Fairyland Proposall, Maldives, Indian Ocean

A census has been recorded since 1905, which shows that the population of the country remained around 100,000 for the following sixty years. Following independence in 1965, the rate of population growth rose due to improving health. The population doubled by 1978, and the population growth rate peaked at 3.4% in 1985. By 2007, the population had reached 300,000, although the census in 2000 showed that the population growth rate had declined to 1.9%. Life expectancy at birth stood at 46 years in 1978, and later rose to 72. Infant mortality has declined from 127 per thousand in 1977 to 12 per thousand today, and adult literacy reached 99%. Combined school enrollment reached the high 90s.
As of April 2008, more than 70,000 foreign employees lived in the country and another 33,000 illegal immigrants comprised more than one third of Maldivian population. They consisted mainly of people from the neighboring South Asian countries of India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.