Population review 2023

Last year’s review of the population statistics was entitled ‘Strange Times’ and the piece ended ‘awaiting 2023 with great interest.’ Statistics can be dull, yet in the last years they have shown an unexpected light on our community. This year’s figures indicate that Auroville continues to experience an unusual time.

The bare facts of this year’s population changes are that Auroville has grown by 60 people from 3308 to 3368 residents. The Indian population continues to rise in both percentage terms and in numerical totals, adding 85, taking them to 1668, while the international population has decreased by 25 people (following a decline last year of 57). Indian nationals make up 49.5% of our community, ending a remarkably long-term constant of the Indian percentile of the population hovering between 43-44% between 1972 to 2018.

Slower rates of growth

From 2012 (2269 residents) till 2021 we grew at roughly a hundred people a year and for a few years from 2016-2019 at almost two hundred a year. The last two years, 2021 & 2022 – which include the disruption of Covid lockdowns– we had only respectively 24 and 23 additions to our community. We now appear to be on the journey of returning to the rates of increase we had before. 

Passings

This year we had an unusually large number of deaths. In the August Auroville Today piece on Death, we quoted Mauna, who for years has compiled our community’s obituaries, who pointed out that “half way through 2023, we have already recorded as many deaths (16) as were recorded in each of the two preceding years (17 Aurovilian deaths in 2022 and 15 deaths in 2021)”. At the time of writing (mid December) Mauna noted that she now has on her list for this year 37 departed ones, of which 24 were Auroville residents and 13 ex-Aurovilians or associated parties.

62 nations

The exceptional diversity of countries represented in Auroville grew to 62. After 2022’s loss of Iceland we added the Seychelles, Mauritius and Andorra to our international family. Sudan appeared as a brief one-year blip on our charts for 2022 and then disappeared back to its Saharan embrace.

Yoyo-ing nations

Bobbing up and down in recent years, Korea with 51 residents lost 4 members from last year’s 55, though the previous year, 2021, they had 52 and the year before that 57. Russia too, increased from 74 in 2019 to 77 a year later, continued up to 81 in 2021, went down to 71 last year and this year was back to 76.

Declines

There are a few declines. Germany has gone down in the last two years from 260 two years ago to 249 last year and this year to 239, though it is still comfortably in third place behind France. America decreased by 10 people in the last year to 107 people. The Netherlands declined from 102 to 98, which was perhaps represented by a family leaving.

Other than these changes, and the notable one of India’s growth, there have been only minor changes in the national populations of our community, a loss or gain of one or two people in different countries. Gender continues to be finely balanced: 1655 women and girls to 1647 men and boys.

We seem to be emerging from the recent slowing of regular growth. But whether we will return again soon to one hundred additions to our population a year is unclear as yet, and we await next year’s population statistics with great interest.