Auroville's monthly news magazine since 1988

Published: January 2019 (7 years ago) in issue Nº 354

Keywords: Growth, Statistics, Human unity, Diversity and Population statistics

The increasing diversity in Auroville’s population

A long read — Authored by 

 
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In 2018, Auroville’s population crossed 3,000, growing by 8.2% over last year. But what might be more interesting from the perspective of human unity is the diversity of its residents – Aurovilians and Newcomers now come from 58 countries. Here's a look at our population through six charts.

Other than the Indian population, growth is quite uneven over the years. In 2017, Israel, the UK and Russia had the highest growth rates, while in 2018, the highest growth rates were for the UK, France and Italy.

Auroville continues to retain its international character. The proportion of Indians has remained largely unchanged over the years.

The age profile of Auroville residents continues to be a cause for concern, especially the small number of people in the 21-30 age group. Some of these youth leave Auroville for higher education and only about half of them return to work in Auroville. In the coming years, it will be critical to work with the under-20 age group to provide them with creative and stimulating opportunities in Auroville. The median age (age with equal number of people older and younger) in Auroville is almost 40, compared to 27.6 in India.

For the first time, Auroville’s population has exceeded 3,000 people

population statistics were provided by Aurostat.

From 9 nationalities in 1968, Auroville residents now come from 58 nationalities. Since the early nineties, the number of nationalities has grown steadily. However, not all nationalities have a strong presence- 36 nations have less than ten residents, while ten nations have only one resident each.

The overwhelming majority of Auroville residents are Europeans and Indians. What is most striking is the underrepresentation of Africa, a continent with 54 countries and thousands of ethnicities and languages. Asia, without India, also has very few representatives given its large population and extreme diversity.