10 + Surprising Facts About Morocco

The african continent is home to many different cultures and people and countries that have their own way of doing things And within a continent of 53 countries It makes it the continent with the most amount of countries and within that chunk of land There are many great stories of rich history where we discover the strength and pride of great amazing people and nations And today on ftd facts we explore a country that represents just that This is the country people and culture of the beautiful and the only morocco. Hey everybody How's it going? Dave Walpole here and welcome to ftd facts the channel where we talk about people cultures and places from all around the world now Today we are talking about morocco and I am always excited to learn about a new place I've been actually wanting to learn about morocco for a while now First of all, you might be wondering why well it's just a really cool country and I know for me like one of my favorite movies is Casablanca and like it's just a beautiful beautiful movie And if you guys haven't seen it seriously get off your butts stop watching marvel movies and watch some old school art You won't be you know disappointed And the other reason i'm just really excited about this whole thing is because here on the channel every single time We release a new video. We always throw out into our community section We do polls asking you guys which of three or four different countries you guys want to hear next and you guys Sounded off and you said morocco and i'm really happy that you guys said so so here's the video. Let's get right to it Okay before we get in this video though few quick things first of all generally here on the channel We like to do a lot of part twos to our country videos and of course We sometimes miss a lot of facts So if you guys want a part two hit those like buttons because if we get over 3 000 likes we know to do a part Two and if we miss any facts be sure to put it down there in the comment section below Or you can follow me on instagram at any time, but let's get rolling with it. So morocco Okay, we probably think of the moroccas when we think of morocco. As a matter of fact, I think of morocco I'm always like it's morocco Like it's a spanish country, right? But however, it's actually a lot more of that now Let's take a quick look at the population of this country. First of all as of a 2017 estimate. It has approximately 35 million 740 000 people now keep in mind They have not done a census within the country since 2014, which many of you may be like those are three years ago It's actually not that bad You know some countries don't do it for like 10 15 20 years and back Then the country's population was approximately 32 million seven hundred forty six thousand eight hundred and seventy one And the crazy part about that is it ranked 39th in the world when it came to population I always thought morocco was a little bit smaller than that But hey, this is what we're learning now probably the biggest thing when we look at morocco on a map One thing is that it has a disputed territory and that is the western sahara, but crazy enough It's not disputing this land with another country But with its own indigenous people known as the sahawari people who claim the land as the polisario front So because of that the land size within the country ranks either 40th or 57th So let's break it down a little bit more for example with the western sahara The land size of the entire country would be seven hundred and ten thousand eight hundred and fifty kilometers square ranking 40th however without it morocco sits at 446 550 kilometers square ranking 57th and somewhere within there It says the density is approximately 79 people per square kilometer But i'm really not sure if that's with the western sahara desert or without the western sahara desert I'm, really not sure now. Like I said when I think of morocco, I do think it's a very latin country, but Let's take a look into it and let's see what kind of people actually live here guys. I'm not gonna lie Just it's the word morocca. It's you know, I think morocca. I think spain. I think espanol It's in my brain. I can't help it. Now. First of all, according to the 2014 census The largest group of people were approximately ages one to four equaling approximately 9.82 The second largest group was 20 to 24 equaling 8.91 And 10 to 14 year olds were approximately 8.89 Of the entire population, but however when it comes to this country We should also mention that it has a high percentage of muslims which within the country it equals about 98.8 percent of the people it's pretty nuts I guess my spanish theory is just out the window And of the muslim population about 67 actually identify as non-denominational muslims There's also shia muslims that are within the country that make up a small percentage as well And there are other religions that are very very small as well If I say as well one at a time i'd kill myself now within morocco It has actually two official languages which blew me away I did not think that at all and the two big ones are moroccan arabic Which is the main language and approximately 80 to 90 percent of the people speak it However, also about 20 to 30 percent of the population speak the second language known as berber now for this particular language It didn't become an official language until about 2011 So it's still rather new not the language. The language isn't new. It's just its status within the country is new Yeah, and for those who don't know berber is considered an afro asiatic language which arabic falls within this family now There's really no official numbers of how many people speak this they say it's anywhere between 8 to 12 million people within the country And because of that they theorize that this country has the highest amount of berber speakers of any country in the entire world Now as for foreign languages, the biggest here are french with about 30 to 40 percent of the people who speak it 21 speak spanish and as for english, it's far below 14 Now let's move right along and let's talk about mula because we all want to know what's behind the economic power of morocco, right? Yeah now for its purchasing power parity in which we use for gdp It comes in at three thousand five hundred and fifty six billion dollars However, stretching that out per capita. It does have a low per capita gdp coming in at eight thousand six hundred and twelve dollars however for that gdp We use the international monetary fund and because of that morocco sits at 56th in the world and to break this down even further Let's take a quick look at some of the exports now exports come in at a total of 27.5 Billion ranking 60th in the world and about 12 of their exports are cars 9.9 is insulated wire And of course 7.6 is mixed and chemical fertilizers But for all these exports when it comes to the money that morocco makes the biggest sector is Agriculture. Oh, yeah This is because it employs about 40 percent of the entire workforce