Morocco
Morocco has emerged as a success story in the Middle East and North Africa region, having made significant progress on living standards and poverty reduction in recent decades, especially in rural areas.
A stable political situation has enabled structural reforms to provide a favourable investment environment and diversify the economy by developing industrial manufacturing, especially in export-driven sectors (automotive, aeronautics, chemicals and electronics), and a strong tourism sector.
However, neither the agricultural sector nor the emerging industrial sector is capable of absorbing a rapidly-expanding young workforce. One of the major causes of unemployment is the poor performance of the national education system. The International Monetary Fund describes the loss of employment opportunities experienced by the high number of unemployed graduates in Morocco as a “chronic underutilization of available resources.”
- total population (thousands)
- 35,277
- GNI per capita
- 2860$
- Life expectancy at birth
- 76
- Human Development Index
- 123 (out of 189)
- Under-5 mortality rate
- 27‰
- Primary school net enrolment
- 98.5%
- Adult HIV prevalence (% of the population)
- 0.1%
- People of all ages living with HIV (thousands)
- 20
- improved access to safe water (% of the population)
- 83%
- moderate-severe underweight (% children under-5)
- 15%