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Mauritius is among the most over populated countries with nearly 600 people per Km2. The population of Mauritius consists of several ethnics, religions and cultures. While in some cases one could be tempted to talk about the Mauritian culture, it is a fact that this culture is still in evolution and is more of a composition of the different ancestral cultures. Today, businessmen from Chinese, Indian and French origins work together and may be partners, but in holiday times the one flies to Singapore for shopping, the second to Mumbai for a cultural tour and the latter to Courchevel for a getaway from the summer heat.

Mauritians at large seem to be more open-minded than the administrative and religious institutions. Unfortunately, the major political parties drastically suffering from a lack of imagination often use the ready-made recipe of communalism to raise their troops and are greatly responsible for the cultivation of the communal calculation.

This gets even more complex for the Mauritians of Indian origin who are further segregated by their social system based on castes. It is a well-established fact that the Mauritian Prime Minister must be not only from Indian origin, but must be Hindu and from one particular caste. Mauritians nonetheless keep hope that this will change with time. As a result, each religious celebration and each election revives the problem, but in general and depending on the period, the circumstance and the context, there is more or less harmony between the different segments of the Mauritian population and some respect of each other's differences.

The population of Mauritius can be split into several groups: However, it is difficult to have a clear picture of proportions as the different polls place "Creoles" of African origins, and those of mix ethnics into the single category of "general population." These two sub groups have very few in common in terms of historical background, culture and social status.

The known figures are thus as follows:
Mauritians of:
- Indian origin (68%)
- Creoles (27%)
- Chinese origin (3%)
- French origin (2 %)

2012 welcomed a symbolic yet important improvement on the sensitive subject of ethnic discrimination. Indeed, the supreme court has ruled that candidates to elections will no longer be forced to declared their ethnic group.

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Update January 2013