of the entire country And some of the biggest things that the agriculture produces are tomatoes which are one of the biggest agricultural earner of all countries in the world as a matter of fact in 2016 morocco had an average 5 000 hectares of tomato farms while producing approximately 556 000 tons a year and if you were to take every single person that works for the tomato industry and combine them together All the accumulated work days would equal 9 million work days a year That's nuts on top of that morocco is also well known for fish And it's also been said that morocco has the largest fish market in all of africa And as for that it accounts for three percent of the total gdp of morocco and diving a little further It's been said that it makes up for 56 percent of the agriculture and 16 percent of exports. However, that's just been said i'm, not sure exactly what year that was stated and Yeah, so either way fishing is quite a lot But however for an exact amount in 2005 they produced approximately 936 961 tons of fish and because of that they rank about 24th in the world when it comes to fish production But however, one of the biggest things that we got to talk about when it comes to morocco is cannabis they are Extraordinarily famous for it or infamous depending on how you want to look at it as a matter of fact several times in history Morocco has been the top exporter of hashish in the world and even held that title as the number one in 2016 crazy part is is they produce a lot. It's actually illegal to smoke it within the country Don't ask me how that works The reason for this is because it's pretty much a giant gray zone of growing and producing it as for taking drugs It is illegal But there is a major push to have it legalized especially for medical uses and to give you an idea of how much these guys Produce on a global scale in 2003. They produced 70 of all of europe's needs for well I guess hashish or marijuana or whatever you want to call it cannabis Now although morocco may be a kingdom having a king. It is actually a parliamentary system And it is classified as a unitary sovereign state and the country has been somewhat of a unique nation in history For example, it got its statehood in 788 Under the idrisid dynasty and throughout history The country has seen seven different dynasties with the current one being the alouette dynasty, which began in 1666 Now one thing that many people may think about this country is that casablanca is the capital of the country Partially due to the fact that probably people think that like, you know, the movie casablanca It's got to be the center of morocco But that's actually not true because although casablanca may be the largest city within morocco with a metro population of 6 million 861 739 people as of 2014 Casablanca is considered one of the largest and most important cities in all of africa As it is considered a major player for trade But as for the capital that's got to go to rabat Which has a metro population of 1.2 million people and although it's smaller. It should be noted that in 2013 cnn rated it as the second top cities to travel to in the entire world and although morocco got its independence in 1955 the city of rabat remained capital and it is also considered one of four imperial cities in morocco And because of that it's been a world heritage site since 2012 now a little bit of a culture shock Did you know in morocco? Apparently it's a no-go It's not really nice to do this if you handle food with your left hand Which really sucks because i'm left-hand dominant and uh, I mean I do things with my right but like i'll eat an apple with it I'll use a spoon and fork and I may get in trouble there And also it's rather rude to not eat meat if it's offered at meals So for all you vegans out there just saying you better be careful, you know You might just piss somebody off if somebody says hey, you want some chicken and you go? No, i'm sorry I don't eat chicken. They may go What well, this is tradition Sorry, it's the way it is. You gotta eat it Oh, and by the way, it's also really impolite to call somebody over with your index finger Don't ever do that in morocco because they will get really mad I mean, I don't think calling somebody over like this unless it's kind of cute like hey you come on over here, you know Yeah, you you come on. Come on. We're gonna go make out in that corner Yeah now one last thing that I really want to mention when it comes to morocco is that their energy is Really a good thing for the country Now, of course when I tell you guys that most of morocco's energy currently is provided by coal Some of you guys may be like, oh, that's so bad for the environment But they're actually trying to change that because currently the country has a plan to go with a lot of green and renewable energy And firstly the terra fire wind farm is the largest wind farm in all of the african continent with 131 wind turbines producing 301 megawatts of energy and it's not going to stop there guys because the country has a goal To get half of its energy use to being provided by renewable energy sources. That was really hard to say I don't know why this is because some of their plans is to have wind farms create over 2000 megawatts of energy And as for solar in 2014 the country approved the building of the newer concentrated solar power project Which is actually near completion and is set to be the world's largest concentrated solar power plant That's amazing. And when it is completed it is estimated to give over 560 megawatts of energy and that's just one simple plant. That's pretty amazing but either way guys that is just a quick overview of some of the amazing things that morocco is doing to better itself as a Country and some of the interesting things that the country already has going for it But my name is dave wapel and thank you guys for tuning in and really learning about morocco guys I love when we get an opportunity to talk about great countries and you guys from other countries around the world like to jump In and get in on the conversation and get in on the notes Speaking of which guys for our part twos Remember hit those like buttons if you guys want a part two because if we go over 3 000 likes we will do a part two And if you guys know any facts that we missed put them down there or if you guys want hit me up on instagram I'm always reading your comments. I'm always down to have a dm conversation with you guys But we learned today about the country of morocco an amazing place That is different from others and has its own breath its own life and its own unique path This is the country of morocco a people a place of progress joy and inner beauty So thanks for watching guys By the way Here's some other countries that you guys should check out in some other videos that you guys might like from us Because we're always learning we're always teaching and we're always learning with you guys So hit that subscribe button and that battle notification and we'll see you guys in the next one. Cool. Bye