Guadeloupe, French Guiana, and Martinique are French Overseas Departments in the Americas and have been an integral part of France since 1946. The archipelago of Guadeloupe is the larger of the two island territories, with a land area of 1,703 km2. Martinique has 1,128 km2, and French Guiana, 83,534 km2.
In 2000 the total population of Guadeloupe was 424 067 inhabitants; by 2023 this figure had risen to 395 839, representing a -6.7% decrease. Regarding the country’s demographic profile, in 2023 people over 65 years of age accounted for 20.6% of the total population, an increase of 10.7 percentage points compared to the year 2000. In 2023, there were 121.3 women per 100 men and 115. older people (65 years or older) per 100 children under 15 years of age, as can be seen in the country’s population pyramids, distributed by age group and sex (Figure 1). Considering the population between 15 and 64 years of age to be potentially active (i.e., potential participants in the labor force), this group represented 61.6% of the total population of the country in 2023 (243 650 people). When we add these figures to the potentially passive population (70 795 under 15 years of age and 81 395 over 65 years of age), the result is a dependency ratio of 62.5 potentially passive people per 100 potentially active people. This ratio was 54.2 in 2000.
Life expectancy at birth in 2023 was 83.3 years, higher than the average for the Region of the Americas and 5.9 years higher that in 2000.
