Travelers tend to meet Morocco’s population as a feeling long before they meet it as a number: a crowded avenue in Casablanca on a Monday morning, a quiet stretch of road in the Drâa valley two days later. That gap is what the Morocco population statistics are really about, and they start with a national census dated 1 September 2024, which registered 36,828,330 residents.
Morocco’s 2024 census counted 36,828,330 residents on 1 September 2024, according to the Haut-Commissariat au Plan (HCP). There has been no census since. For mid-2026, HCP’s own projection is about 37.25 million. UN figures that circulate online, around 38.4 million for 2025, were built before the census and run higher.
The countHow many people live in Morocco? Contents ↑
The official answer is 36,828,330. That is the legal population of the Kingdom on 1 September 2024, which the Haut-Commissariat au Plan (HCP) published on 7 November 2024 from the results of the national census, known as the RGPH 2024. Moroccan nationals account for 36,680,178 of that total and foreign residents for 148,152.
Two things are worth holding on to. The total is 2,980,088 higher than at the 2014 census, so the country added close to three million people in ten years. And nothing in it is a 2026 figure: there has been no census since.
For 2026 you need a projection, and the most reliable one is again HCP’s. Its population projections for 2024 to 2060, published on 7 July 2026 and rebuilt around the census results, put Morocco at about 37.25 million on 1 July 2026 (37,254,695 in the medium scenario). The low and high scenarios differ from that by fewer than 9,000 people for 2026, so the choice of scenario barely matters for this year.
Reading the numbersCensus, projection, estimate: which number is which Contents ↑
A census is a count: households are visited and the result is a legal population, a fixed figure for a fixed date. A projection is a calculation. It starts from the last count, adds assumptions about births, deaths and migration, and moves the clock forward. An international estimate is a projection prepared by another team, with its own assumptions and sometimes an older starting point.
That last difference explains most of the mismatch you will find online. The UN Population Division’s latest revision, World Population Prospects 2024, gives about 38.4 million for 2025, as shown on UNFPA’s population dashboard. HCP’s projection for the same year is 37,009,918, so the two sit roughly 1.4 million apart.
The gap is a change of starting point rather than a dispute. The UN revision was published in July 2024, before Morocco had counted anyone that year. HCP’s own comparison shows it assuming about 2.18 children per woman for 2025, against 1.96 in HCP’s projection, and the census measured 1.97 for 2024. HCP also notes that its previous projections had overshot the 2024 census by about 600,000 people.
For anything about the present, use HCP. If you quote a UN figure, keep its year attached.
RGPH 2024What the census actually recorded Contents ↑
Morocco holds its general census of population and housing roughly every ten years. HCP released the 2024 results in stages: the legal population by region, province and commune in November 2024, a national portrait in December 2024, and thematic studies through 2025 on subjects such as older people, foreign residents and internal migration. One later report breaks the counts down to the douar, the small rural settlement, which is what makes village-level comparisons possible.
The total counts Moroccans and foreigners who live in the country. Foreign residents remain well under one percent of it, but their number grew by 61,946 between the two censuses.
Direction of travelGrowth is slowing, not stopping Contents ↑
The census series tells the story in four numbers: 26,073,717 people in 1994, 29,891,708 in 2004, 33,848,242 in 2014 and 36,828,330 in 2024. The average yearly growth rate slid with them, from 1.38% in the decade to 2004, to 1.25% in the next, to 0.85% between 2014 and 2024. Since 1960 the population has more than tripled, adding over 25 million people, but the fastest pace belongs to the years from 1960 to 1982, when HCP records about 2.6% a year.
Behind the slowdown is fertility. In 2024 the census measured 1.97 children per woman, below the 2.1 that keeps a population stable, down from 2.5 in 2004 and 2.2 in 2014.
None of this means the population is about to shrink. On HCP’s July 2026 medium scenario, Morocco reaches about 38.2 million in 2030, 40.5 million in 2040 and 43.3 million in 2060, with the yearly growth rate falling toward zero by the end of that period.
GeographyWhere most people live Contents ↑
Five of Morocco’s twelve regions each count more than four million residents, and together they hold 71.2% of the population, by HCP’s calculation. The largest by some distance is Casablanca-Settat with 7,688,967 residents, about one in five Moroccans. Then come Rabat-Salé-Kénitra (5,132,639), Marrakech-Safi (4,892,393), Fès-Meknès (4,467,911) and Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima (4,030,222).
