seychelles together cover an area of 455 km². Thereof:

• Forest

  Around 18% of the country is forested.

• Arable land and fields

  Around 22% of the land is used as arable land or fields, especially for growing coconuts, cinnamon, vanilla, potatoes and bananas

The Seychelles are an archipelago and therefore have no border with other states, but are completely surrounded by the Indian Ocean, with which they have a coast to the Indian Ocean with a length of around 490 km.

Tidal range in the Seychelles

In the Seychelles, the mean tidal range is between around 25 cm and 3 m. For detailed explanations of ebb and flow, see Tides, Ebb and Flow.

Compare

The world's highest tidal range can be found in the Bay of Fundy in Canada, where it is up to 16 m, and at spring tide even over 20 m. The Bay of Fundy is located on the Atlantic between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which is called Nova Scotia in German and whose capital is Halifax. On the German North Sea coast it varies between 1 m and 3 m. In the western Baltic Sea, on the other hand, the tidal range is only 0.3 m, while it is barely noticeable in the eastern Baltic Sea.

Geographical longitude and latitude of the Seychelles

The Seychelles extends over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):

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

Legal time

For the Seychelles, 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.

Highest sun in Victoria

Victoria lies at a southern latitude of around φ = 4.5 ° and thus in the middle of the tropics.

If the declination δ of the sun has a value of 4.5 ° south, and thus the image point of the sun is exactly above Victoria, the sun's position is perpendicular. This happens exactly twice a year, roughly 17 days before March 21st and 17 days after September 21st.

Attention

If the image point of the sun and thus the declination δ is north of the latitude of Victoria, 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.

Mountains

Morne Seychellois

The highest point in the country is the Morne Seychellois on the island of Mahé with a height of 905 m.

Montagne Planeau

Another elevation is the Montagne Planeau with a height of 668 m.

The Indian Ocean

The Seychelles archipelago is located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, around 1,500 km east of the coast of Africa.