Morocco Population Statistics 2026 | Demographics, Growth, Density & Facts

Morocco Population Statistics 2026

Morocco’s population in 2026 stands at approximately 38.8 million people, cementing the North African kingdom’s position as the 41st most populous nation on Earth and one of the most demographically significant countries in the Arab and Berber world. The country’s 2024 census — its first full national count in a decade, and the seventh in Morocco’s history — revealed a population growing more slowly than at any point since independence, with an annual growth rate that has fallen from 2.6% in the 1969-1982 period to just 0.85% between 2014 and 2024. This slowdown places Morocco firmly on the path toward the kind of demographic transition already well underway across much of the Mediterranean, even as its population continues to add hundreds of thousands of people each year.

This report compiles the key verified statistics on Morocco’s population in 2026, covering the High Commission for Planning’s (HCP) 2024 census results, United Nations population projections, regional and city-level distribution, age structure, fertility trends, and the size of the global Moroccan diaspora. Sources include Morocco’s official statistical agency (HCP), the UN’s World Population Prospects 2024 Revision, and independent demographic trackers including Worldometer and StatisticsTimes. Because Morocco’s 2024 census results were released progressively through 2025 and 2026, and because independent trackers sometimes use slightly different baseline methodologies, several figures below show a modest range rather than a single fixed number, and this is flagged where relevant.

Interesting Facts About Morocco’s Population 2026

Source: Morocco High Commission for Planning (HCP) 2024 General Census (RGPH-2024); UN World Population Prospects 2024 Revision; Worldometer; StatisticsTimes, 2025–2026

The numbers above capture a country in the midst of a genuine demographic turning point. Morocco’s fertility rate of 1.97 children per woman has now fallen below the 2.1 replacement threshold, a milestone the country has been approaching for years as urbanization, rising female education, and expanding healthcare access have driven fertility down from above 7 children per woman in the 1970s. Combined with a growth rate that has more than halved since the early 2000s, this signals that Morocco’s population growth, while still positive, is decelerating toward the kind of near-plateau already seen in several of its European neighbors just across the Strait of Gibraltar.

What stands out most is the sheer scale of the Moroccan diaspora relative to the domestic population — at an estimated 5.5 to 6 million people living abroad, the diaspora represents roughly 15% of Morocco’s entire domestic population, an extraordinarily high ratio that reflects decades of labor emigration to France and other European destinations, dating back to guest-worker programs of the 1960s and continuing through more recent economic migration patterns.

Morocco Population Growth Trend 2020–2026

MOROCCO POPULATION GROWTH — SELECTED YEARS (millions)
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
2020  ██████████████████████████████████████  36.68
2022  ███████████████████████████████████████  37.30
2024  ████████████████████████████████████████ 38.21 (mid-year est.) / 36.83 (census)
2025  ████████████████████████████████████████ 38.57
2026  ████████████████████████████████████████ 38.76–38.80
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Source: Macrotrends Population Database (UN-derived); Worldometer; HCP 2024 Census, 2020–2026

Readers will notice a meaningful gap between Morocco’s mid-year international population estimates (around 38.2 million for 2024) and the official 2024 census legal population of 36,828,330 recorded as of September 1, 2024. This is not a contradiction but a methodological difference: international bodies like the UN and Worldometer use continuously updated mid-year projections built on prior census baselines and estimated vital rates, while the HCP’s census figure represents a specific, legally defined “de jure” headcount taken on a fixed date, which typically runs somewhat lower than rolling international estimates until it is incorporated into future projection baselines.

Regardless of which specific figure is used, the underlying trend is unambiguous: Morocco added just under 3 million people over the 2014-2024 census decade, a 10-year growth rate of roughly 8.8% that, while still positive, represents a clear deceleration from the growth pace of previous decades. The 0.85% annual growth rate for 2014-2024 compares to 1.25% for 2004-2014, confirming that Morocco’s demographic expansion is genuinely slowing rather than merely appearing to slow due to measurement differences.

