Morocco

GLOBAL RANK: 74th of 104

Morocco ranks 74th in the overall Index, its Comparative Liveability rank (66th) buoyed by its very strong level of religious faith, in contrast with somewhat weaker indicators for Economic Competitiveness (77th).

This largely desert nation in the Maghreb region is frequently afflicted by drought, and forced to import a large proportion of its energy needs. Recent growth has failed substantially to reduce poverty, and much of the population lives in urban slums. Political power is primarily held by the monarch, civil institutions are weak, and there are frequent allegations of police abuse of detainees. However, significant human rights progress has been made over the past decade, and Morocco’s press has gained more independence despite continued interference. Discussions with the UN continue over the future of the impoverished region of Western Sahara, occupied by Morocco since 1975.

Population	34.3 million (2008 est.)
Average Life Satisfaction	5 (2007 est.)
GDP (PPP)	$125.3 billion (2007 est.)
GDP (Growth)	2.1% (2007 est.)
GDP (per Capita)	$4,100 (2007 est.)

FDI (net inflow)	4.56% (2006 est.)
Exports	17.60% (2006 est.)
Imports	34.40% (2006 est.)
Unemployment	10.2% (2007 est.)
Life Expectancy	71.52 years (2008 est.)

Political System

Constitutional Monarchy

Foreign Aid

1.51%
(2006 est.)

The key challenge obstructing improvements in Morocco’s material prosperity is the country’s poor mass education system. Almost half of the population is illiterate, and since less then one third of children go to secondary school, the average worker barely achieves one year of secondary education.

Many students who graduate with advanced degrees leave the country for a better living in Europe. This contributes to low innovation levels in Morocco, reflected especially by the low number of patents filed. Ongoing educational reforms have already increased primary school enrolment levels significantly, and aim in future to address the challenges to secondary education through decentralisation.

Outsourcing from France and Spain to Morocco is increasing, which allows for optimism concerning the outlook for the diversification of the economy. Dependence on commodity exports is not a serious problem. An increasingly visible trend is the inflow of capital investment originating from the GCC states, which also supports economic growth. However, relative movements in price levels suggest some weakness in competition.

Morocco is one of the poorest states of North Africa, and low income is a main obstacle to raising levels of Comparative Liveability. Average income per person is only around $4,300 a year, compared to almost $7,800 annually in Tunisia. 20% of the population lives in poverty without access to clean water and sanitation, while 6% are undernourished, according to the UNDP.

The damage done to social cohesion by poverty appears to be limited by strong traditional social structures. Community scores present a mixed picture, with surprisingly high levels of charitable giving: 55%^g of respondents to the Gallup World Poll had given to charity in the previous month. This contrasts with a lack of volunteering and poor community involvement. Gender inequalities are significant in Morocco, with women’s incomes less than a quarter of that of men, and extremely low levels of female representation in parliament (1%), suggesting serious constraints on equality of opportunity. Only 40% of women are literate, compared with more than 65% of women.

While policies regarding religion are relatively moderate, a high score for religious faith is offset by lower levels of religious freedom. Nonetheless, extremist challenges to the regime are limited, and most pro-democracy movements respect the king’s religious role.

All subindicator scores in the Index are shown unweighted, expressed as a percentage of the score for the best-performing country in the Index. Indicator scores (in dark blue) are derived from the weighted average of relevant subindicators. For more information on how the subindicator scores are weighted to produce indicator scores and an overall Index score and ranking, see Chapter Two of this report.

References:
^g, ^w Click here for further details including date of survey, sample size, and margin of error.