Put the two Atlantic-side regions of Casablanca-Settat and Rabat-Salé-Kénitra together and they already hold 12.8 million people, more than a third of the country. Growth follows the same pattern. Between 2014 and 2024, Casablanca-Settat, Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima, Marrakech-Safi and Souss-Massa supplied 86.2% of the national population gain. Fès-Meknès has more residents than Souss-Massa but is not on that list.
At the other end, the Oriental recorded a small decline of 0.09% a year, and the regions of Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra, Guelmim-Oued Noun and Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab each have fewer than 500,000 residents. If the regional names mean little yet, a look at where Morocco sits on the map makes the pattern easier to follow.
Urban and ruralTowns, villages and the land between Contents ↑
Morocco is 62.8% urban: 23,110,108 people live in towns and cities and 13,718,222 in rural areas. The urban share was 51.4% in 1994 and 60.4% in 2014, so the shift continues without being dramatic. Rural Morocco still grew over the last decade, by 0.22% a year, while urban Morocco grew by 1.24%.
The national figure hides big differences. Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra is 92.4% urban and Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab 80.4%, because their populations are gathered in a few towns. Casablanca-Settat stands at 73.3% and Rabat-Salé-Kénitra at 70.7%. The opposite end matters for anyone heading south from the coast: Marrakech-Safi is 46.0% urban and Drâa-Tafilalet only 36.7%, so in both regions more people live in the countryside than in towns.
A traveler sees this without any statistics. Leave Marrakech and the city of a million people gives way to farmland, then to Atlas valleys where the relief, more than any town plan, shapes where houses and fields can go. How the country’s relief is arranged goes a long way toward explaining the map of settlement.
Regional tableMorocco’s twelve regions by population Contents ↑
HCP publishes regional totals with an urban and rural split. The table keeps the total and the rural count, ranked from the largest region to the smallest.
| Region | Population, 2024 | Of which rural |
|---|---|---|
| Casablanca-Settat | 7,688,967 | 2,055,219 |
| Rabat-Salé-Kénitra | 5,132,639 | 1,505,461 |
| Marrakech-Safi | 4,892,393 | 2,643,439 |
| Fès-Meknès | 4,467,911 | 1,612,545 |
| Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima | 4,030,222 | 1,391,407 |
| Souss-Massa | 3,020,431 | 1,204,329 |
| Béni Mellal-Khénifra | 2,525,801 | 1,242,309 |
| Oriental | 2,294,665 | 788,951 |
| Drâa-Tafilalet | 1,655,623 | 1,047,899 |
| Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra | 451,028 | 34,392 |
| Guelmim-Oued Noun | 448,685 | 149,142 |
| Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab | 219,965 | 43,129 |
Read down the right-hand column and one line stands out. Marrakech-Safi has more rural residents (2,643,439) than any other region, more than Casablanca-Settat’s 2,055,219, even though it has fewer people overall.
CitiesThe big cities, briefly Contents ↑
HCP’s presentation of the 2024 results ranks seven large cities: Casablanca (3.236 million), Tangier (1.275 million), Fès (1.183 million), Marrakech (1.015 million), Salé (945,000), Meknès (562,000) and Rabat (516,000). Together they hold 37.8% of Morocco’s urban population. Salé, across the Bou Regreg from the capital, is almost twice the size of Rabat itself, which is worth knowing before you plan. For a fuller picture of each place, a list of Moroccan cities is the better starting point than a population table.
DemographicsAge, households and languages Contents ↑
About a quarter of residents (26.5%) are under 15 and 59.7% are between 15 and 59. People aged 60 and over make up 13.8%, up from 9.4% in 2014, which is nearly 5 million people against 3.2 million then. HCP projects that share to reach about a quarter of the population by 2060.
Fertility differs between town and country: 1.77 children per woman in urban areas, 2.37 in rural ones. By region the rate runs from 1.73 in the Oriental to 2.35 in Drâa-Tafilalet. Households have shrunk too. The census counted 9,275,038 of them, averaging 3.9 people, compared with 4.6 in 2014, and one-person households now make up 11.1% of the total, up from 7.2%.
The census also asked about languages in daily use. Moroccan Arabic (Darija) was reported by 91.9% of people and an Amazigh language (Tachelhit, Tamazight or Tarifit) by 24.8%, rising to 33.3% in rural areas against 19.9% in towns. The shares overlap, because some people use more than one. Which languages visitors actually hear depends on the region as much as on the percentage.
For travelersWhat the population map means on the road Contents ↑
A route linking Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech passes through the regions with the most people. A route down the Drâa valley crosses a region of 1,655,623 residents, about a fifth of Casablanca-Settat’s population. Neither is more real than the other, but they behave differently: expect smaller towns and more of the day spent between them as you move south and into the mountains.
