Census shows Morocco has 34 million people

There are nearly 34 million people in Morocco, making it the Arab world’s fourth most populous nation, according to a census held at the end of last year.

The North African country holds a census every 10 years, and the preliminary results of the latest come despite a slowing down in population growth.

More than 70,000 census gatherers collected the information which shows the kingdom’s population at the end of 2014 at 33.84 million — among them 86,000 foreigners — as against 29.7 million a decade before.

In the Arab world, only Egypt, Algeria and Sudan have larger populations.

The results show a slowdown in population growth over the past decade of 1.25 percent compared with 1.38 percent previously.

Agriculture remains the greatest contributor to Gross National Product in a nation that is urbanising slowly.

In 2014, 60.3 percent of the population lived in urban areas against 55.1 percent in 2004.

The area around economic capital Casablanca is the most populated with 6.86 million inhabitants.