Mauritania holds 4.7 million people as of 2023 across 1,030,700 square kilometers. The demographic structure divides into three principal categories: Arab-Berber populations termed Bidhan compose approximately 30 percent, Haratine formerly enslaved Black Africans and descendants constitute roughly 40 percent, and Sub-Saharan African groups including Wolof, Soninke, Fulani, and Bambara account for about 30 percent. Nouakchott grew from 20,000 inhabitants at independence in 1960 to approximately 1.2 million in 2023, becoming the sole urban center of scale. Arabic serves as the official language. Hassaniya Arabic, a dialect distinct to Mauritania and parts of Western Sahara, functions as the common tongue among Arab-Berber and Haratine populations. Pulaar, Soninke, and Wolof remain spoken along the Senegal River valley where most Sub-Saharan communities reside.
Nomadic pastoralism defined Mauritanian society until the 1970s. Severe droughts from 1968 to 1974 and again from 1982 to 1984 killed livestock at catastrophic rates and forced settled life upon populations that had moved with herds for centuries. By 1990, approximately 80 percent of the population lived sedentary or semi-sedentary lives compared to 10 percent in 1960. The traditional social hierarchy stratifies through occupational castes. Hassane warrior tribes historically held political authority. Zawaya clerical tribes specialized in Islamic scholarship and trade. Znaga tributaries performed craft work and servile labor. Haratine occupied the lowest social tier as enslaved agricultural and domestic workers. This hierarchy persists informally despite legal abolition.
Mauritania abolished slavery in 1981, becoming the last country globally to do so. The 1981 law contained no criminal penalties. Parliament criminalized slave ownership in 2007 with penalties reaching ten years imprisonment. A 2015 law increased maximum sentences to twenty years and designated slavery as a crime against humanity. The NGO Walk Free estimated in 2018 that between 90,000 and 140,000 people remained in slavery or slavery-like conditions, representing roughly 2 to 4 percent of the population. Enslaved persons work primarily in agriculture, herding, and domestic service. Descent-based slavery persists where children inherit enslaved status from mothers. The government prosecuted its first slave owner in 2011. Between 2007 and 2020, fewer than ten convictions occurred. The abolitionist organization IRA-Mauritania, founded in 2008 by Biram Dah Abeid, operates despite government harassment. Abeid received the UN Human Rights Prize in 2013 and imprisonment multiple times.
Ethnic tensions erupted violently in 1989. Disputes over grazing rights along the Senegal River between Mauritanian herders and Senegalese farmers escalated into riots. The Mauritanian government deported between 70,000 and 100,000 Afro-Mauritanians to Senegal and Mali. Security forces killed an estimated 500 to 600 Fulani and Soninke civilians in what became termed the 1989-1991 massacres. The government seized property and land from deportees. Repatriation began in 2008 but most displaced persons received no compensation. Arabic supplanted French as the mandatory education language in 1999, further marginalizing Sub-Saharan communities who primarily spoke Pulaar, Soninke, and Wolof.
The Ghana Empire, unrelated to modern Ghana, controlled southern Mauritania from approximately 300 CE to 1200 CE. Koumbi Saleh, located 320 kilometers southeast of Nouakchott, served as the Ghana Empire capital. Archaeological excavations begun in 1914 uncovered stone structures, iron implements, and evidence of gold trade. The Ghana Empire monopolized Saharan gold trade between West African sources and North African markets. Trans-Saharan caravans carried gold north and brought salt from Taoudenni mines, copper, dried fruit, and manufactured goods south. The Ghana Empire declined after Almoravid conquests in the 11th century and fractured into successor states.