Markets are where the rural side of Marrakech-Safi becomes visible. HCP’s mapping of economic establishments, presented with the census results, counts 1,022 weekly souks in operation across the country, about 71% of them in rural areas, and Marrakech-Safi has more than any other region, 169. The everyday souks of the Marrakech medina are a different thing: they open most days of the week, while a weekly souk sets up on one fixed day, and that day changes from village to village.
That is also the practical catch for visitors: arrive on the wrong day and there is simply no market. It is one of the reasons many people see the Atlas villages with someone local rather than alone, for example on a guided day in the Ourika Valley.
What we would not do is judge the country from its cities alone. A week spent between Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech sees the towns where 23.1 million people live and skips the rural areas where 13.7 million do.
Before you quote a numberThree ways the figures get misread Contents ↑
Figures about Morocco travel badly without their dates, and three mistakes come up again and again. The first is setting a census total beside a projection as if they were the same kind of number. The second is confusing a city with its region: Marrakech the city has 1.015 million residents, Marrakech-Safi the region has 4,892,393, and the same gap separates Casablanca from Casablanca-Settat.
The third is quoting a figure without its reference year. The 2014 total of 33,848,242 describes a country ten years younger, and the UN’s 38.4 million for 2025 is a projection made before the 2024 census, never a count.
FAQQuestions about Morocco’s population Contents ↑
Did Morocco count its population in 2026?
No. The latest census dates from 2024 and found 36,828,330 residents on 1 September 2024. For mid-2026, HCP’s July 2026 projection gives about 37.25 million. That is a calculated figure, not a headcount, so it should be described as a projection whenever you use it.
Which figure should I quote: 36.8, 37.25 or 38.4 million?
It depends on the sentence. Use 36.8 million for the 2024 census count, 37.25 million for HCP’s mid-2026 projection and 38.4 million only if you are describing the UN’s 2025 estimate, with its year and the fact that it predates the census. Mixing them in one comparison produces a difference that is not real.
Does the census total include foreign residents?
Yes. Of the 36,828,330 people counted, 148,152 are foreign residents and 36,680,178 are Moroccan nationals. If you need a figure for Moroccan citizens only, use the second number. Either way, both describe people counted in Morocco on the census reference date, 1 September 2024.
Will I find quiet places, or is Morocco crowded everywhere?
You will find both, and the census explains where. Drâa-Tafilalet has 1,655,623 residents and three southern regions have fewer than 500,000 each, while Casablanca-Settat has 7,688,967. The census does not measure crowds at tourist sites, though, and those depend on the season and the hour as much as on the headcount.
Is Marrakech one of Morocco’s biggest cities?
Yes, it ranks fourth in HCP’s 2024 presentation with 1.015 million residents, behind Casablanca, Tangier and Fès. Keep the city and its region apart, though: Marrakech-Safi has 4,892,393 residents, so most of the region’s people live outside the city itself.
Will Morocco’s population stop growing soon?
Not before 2060 on HCP’s medium scenario. The yearly growth rate falls from about 0.7% in 2024 toward zero by 2060, yet the population still rises from 36.8 million to about 43.3 million over that period. Projections depend on fertility and migration assumptions, which HCP revises when new data arrive.
Is Morocco’s population getting older?
Yes, gradually. People aged 60 and over rose from 9.4% of residents in 2014 to 13.8% in 2024, while children under 15 fell from 28.2% to 26.5%. Even so, 59.7% of residents are aged 15 to 59. HCP projects the 60-and-over share at about a quarter of the population by 2060.
To take awayReading the map before the trip Contents ↑
On the 2024 census Morocco has 36.8 million residents, about 37.25 million by HCP’s mid-2026 projection, nearly two thirds of them in towns and cities and more than 70% in five regions. For a traveler the useful part is the shape rather than the total: a dense Atlantic side, a Marrakech region that is still mostly rural, and the Drâa valley and far south, where no region reaches two million people.
If you are working out how many days the trip needs, the distances between the places you want to see will matter more than the headcount.
- Haut-Commissariat au Plan (HCP), RGPH 2024 results and documents: legal population (7 November 2024), main results note and presentation (December 2024).
- Haut-Commissariat au Plan (HCP), Population projections for Morocco, 2024 to 2060 (July 2026).
- UNFPA, World Population Dashboard, Morocco, based on the UN Population Division, World Population Prospects 2024.
Official figures are revised as new data are published. The institution page is the reference on the day you read this.