Morocco’s 2024 Census: Regional Population Distribution

Source: Morocco High Commission for Planning (HCP), 2024 General Census of Population and Housing (RGPH-2024) regional distribution report

The regional concentration revealed by the 2024 census is striking: just five of Morocco’s twelve administrative regions — Casablanca-Settat, Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, Marrakech-Safi, Fès-Meknès, and Tangier-Tétouan-Al Hoceïma — together account for 71.2% of the country’s entire population. The Casablanca-Settat region alone, anchored by Morocco’s economic capital, holds more than a fifth of the national population, underscoring the country’s heavily coast-oriented settlement pattern along the Atlantic seaboard and northern Mediterranean corridor.

These same five leading regions were also responsible for 86.2% of Morocco’s total population growth between 2014 and 2024, with growth rates ranging from a comparatively modest 0.79% annually in Marrakech-Safi to a faster 1.25% annually in Tangier-Tétouan-Al Hoceïma — the latter likely reflecting the region’s growing role as an industrial and logistics hub linked to the Tanger-Med port complex. At the other end of the spectrum, the sparsely populated Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab region in the Western Sahara territory that Morocco administers holds just 220,000 residents across a vast desert area, illustrating the dramatic population density contrast between Morocco’s northern urban corridor and its southern Saharan provinces. For readers interested in how Morocco’s population ranks against every other nation on Earth, our World Population by Country coverage places Morocco at 41st globally, sitting between Poland and Ukraine in the current global rankings.

Morocco’s Largest Cities by Population 2026

Source: HCP 2024 Census official city rankings; World Population Review Morocco Cities 2026; Hibapress coverage of 2024 census density data

Casablanca’s dominance as Morocco’s primary city is unambiguous — depending on whether the measurement covers the city proper or the broader metropolitan area, estimates place its population anywhere from roughly 3.2 million to over 4 million, making it not only Morocco’s largest city by a wide margin but also its most densely populated, according to 2024 census density rankings. Notably, Morocco’s political capital, Rabat, ranks only 10th nationally by population at approximately 504,000 residents — a reminder that, much like in several other countries, Morocco’s seat of government and its primary economic and demographic center are two entirely different cities.

The census also revealed that just seven major cities — Casablanca, Tangier, Fez, Marrakech, Salé, Meknes, and Rabat — house nearly 40% of Morocco’s entire urban population, reflecting a settlement pattern where urban growth remains concentrated in a relatively small number of established metropolitan centers rather than being widely dispersed across many mid-sized cities. This concentration has significant implications for infrastructure planning, since these seven cities absorb a disproportionate share of internal rural-to-urban migration each year.

Morocco Age Structure and Fertility Trends 2026

MOROCCO AGE STRUCTURE COMPARISON — 2014 vs 2024 CENSUS
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Ages 0-14 (2014)    ████████████████████████████████  30%+
Ages 0-14 (2024)    ███████████████████████████░░░░░  27.04%  ↓ declining

Ages 65+ (2014)     ██████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░  ~6%
Ages 65+ (2024)     ███████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░  7.11%   ↑ rising
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Source: Morocco HCP 2024 Census; CIA World Factbook Demographics of Morocco; Worldometer, 2024–2026

Morocco’s age structure confirms a country in active demographic transition: the share of the population under 15 has fallen from over 30% in the 2014 census to 27.04% in 2024, while the 65-and-over population has climbed to 7.11%, both changes consistent with a fertility rate that has now dropped below the 2.1 replacement threshold to 1.97 children per woman. This represents one of the most dramatic fertility declines in the Arab world over the past half-century — a fall from more than 7 children per woman in the 1970s to below-replacement levels within two generations, driven by rising female educational attainment, expanding urbanization, and improved contraceptive access.

The median age of roughly 30-31 years places Morocco in an intermediate demographic position: notably older than most sub-Saharan African nations, but still meaningfully younger than most European countries just across the Mediterranean and Atlantic. This positions Morocco within what demographers call a “demographic window” — a period where the working-age population is large relative to dependents, theoretically offering an economic growth opportunity, though realizing that potential depends heavily on the country’s ability to generate sufficient employment for its still-substantial youth cohort.

Urbanization and Household Data in Morocco 2026

Source: Morocco HCP 2024 General Census of Population and Housing; Fes News Media coverage of RGPH-2024 detailed results, December 2024

There is a notable discrepancy worth flagging directly: independent demographic trackers report Morocco’s urban population share anywhere from 54.93% to 67.9%, a wide enough gap to suggest differing definitions of what counts as “urban” territory, since Morocco’s own statistical agency has periodically adjusted municipal boundary classifications. What is consistent across sources is the underlying trend — Morocco has been urbanizing steadily for decades, and the household growth data confirms this: urban households grew by 1,366,187 over the 2014-2024 census decade compared to just 595,054 in rural areas, meaning urban household formation outpaced rural growth by more than 2 to 1.

