The topic of this article is the

demographics Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...

of the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Intern ...

, including

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

, ethnicity, health of the populace, economic status,

religious affiliations Religious identity is a specific type of identity formation. Particularly, it is the sense of group membership to a religion and the importance of this group membership as it pertains to one's self-concept. Religious identity is not necessarily the ...

and other aspects of the population. Historical population figures for the Marshall Islands are unknown. In 1862, the population of the Islands was estimated at 10,000. In 1960, the population of the Islands was approximately 15,000. The 2011

Census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

counted 53,158 island residents. Over two-thirds of the residents of the Marshall Islands live in the capital city,

Majuro Majuro (; Marshallese: ' ) is the capital and largest city of the Marshall Islands. It is also a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district of the Ratak (Sunrise) Chain of the Marshall Islands. The ato ...

, and the secondary urban center,

Ebeye Ebeye ( ; Marshallese: , or in older orthography, ; locally, , , after the English pronunciation) is the most populous island of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, as well as the center for Marshallese culture in the Ralik Chain of the arc ...

(located in Kwajalein Atoll). This figures excludes Marshall Islands natives who have relocated elsewhere; the

Compact of Free Association The Compact of Free Association (COFA) is an international agreement establishing and governing the relationships of free association between the United States and the three Pacific Island sovereign states of the Federated States of Micronesia (F ...

allows them to freely relocate to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and obtain work there. Approximately 4,300 Marshall Islands natives relocated to

Springdale, Arkansas Springdale is the fourth-largest city in Arkansas, United States. It is located in both Washington and Benton counties in Northwest Arkansas. Located on the Springfield Plateau deep in the Ozark Mountains, Springdale has long been an important i ...

in the United States; this figure represents the largest population concentration of Marshall Islands natives outside their island home. Most residents of the Marshall Islands are Marshallese. Marshallese people are of Micronesian origin and are believed to have migrated from

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

to the Marshall Islands several thousand years ago. A minority of Marshallese have some recent Asian ancestry (mainly

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

). About one-half of the nation's population lives in Majuro and Ebeye. The official languages of the Marshall Islands are

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and Marshallese. Both languages are widely spoken.

Religion

Major religious groups in the Republic of the Marshall Islands include the United Church of Christ – Congregational in the Marshall Islands, with 51.5% of the population; the Assemblies of God, 24.2%; the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, 8.4%;International Religious Freedom Report 2009: Marshall Islands
. United States

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Affairs (DRL) is a bureau within the United States Department of State. The bureau is under the purview of the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights. DRL's resp ...

(September 14, 2007). ''This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

.'' and

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

(Mormons), 8.3%. Also represented are Bukot Nan Jesus (also known as Assembly of God Part Two), 2.2%;

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

, 1.0%;

Seventh-day Adventists The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and i ...

, 0.9%; Full Gospel, 0.7%; and the

Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the ...

, 0.6%. Persons without any religious affiliation account for a very small percentage of the population. Islam is also present through

Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...

which is based in

, with the first mosque opening in the capital in September 2012.

Health

During the

Castle Bravo Castle Bravo was the first in a series of high-yield thermonuclear weapon design tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, as part of '' Operation Castle''. Detonated on March 1, 1954, the device was the most powerful ...

test of the first deployable thermonuclear bomb, a miscalculation resulted in the explosion being over twice as large as predicted. The

nuclear fallout Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...

spread eastward onto the inhabited Rongelap and

Rongerik Atoll Rongerik Atoll or Rongdrik Atoll ( Marshallese: , ) is a coral atoll of 17 islands in the Pacific Ocean, and is located in the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands, approximately east of Bikini Atoll. Its total land area is only , but it enclose ...

s. These islands were not evacuated before the explosion. Many of the Marshall Islands natives have since suffered from radiation burns and radioactive dusting, suffering the similar fates as the Japanese fishermen aboard the ''

Daigo Fukuryū Maru was a Japanese tuna fishing boat with a crew of 23 men which was contaminated by nuclear fallout from the United States Castle Bravo thermonuclear weapon test at Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954. The crew suffered acute radiation syndrome (ARS ...

'', but have received little, if any, compensation from the federal government.

Vital statistics

Births and deaths

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

Source:

Population

*77,917 (July 2020 est.)

Age structure

*0–14 years: 32.94% (male 13,090/female 12,575) *15–24 years: 19.09% (male 7,568/female 7,308) *25–54 years: 37.35% (male 14,834/female 14,270) *55–64 years: 5.92% (male 2,269/female 2,341) *65 years and over: 4.7% (male 1,805/female 1,857) (2020 est.)

Population growth rate

*1.43% (2020 est.)

Birth rate

*22.8 births/1,000 population (2020 est.)

Death rate

*4.3 deaths/1,000 population (2020 est.)

Net migration rate

*-4.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2020 est.)

Sex ratio

*at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female *0–14 years: 1.04 male(s)/female *15–24 years: 1.04 male(s)/female *25–54 years: 1.04 male(s)/female *55–64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female *65 years and over: 0.97 male(s)/female *Total population: 1.03 male(s)/female (2020 est.)

Infant mortality rate

*Total: 17.4 deaths/1,000 live births *Male: 19.7 deaths/1,000 live births *Female: 15.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2020 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

*Total population: 74.1 years *Male: 71.8 years *Female: 76.5 years (2020 est.)

Total fertility rate

*2.86 children born/woman (2020 est.)

Nationality

*Marshallese (singular and plural) *Marshallese (adjective)

Ethnic groups

* Marshallese: 92.1% *Mixed Marshallese: 5.9% * Other: 2% (2006)

Religions

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

: 80.5% *

United Church A united church, also called a uniting church, is a church formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations. Historically, unions of Protestant churches were enforced by the state ...

: 47% *

Assembly of God The Assemblies of God (AG), officially the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, is a group of over 144 autonomous self-governing national groupings of churches that together form the world's largest Pentecostal denomination."Assemblies of God". ...

: 16.2% *

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

: 8.5% *Bukot nan Jesus: 5.4% *

Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The c ...

: 1.4% *Other Christian: 10.5% *Other: 1.2% *None: 1.1%

Languages

* Marshallese (official): 98.2% *other languages 1.8%

References

{{Reflist Society of the Marshall Islands