Economy

Imports
$5.43 billion (2022). Refined Petroleum ($384M), Wheat ($267M), Raw Sugar ($220M), Palm Oil ($157M), and Iron Pipes ($140M), importing mostly from China ($974M), Spain ($356M), Morocco ($312M), United Arab Emirates ($303M), and Indonesia ($303M).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 19% have an account with a financial institution
• 3.3% have a credit card
• 4% have a mobile money account
• 9.9% make online purchases

Ease of doing business
Ease of doing business is medium (rated 51.1 out of 100), ranked 26th out of 48 Sub-Saharan African countries, and ranked 152nd out of 190 countries worldwide (2023, World Bank).

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 23rd out of 28 Sub-Saharan African countries, 127th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Exports
$4.9 billion (2022). Gold ($1.78B), Iron Ore ($1.56B), Processed Crustaceans ($444M), Non-fillet Frozen Fish ($399M), and Animal Meal and Pellets ($158M), exporting mostly to China ($1.17B), Canada ($591M), United Arab Emirates ($578M), Spain ($429M), and Turkey ($301M).

Economic freedom
‘Mostly unfree’ (rated 55.3 out of 100) ranked 17th out of 47 Sub-Saharan African countries and ranked 110th out of 184 countries worldwide (2024, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).

Media

Media language
Arabic and French.

Information channels:
Privately-owned outlets provide competition for the state broadcaster, Telediffusion de Mauritanie (TDM). There is easy access to pan-Arab and European satellite TV. Print newspapers have low circulations and some only publish irregularly. Some have moved to online-only publication. Media rights groups say self-censorship is commonplace, especially when covering sensitive topics such as the military, corruption, and slavery. Legislation criminalises critical speech and “blasphemy”.  Although internet use has risen substantially, driven by mobile access, it still only reaches a minority of the population. However, dozens of online news outlets have emerged.

The press

Chaab, external – state-run daily, in Arabic
Horizons, external – state-run daily, in French
Akhbar, external – private, Arabic weekly
Essirage, external – private, Arabic daily
L’Authentique, external – private, French-language daily

Television

Television de Mauritanie (TVM), external – state-run, operates Elmouritania and Elmouritania 2 and thematic networks
Sahel TV, external – private
Al-Mourabitoun TV, external – private, pro-Islamist
Chinguett TV – private
El Wataniya, external – private

Radio

Radio Mauritanie, external – state-run, programmes in Arabic and French; also operates youth network and Koran network
Radio Sahara Media FM – private
Mauritanid FM – private

News agency

Mauritanian News Agency (AMI), external – state-run
Arriyada, external – private, news website
Sahara Medias, external – private, news website
Atlas Info, external – private, news website
Tiguend, external – private, news website
Cridem, external – private, news portal

Internet Data

Internet users
44.4% penetration, 2.19 million.

Share of web traffic by device
88.86% mobile phones, 10.57% computers (laptops and desktops), 0.56% tablet devices, others 0.01%.

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
21.44 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 129.6%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 79.9%

Most popular web search engines
Google (97.21%), Bing (1.92%), Yahoo! (0.5%), YANDEX (0.13%), DuckDuckGo (0.11%), other (0.14%).

Most used social media
Facebook (79.81%), Twitter (10.67%), YouTube (6.09%), Instagram (2.4%), Pinterest (0.81%), LinkedIn (0.15%), reddit (0.07%), other (0.01%).

Social statistics

Life expectancy
65 yrs (2022)

Corruption perception Index
Mauritania scored 30 out of 100, ranked 130th out of 180 countries worldwide.

Current health expenditure
4.12% of GDP

CO2 emissions
0.9 metric tons per capita

World Happiness Index
Mauritania ranked 133 out of 146 countries, with a score of 4.153.