The census also captured meaningful social development progress alongside the population count itself: illiteracy fell from 32.2% to 24.8% over the decade, while the share of the population with at least a lower-secondary education rose from 30.2% to 39.1%. Nearly 70% of the population now reports having health coverage, and roughly 60% of Moroccans aged 15 and older report using the internet — all figures that provide important social context for interpreting the pure population numbers documented throughout this report.

The Global Moroccan Diaspora 2026

Source: WorldPopulationClock.net Morocco 2026 profile, citing HCP and destination-country immigration statistics; CIA World Factbook, 2022–2026

The scale of the Moroccan diaspora is one of the most consequential demographic facts about the country, representing roughly one Moroccan living abroad for every seven living in Morocco itself. France’s community of approximately 1.5 million remains by far the largest, a legacy of colonial-era ties and mid-20th-century labor migration programs that continue to shape Franco-Moroccan demographic and economic links today. Spain’s diaspora of roughly 850,000, driven substantially by geographic proximity across the narrow Strait of Gibraltar, has grown particularly rapidly in recent decades as Spain’s own labor market absorbed successive waves of Moroccan migrants.

This diaspora has substantial economic significance for Morocco beyond its sheer demographic size: remittances from Moroccans abroad represent one of the country’s largest sources of foreign currency inflow, and the negative net migration rate of -1.74 migrants per 1,000 population confirms that outward migration continues to modestly exceed inward migration, meaning the diaspora’s relative size compared to the domestic population is likely to remain substantial for the foreseeable future even as Morocco’s own population growth continues to slow. For a closer look at the largest single destination for this diaspora, our France Population Statistics report confirms that Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia remain the top three source countries for new arrivals into France, reflecting a migration corridor that has shaped both nations’ demographics for well over half a century.

Ethnic and Linguistic Composition of Morocco 2026

Source: CIA World Factbook Demographics of Morocco; Minority Rights Group estimates; Grokipedia Demographics of Morocco summary, 2024–2026

Morocco’s population is overwhelmingly Arab-Berber by official classification at 99%, but this headline figure understates significant internal diversity: independent estimates suggest 35% to 40% of Moroccans identify as Berber (Amazigh) by ethnicity, language, or cultural affiliation, concentrated particularly in the Atlas Mountains, the Rif mountains in the north, and various rural regions across the country. Berber languages gained official co-official status in 2011, a significant constitutional recognition of the country’s indigenous Amazigh heritage after decades in which Arabic held exclusive official status.

A further, less widely discussed demographic dimension is Morocco’s population of sub-Saharan African descent — including the Haratin and Gnawa communities — estimated by the Minority Rights Group at around 10% of the total population, or roughly 3.7 million people, reflecting centuries of trans-Saharan trade, migration, and historical population movement between Morocco and West Africa. French, while holding no official status, remains deeply embedded in Moroccan commerce, higher education, and government administration, a legacy of the French protectorate period that continues to shape the country’s linguistic landscape alongside Arabic and Berber. Morocco’s northern coastline also places it just 14.2 kilometres from Europe at its closest point, a geography covered in detail in our Strait of Gibraltar Statistics report, which documents how this narrow waterway shapes trade, migration, and cultural exchange between Morocco and Spain.

Data Reliability Notes for Morocco Population Statistics 2026

Source: Cross-referenced HCP, UN World Population Prospects, and independent demographic tracker data, current as of mid-2026

Because Morocco’s 2024 General Census (RGPH-2024) was Morocco’s first full national count in a decade and its detailed regional and city-level results were released in stages through 2025 and into 2026, some of the more granular figures in this report — particularly city-proper versus metropolitan-area population splits — should be treated as the most recent available data rather than fully finalized official totals. Readers should also note that Morocco’s population figures for its southern provinces reflect the territory Morocco currently administers, though the international legal status of Western Sahara remains a subject of ongoing dispute beyond the scope of this demographic report.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.

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