Africa
To which language should you translate to localize in Madagascar?
What the 150 top websites do
Of the top 150 website (Global by design ranking):
- 19/150 translate into English.
- 14/150 translate into French.
- 1/150 translates into Madagascar Sign Language (Tenin’ny Tanana Malagasy).
If you need others information, below you can find a selection of economic/social/cultural data
Overview
Language
Official language
Malagasy, French
Most studied language
English
T-index 0.013%
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.
Demography
Capitals: Antananarivo
Currency: Malagasy ariary
Population: 29,61 m
Population density: 50/km2
Economy
GDP: 14.95 million USD (2022)
GDP per capita: 505 USD (2022)
Exports: 3.22 billion USD (2021)
Statistics
Unemployment rate: 2.1% (2022)
Urbanisation: 40% (2022)
Literacy: 77% (2021)
Internet users: 19.7% penetration, 5.90 million
Conventions
Numbering system
Arabic numerals with comma as decimal separator.
Date format: dd-mm-yyyy
Time: 24h time system
Country code: 00261
Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal
Facts and data
Economy
Imports
4.53 billion USD (2021). Refined Petroleum ($437M), Rice ($235M), Palm Oil ($154M), Light Rubberized Knitted Fabric ($121M), and Packaged Medicaments ($101M), importing mostly from China ($1.26B), France ($403M), India ($351M), United Arab Emirates ($253M), and Oman ($228M).
Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of age)
• 9.6% have an account with a financial
institution
• 1.0% have a credit card
• 12.1% have a mobile money account
• 1.7% make online purchases
Ease of doing business
Ease of conducting business is below average (rated 47.7 out of 100) ranked 31st out of 48 Sub-Saharan African countries and ranked 161st out of 190 countries worldwide (2022, World Bank).
Exports
3.22 billion USD (2021). Vanilla ($619M), Raw Nickel ($492M), Titanium Ore ($146M), Gold ($143M), and Knit Sweaters ($127M), exporting mostly to United States ($603M), France ($565M), China ($376M), Japan ($229M), and United Arab Emirates ($170M).
Economic freedom
‘Moderately free’ (rated 58.9 out of 100)
ranked 9th out of 47 Sub-Saharan African countries and ranked 91st out of 176 countries worldwide (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).
Global Innovation Index
Ranked 10th out of 27 Sub-Saharan African countries, 106th out of 132 worldwide.
The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.
Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal
Service imports (2016)
Service Exports (2016)
Source: OEC
Historical Data Trade Imports
The following section uses historical trade data imports from partners of Madagascar.
Historical Data Trade Exports
The following section uses historical trade data exports from partners of Madagascar.
Source: OEC
The Top Export Opportunities for Madagascar by Relatedness
Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product by showing only products that Madagascar is not specialized in.
Madagascar's Most Complex Exports
The Product Complexity Index (PCI) measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters.
Source: OEC
Madagascar's Most Specialized Products
Specialization is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), an index that takes the ratio between Madagascar observed and expected exports in each product.
Source: OEC
Market Growth Imports (2016)
This score represents the likelihood that the given country will start importing that product in the next few years. It forecasts the opening of a new specific market.
Market Growth Exports (2016)
This score represents the likelihood that the given country will start exporting that product in the next few years. It forecasts the opening of a new specific market.
Source: OEC
T-index
Reach most of the online purchasing power
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.
Try it nowMedia
Media language Malagasy, French.
Information channels
The media are highly-politicised and vulnerable to influence from their business and politics-linked owners, says Reporters Without Borders. The constitution does provide for freedom of the press, however, Freedom House says this guarantee has been undermined by criminal libel laws and other restrictions. Although nationwide broadcasting remains a state monopoly, there are hundreds of private local radio and TV stations. Radio is the main medium for news. BBC World Service radio is available on FM in Antananarivo (96.2), Fianarantsoa and Toamasina (89.8). Radio France Internationale (RFI) is also carried by FM relays.
The press
Midi-Madagasikara – private daily
Madagascar-Tribune – private daily
La Gazette de la Grande Ile – private daily
L’Express de Madagascar – private daily
Lakroa (Cross) – Catholic weekly
L’Écho du Sud – Private weekly
Television
Television Malagasy (TVM) – state-owned
Radio-Television Analamanga (RTA) – private
Madagascar TV (MATV) – private
Radio
Malagasy National Radio (RNM) – state-owned
Radio Don Bosco – Catholic
Radio Laza Iarivo (RLI) – private
Radio Antsiva – private
Media data source: BBC
Internet Data
Internet users
19.7% penetration, 5.90 million
Share of web traffic by device
59.55% mobile phones, 39.61% computers (laptops and
desktops), 0.84% tablet devices.
Median speed of fixed Internet connection
30.62 Mbps
Mobile connection as a percentage of total population
43.8%
Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G)
68.2%
Most popular web search engines
Google (95.76%), Bing (3.35%), Yahoo! (0.51%), DuckDuckGo (0.09%), Yandex (0.08%), other (0.21%).
Most used social media
Facebook (83.2%), Twitter (12.91%), Pinterest (1.59%), Youtube (1.54%), Instagram (0.5%), LinkedIn (0.08%), reddit (0.08%), other (0.12%).
Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter
Social statistics
Life expectancy
64 yrs (2021)
Current health expenditure
3.88% of GDP (2020)
Current education expenditure
96.9% of total expenditure in public institutions.
CO2 emissions
0.1 metric tons per capita
Corruption perceptions Index
Madagascar scored 26 out of 100, ranked 142nd out of 180 countries worldwide.
World Happiness Index
Madagascar ranked 128th out of 146 countries, with a score of 4.339.
Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF
The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com
Languages research
Languages and dialects spoken in Madagascar
Legend
-
Malagasy Antakarana
-
Malagasy Betsimisaraka Nord
-
Malagasy Tsimihety
-
Malagasy, French, Italian
-
Malagasy Sakalava
-
Malagasy Du Plateau
-
Malagasy Betsimisaraka Sud
-
Malagasy Masikoro
-
Malagasy Tanosy
-
Malagasy Tandroy-Mahafaly
-
Malagasy Masikoro
The geographical distribution of languages that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.com
Photo credit: Mihtiander, Unsplash