Skip to main content
CountryReports

People and Society

People and Society of Clipperton Island

Demographics, health, education, religion, and languages of Clipperton Island.

Demographic Profile

Ethnic composition, age structure, and growth.

Population
0

Health

Life expectancy, healthcare access, and key risk factors.

Life Expectancy at Birth
Clipperton Island is an uninhabited French possession located in the eastern Pacific Ocean, approximately 1,080 kilometers southwest of Mexico. Because the island has no permanent human population, conventional life expectancy statistics — which measure the average number of years a newborn can expect to live based on current mortality patterns within a resident population — do not apply here in any meaningful sense. No births are recorded on Clipperton Island, and no civilian residents live there. The island is occasionally visited by French naval personnel on patrol missions and by scientific researchers conducting ecological and geological surveys, but these visits are temporary and do not constitute a settled population. As a result, national and international health organizations such as the World Health Organization and institutions like the World Bank do not publish life expectancy figures for Clipperton Island. For context, the life expectancy at birth for metropolitan France, the administering country, stands at approximately 82 to 83 years overall, with women typically living several years longer than men — figures that reflect one of the higher life expectancies among developed nations. However, this data cannot be applied to Clipperton Island itself, which lacks the infrastructure, healthcare facilities, freshwater sources, and permanent settlement that would make such a statistic relevant or calculable. Clipperton Island's harsh environment — characterized by its remote atoll setting, extreme heat, limited fresh water, and historically severe conditions — made even temporary human habitation extremely difficult. A small garrison was stationed there briefly in the early twentieth century under difficult and ultimately tragic circumstances, underscoring the island's fundamental unsuitability for sustained human life. In summary, life expectancy at birth is not a calculable or reported metric for Clipperton Island due to the complete absence of a permanent population. Any demographic comparison must reference France as the governing authority rather than the territory itself.
Infant Mortality Rate
Clipperton Island is an uninhabited French territory located in the eastern Pacific Ocean, approximately 1,280 kilometers southwest of Mexico. Because the island has no permanent civilian population, no indigenous infant mortality rate exists for the territory, and it is entirely absent from global health databases and demographic reporting systems maintained by organizations such as the World Health Organization and UNICEF. The island functions primarily as an ecological reserve and has been used periodically by the French Navy for patrol and sovereignty maintenance purposes. Any personnel stationed there temporarily are drawn from metropolitan France or French overseas territories, but no births or infant deaths have been recorded on the island in modern history. As a result, there is no applicable infant mortality statistic to report. For contextual reference, France — the administering country — maintains one of the lower infant mortality rates among developed nations. France's infant mortality rate has consistently hovered around 3 to 4 deaths per 1,000 live births in recent years, reflecting the country's advanced healthcare infrastructure, universal health coverage, and strong maternal and child health programs. This figure is well below the global average, which the World Health Organization estimated at approximately 28 deaths per 1,000 live births in recent reporting periods. Since Clipperton Island generates no demographic data of its own and hosts no permanent residents, health indicators such as infant mortality, life expectancy, and fertility rate simply do not apply in any meaningful statistical sense. Any visitor or researcher seeking health-related data relevant to the island's administrative authority would need to reference French national health statistics rather than territory-specific figures.