General Information

The French Revolutionary slogan : Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
Official Language : French
Prefecture : Saint-Denis
Sub-prefectures : Saint-Benoît, Saint-Paul, Saint-Pierre
Arrondissements : 4
Cantons : 49
Communes : 24
President of regional council : Paul Verges
President of general council : Nassimah Dindar
Surface Area : 2 512 sq km
Population (1999) : 706 300
Population Density : 282 per sq km
Currency: Euro
Time Zone : GMT +4
Internet : .re
Country Dialing Code : 262

Located in the Indian Ocean, Réunion Island occupies a surface area of 2 512 sq km. It lies about 700 km east of Madagascar and 200 km south west of Mauritius.

History

The uninhabited island was probably first visited by the Arab sailors who named it &ldquoDino Morgabin&rdquo (&ldquoWestern Island&rdquo). A Portuguese sailor, Diego Dias arrived there in 1513, February 9th and as it was the Saint Apollonia Day, he named the island Saint Apollonia. It then appeared on the Portuguese maps. Around 1520, Réunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues were christened Mascarenes Archipelago after the Portuguese navigator Pedro de Mascarenhas, on his way to Goa. It should be noted that these three islands are still commonly called the Mascarenes Archipelago.
In the beginning of the 17th century, the island served as a stopover on the East Indies trade route for the English and Dutch ships. In 1640, the French settled on the island and the king of France named it Ile Bourbon, after the royal family name/house. Colonisation started in 1665, when the French East India Company sent the first settlers. Besides, the governer of the island, Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais, who served from 1735 to 1745, took an active part in the development of the island.
Réunion Island became a départment d&rsquooutre-mer (overseas department) of France on March 19, 1946 and in 1997, it became a European Union region.
Administration
Reunion Island is a French region as well as a French overseas department. Its prefecture is in Saint-Denis.

Geography

Satellite view of Réunion Island.
In the shape of a three-leaf clover, the three calderas are visible in the central northern part of the island. Covered with clouds, Le Piton de la Fournaise is situated on the south-east coast of the island.

Demography

Approximately 37% of the population was less than 20 years old in 2003 (Source: INSEE).
The population growth is much higher than in mainland France. In 2002, the French National Institute for Statistics and Economics Studies, (INSEE) announced that the total fertility rate (number of children per woman) was an average of 2, 43.

On January 1st 2003, the current population was estimated to consist of about 760 000 inhabitants. / In 2003, January 1st, the estimation of the current population was about 760 000 inhabitants. The population growth is likely to increase in the following years around 830 000 and 1 million inhabitants in 2010 and 2020 respectively.

The Reunionese population is multi-racial and is composed of several ethnic groups: African (Cafres), Indian (malbars and z&rsquoarabes), Chinese, Malagasy, Comorian and European. During the different colonisation eras and development periods of the island, these people settled there.
Reunion island has a very mixed population where no ethnic tensions exist.

Journalist, writer, and author of several piece of works on Réunion island, Daniel Vaxelaire explains in &ldquohistoire de la Réunion des origines à 1848&rdquo that since the arrival of the first settlers, mixed race has become one of the distinctive features of the island. Soon after their settlement, the colonisers get married to Malagasy women. Hence, this explains why Daniel Vaxelaire said that the grand mother of all the Reunionese is Malagasy.

This early mixed population probably enabled to alleviate more quickly the grief of the proslavery period which ended on 20th December 1848 in Réunion island.