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The Maldives, [c] officially the Republic of Maldives, [d] and historically known as Maldive Islands, is a country and archipelagic state in South Asia in the Indian Ocean. [9] The Maldives is named after the main island and capital, Malé. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about 750 kilometres (470 miles; 400 nautical miles ...
- Maldivian Language
Maldivian in Carl Faulmann [] 's Das Buch der Schrift, 1880....
- President of The Maldives
The President of the Republic of Maldives ... People of the...
- Climate Change in The Maldives
The Maldives government have adapted infrastructure in...
- Tourism in The Maldives
An island resort in the Maldives Diamonds Thudufushi Beach &...
- Maldives National Defence Force
The Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF; Dhivehi:...
- Atolls
The Atoll is also home the eastern most island and point of...
- History of the Maldives
History of the Maldives. The history of the Maldives is...
- List of islands of the Maldives
Islands by area size. This list ranks the top 10 islands of...
- Simple English
Maldives. Excluding foreign nationals. The Maldives are a...
- Maldivian Language
- Overview
- Land
- People
- Economy
- Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
- Manufacturing
- Trade
- Services
- Labour and taxation
- Transportation
The Maldives is an independent island country in the north-central Indian Ocean. The islands that make up the country extend more than 510 miles (820 km) from north to south and 80 miles (130 km) from east to west. The northernmost atoll is about 370 miles (600 km) south-southwest of the Indian mainland.
When was the Maldives a British protectorate?
After the British took possession of Ceylon in 1796, the Maldives became a British protectorate, a status formalized in 1887. In 1965 the Maldives attained complete political independence from the British, and in 1968 a new republic was inaugurated. British troops left on March 29, 1976, and this day is now celebrated as Maldives Independence Day.
What is the average temperature in the Maldives?
The average annual temperature in the Maldives varies from 76°F to 86°F (24 to 30 °C). The rainy season is from May to August, and from December to March the northeast monsoon brings dry and mild winds.
What is the official language of the Maldives?
The Maldive Islands are a series of coral atolls built up from the crowns of a submerged ancient volcanic mountain range. All the islands are low-lying, none rising to more than 6 feet (1.8 metres) above sea level. Barrier reefs protect the islands from the destructive effects of monsoons. The rainy season, from May to August, is brought by the sou...
The population of Maldives belongs almost entirely to the Maldivian ethnic group, which is the result of various peoples settling in the islands successively through the country’s history. The first settlers, it is generally believed, were Tamil and Sinhalese peoples from southern India and Sri Lanka. Traders from Arab countries, Malaya, Madagascar, Indonesia, and China visited the islands through the centuries. The official language is an Indo-European language called Dhivehi (or Maldivian); Arabic, Hindi, and English are also spoken. Islam is the state religion.
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More than half of the population is considered rural. With the exception of those living in Male, the only relatively large settlement in the country, the inhabitants of the Maldives live in villages on small islands in scattered atolls. Only about 20 of the islands have more than 1,000 inhabitants, and the southern islands are more densely populated than the northern ones. The birth rate for the Maldives is somewhat higher than the world average, but the death rate is lower. More than one-fifth of the total population is under 15 years of age. Life expectancy is about 74 years for men and 79 for women.
Since the 1970s the economy of the Maldives has developed rapidly. Annual growth of gross domestic product (GDP) has been high, averaging about 6 percent in the 2010s, and the gross national income (GNI) per capita—among the lowest in the world in the 1970s—reached the level of upper middle-income countries by the late 2010s. The economy is based on tourism, fishing, boatbuilding, and boat repairing, with the tourism sector driving the rapid growth.
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Fishing, long the traditional base of the economy, has been far surpassed by tourism as the main source of gross domestic product (GDP). While the sector still produces the bulk of the country’s exports and continues to grow (albeit at a slower pace than the tourism industry), it employs less than one-fifth of the labour force and contributes less than one-tenth of the GDP. Tuna is the predominant fish caught, traditionally by the pole-and-line method, although a good deal of the fishing fleet has been mechanized. Most of the fish catch is sold to foreign companies for processing and export.
Although formal businesses have seen rapid growth in the country, especially on the main islands, much of the population subsists outside the money economy on fishing, coconut collecting, and the growing of vegetables and melons, roots and tubers (cassava, sweet potatoes, and yams), and tropical fruits. Cropland, scattered over many small islands, is minimal, and nearly all the staple foods must be imported.
Industries are largely of the handicraft or cottage type, including the making of coir (coconut-husk fibre) and coir products, fish canning, and boatbuilding. Textile and garment manufacturing was among the more lucrative industries from the mid-1990s until the 2005 expiry of an import quota regime in international textile trade left factories in t...
Maldives entered the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) in 2006 and signed a free trade agreement with China in 2017. Imports include consumer goods such as food (principally rice), textiles, medicines, and petroleum products. Fish—mostly dried, frozen, or canned skipjack tuna—accounts for the bulk of exports. China, India, the United Arab Emirate...
The tourism industry, although nonexistent before 1972, underpins the services sector. Annually, more than 1.5 million tourists visit the Maldives. Its more than 130 resort islands include high-end hotel brands, and its marine geography offers unique diving and water sports opportunities as well as undersea accommodations, restaurants, and spas. By...
The rapid growth of the tourism industry left its mark on the labour market, which saw a dramatic shift away from agriculture and toward services. In part because of lack of training among the general population, a number of foreign workers from South Asia provide skills needed to help develop businesses. As businesses on resort islands away from the general populace demanded an increasing share of the total labour force, the participation rate of women, who are discouraged by the culture from living away from their families, fell substantially. About three-fifths of women participated in the labour force in the 1970s, but the rate dipped as low as one-fifth of women in the mid-1990s. By the 2010s, however, the participation rate had recovered to about half of women.
Beginning in 2011, the Maldives collected taxes primarily on the profits of businesses and financial institutions and on goods and services within the tourism sector. An income tax was implemented in 2020.
Transportation between islands and atolls is vital for the country. China and India, competing for influence over the strategically located Maldive Islands, have provided significant foreign direct investment to develop infrastructure that would further connect the islands. Boats provide the principal means of transport between the atolls, and sche...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
history of the Maldives, a survey of the important events and people in the history of the Maldives.Located in the north-central Indian Ocean, the Maldives is an independent island country that consists of a chain of about 1,200 small coral islands and sandbanks (some 200 of which are inhabited), grouped in clusters, or atolls.
The Maldives are an archipelago of 1,192 coral islands formed of 26 atolls, or atholhu in Dhivehi — the source of the English word. These are not single islands, but giant ringlike coral formations hundreds of kilometres wide that have fragmented into countless islands. Atoll naming is complex, as the atolls have both lengthy traditional ...
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