The Kingdom of Morocco (or "Morocco" for short) is a North African country bordering the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean sea between the Republic of Algeria and the Western Sahara (Morocco administers most of the disputed regions of the Western Sahara).
Morocco is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament.The King of Morocco holds vast executive and legislative powers including the power to dissolve the parliament.
Officially, the Kingdom of Morocco has a total land area of about 446,550 squared kilometers (about 250sq km of which is covered by water) with about 1,835km of coastline. Just about 19% of the Morocco's official total land area remains arable (land good for farming). Please note: The disputed region of the Western Sahara was not included in this estimate.
The Kingdom of Morocco remains the only African country not a member of the African Union (formerly known as the "Organization of African Unity" or O.A.U). Morocco unilateral withdrew from the African Union on November 12, 1984 over the admission of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in 1982 by the African Union as a full member without the organization of a referendum of self-determination in the disputed territory of the Western Sahara.
The Kingdom of Morocco has an estimated population of 39 million people with the population growth rate hovering around 1.22%. About 58% of Morocco's total population lives in urban areas in major cities and towns such as Casablanca and Rabat the capital. Casablanca, Morocco's largest and most populous city, has a metropolitan area population of about 3.3 million people). Rabat, the capital of the Kingdom of Morocco, is home to about 1.8 million people. Other major cities and towns such as Fes (with a population of about 1.1 million people), Marrakech (with a population of about 1 million people), Tangier ( with a population of about 768,000 people, etc.also contain significant portions of the population.
Although there are several people of different colors and racial groups living in Morocco today, the Arab-Berbers make up about 99% of the total population and just like in most other North African countries, Islam remains the most dominant religion in the Kingdom of Morocco with about 99% of the total population being Muslims. Christians, Jews, and other religious groups make up the remaining 1% of the total population.
Although Arabic and Berber languages such as Tamazight remain official languages in the Kingdom of Morocco, French is the language often used for business, government, and diplomatic communications.
Just like its neighboring countries, the Kingdom of Morocco is blessed with abundance of natural resources such as phosphates, iron ore, manganese, zinc, salt, fish, lead, etc.
Despite the abundance of natural and human resources , the Kingdom of Morocco, just like most other African countries today, faces so many economic, social, environmental, and developmental challenges such poor education system, poor healthcare, corruption, environmental pollution, etc.
The Kingdom of Morocco has a literacy rate of about 56.1% for the total population with the female literacy rate hovering around 43.9%. In other words, just about 43.9% of Morocco's total female population above the age 15 can read and write which is very bad compared to most other African countries.
Morocco has a GDP per capita income of about $3345 and is classified as a "lower middle-income" country by the World Bank and the IMF. In other words, Morocco is just a step above "low-income" but is still poor and developing.
Obesity remains a major health problem in Morocco. In 2009, several Moroccans (about 16% of the total population) were found to be severely obese by the World Health Organization.
Morocco has a very low HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate of < 0.1% which is better than in most other African countries. However, about 21,000 people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2019 (with about 1,200 deaths recorded) according to UNAIDS.
Desertification (caused mainly by the spreading of the Sahara desert), deforestation (rampant cutting down of trees), soil erosion (resulting from farming of marginal areas, overgrazing, industrial and agricultural runoffs, etc.), improper sewage disposals ( this contaminates water supplies in some areas), siltation of reservoirs, oil pollution of coastal waters (mostly caused by industrial waste materials), etc. remain some of the major environmental problems facing Morocco today.