Morocco Population Is 36.8 Million, 2024 Census Shows
How many people live in Morocco, which languages they speak and how fast the country is ageing, from the 2024 census, plus the diaspora in the US. The post Morocco Population Is 36.8 Million, 2024 Census Shows appeared first on The Rio Times .
The Morocco population stood at 36.8 million at the September 2024 census, and it is growing more slowly than at any census since 1960. Families are smaller, people live longer and almost two in three Moroccans now live in cities.
For US readers, the numbers explain the country’s labour market, its languages and its large diaspora.
The High Commission for Planning (HCP), Morocco’s national statistics agency, carried out the general census in September 2024. It set the legal population at 36,828,330 on 1 September 2024.
Of these, 36,680,178 were Moroccan citizens and 148,152 were foreign nationals.
The population grew by 2,980,088 people since the 2014 census. That is an average of 0.85 percent a year, down from 1.25 percent between 2004 and 2014.
Growth ran at 2.6 percent a year between 1960 and 1982, according to the HCP.
International estimates are higher. The World Bank puts Morocco’s population at 38.4 million in 2025.
The census count is the official legal population, fixed by government decree. The census also covers the southern regions of Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra and Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab, part of the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
In a note published in September 2025, the HCP projects close to 40.5 million people by 2040. Growth would fall to 0.6 percent a year by then.
Even so, the country would add the equivalent of a mid-sized city of about 230,000 people every year.
The main reason for slower growth is falling fertility. Women had 7.2 children on average in 1960, according to the HCP.
The census found 1.97 in 2024, down from 2.2 in 2014 and 2.5 in 2004.
That is below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman. In cities the rate is 1.77, while rural women have 2.37 children on average.
Only four regions remain above replacement, led by Drâa-Tafilalet at 2.35.
The age pyramid is changing as a result. The share of children under 15 fell from 28.2 percent in 2014 to 26.5 percent in 2024.
People aged 60 and over rose from 9.4 percent to 13.8 percent, close to five million people.
Households are shrinking too. The census counted 9,275,038 households, with an average size of 3.9 people, down from 4.6 in 2014.
One in five households, 19.2 percent, is now headed by a woman.
The HCP expects the over-60 share to reach 19.5 percent by 2040. The HCP says this will require changes to pensions, chronic-disease care and social services.
Morocco is now a mostly urban country. The urban population reached 23,110,108 in 2024, or 62.8 percent of the total, against 60.4 percent in 2014.
Rural areas held 13,718,222 people and grew by only 0.22 percent a year.
Five regions with more than four million people each hold 71.2 percent of the population. Casablanca-Settat leads with 7.689 million, followed by Rabat-Salé-Kénitra with 5.133 million and Marrakech-Safi with 4.892 million.
Fès-Meknès and Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima complete the group.
The least urban regions are Marrakech-Safi, at 46.0 percent, and Drâa-Tafilalet, at 36.7 percent. The Oriental region in the north-east lost population between the two censuses.
Morocco does not count its people by ethnic group. The census asks which languages people use, which is the closest official measure of identity.
Arab and Amazigh identities are treated by the state as shared parts of one nation.
The 2011 constitution describes a single national identity with several sources. It says the country’s unity was forged by its Arab-Islamic, Amazigh and Saharan-Hassani components.
It adds African, Andalusian, Hebraic and Mediterranean influences.
The Amazigh, often called Berbers in older English texts, are North Africa’s indigenous people. The census shows where their languages are strongest: Tachelhit is used by 63.2 percent in Souss-Massa, Tamazight by 46.2 percent in Drâa-Tafilalet and Tarifit by 31.1 percent in the Oriental.
The Sahrawis of the far south speak Hassaniya, an Arabic dialect. The constitution commits the state to preserve Hassani as part of Moroccan cultural identity.
Article 5 of the constitution makes Arabic the official language of the state. Since 2011, Amazigh has also been an official language, described as the common heritage of all Moroccans.
Daily life runs mostly in Darija, Moroccan Arabic. The census found that 91.9 percent of Moroccans use it, 96.3 percent in towns and 84.5 percent in the countryside.
Amazigh languages are used by 24.8 percent of the population, 19.9 percent in towns and 33.3 percent in rural areas. Three main forms exist:
Hassaniya is used by 0.8 percent of the population. Among literate people aged 10 and over, 99.2 percent can read and write Arabic.
Only 1.5 percent can write Amazigh in its own Tifinagh script.
French remains the main foreign language. In 2024, 57.7 percent of literate people aged 10 and over could read and write it, against 20.5 percent for English.
Illiteracy is falling but remains high. The census put it at 24.8 percent of people aged 10 and over, down from 32.2 percent in 2014.
Under the constitution, Islam is the religion of the state. The king holds the title Commander of the Faithful.
More than 99 percent of Moroccans are Sunni Muslims, according to the US State Department’s 2023 religious freedom report.
The census does not ask about religion, so minority figures are estimates. Shia leaders count several thousand Shia citizens, most in the north.
