|
 The
Iles de la Madeleine's MRC territory covers a dozen islands located
in the Gulf of St-Lawrence, 215 km from the Gaspé peninsula.
Eight of the islands are permanently inhabited, but only seven
of them are joined together by narrow sand dunes. The total area
(recognized earth surface) covers 202 square kilometres; if we
were to add the area covered by lagoons and sand surfaces, uncovered
or slightly submerged at low tides, we obtain a total area of
around 363 km2.
The Iles de la Madeleine's
MRC is composed of one municipality and eight villages with
a total of 13 991 inhabitants, and is outlined in the following
chart: From: Statistics Canada, 1991 Census
|
| VILLAGE |
POPULATION |
| Île
d'Entrée |
178 |
| Île
du Havre-Aubert |
2 103 |
| Étang-du-Nord |
2 944 |
| Fatima |
2 686 |
| Cap-aux-Meules |
1 659 |
| Havre-aux-Maisons |
2 057 |
| Grosse-Île |
543 |
| Grande-Entrée |
660 |
Source: Iles-de-la-Madeleine
Municipality.
|
The Iles de la Madeleine's
MRC is, for eastern Quebec, the area where demographic development
has been the highest over the last decades, even surpassing Quebec's
overall provincial rate between 1981 and 1986 (2.8% compared
to 1.5%). However, since the late '80's, population growth has
stagnated, caused by a drop in the birth rate and also due to
emigration. As well, municipalities located at either end of
the archipelago, Havre-Aubert and Grande-Entrée, have
been subject to a drop in population over the last few years
as local residents relocate to the central municipalities.
The population density is quite
high with about 70 inhabitants/km2, a density which is 15 times
higher than for the province of Quebec, and 10 times higher than
for the area.
|
Economy