Map of Réunion

History

The island has been inhabited since the 17th century, when people from France and Madagascar settled there. Slavery was abolished on 20 December 1848 (a date celebrated yearly on the island), when the Second Republic that had been established months earlier by the February Revolution abolished slavery in the French colonies. However, indentured workers continued to be brought to Réunion from South India, among other places. The island became an overseas department of France in 1946.

مغربي Daniyah/ Maghribīy). The island is possibly featured on a map from 1153 AD by Al Sharif el-Edrisi. The island might also have been visited by Swahili or Austronesian (ancient Indonesian–Malaysian) sailors on their journey to the west from the Malay Archipelago to Madagascar.

Geography

The island is 63 km (39 mi) long; 45 km (28 mi) wide; and covers 2,512 km2 (970 mi2). It is above a hotspot in the Earth's crust. The Piton de la Fournaise, a shield volcano on the eastern end of Réunion, rises more than 2,631 m (8,632 ft) above sea level and is sometimes called a sister to Hawaiian volcanoes because of the similarity of climate and volcanic nature. It has erupted more than 100 times since 1640, and is under constant monitoring, most recently erupting on 13 February 2026. During another eruption in April 2007, the lava flow was estimated at 3,000,000 m3 (3,900,000 yd3) per day. The hotspot that fuels Piton de la Fournaise also created the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues.

Economy

In 2019, the GDP of Réunion at market exchange rates, not at PPP, was estimated at 19.5 billion euros (US$21.8 bn) and the GDP per capita (also at market exchange rates) was 22,629 euros (US$25,333), the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, but only 61.7% of metropolitan France's GDP per capita that year, and 73.5% of the metropolitan French regions outside the Paris Region.

Before the 2008 financial crisis, the economy of Réunion was in a process of catching up with the rest of France. From 1997 to 2007, the economy of Réunion grew by an average of +4.6% per year in real terms, and the GDP per capita rose from 53.7% of metropolitan France's level in 2000 to 61.6% of metropolitan France in 2007.

Demographics

At the 2022 census, 79.5% of the inhabitants of Réunion were born on the island, 13.4% were born in Metropolitan France, 2.0% were born in Mayotte, 0.3% were born in the rest of Overseas France, and 4.8% were born in foreign countries (44% of them children of French expatriates and settlers born in foreign countries, such as children of Réunionese settlers born in Madagascar during colonial times; the other 56% immigrants, i.e. people born in foreign countries with no French nationality at birth).