Guide
Which local islands are busy, and which are still villages
From 1.06 tourist beds per resident down to 0.06 — the one figure that predicts how a week on a local island will feel.
3 min read · Figures checked 8 August 2026
Every island here is called a local island, and the label hides the thing that decides how a week feels: how many visitors the island can hold at once, measured against the people who live there.
The Ministry of Tourism publishes the licensed bed count for every registered guesthouse. Set that against the resident population and you get a number that no brochure prints — beds per resident.
Where visitors are most present
| Island | Beds | Residents | Beds per resident |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dhigurah | 808 | 761 | 1.06 |
| Fulidhoo | 362 | 400 | 0.91 |
| Fulhadhoo | 252 | 341 | 0.74 |
| Thinadhoo | 150 | 258 | 0.58 |
| Dhiffushi | 708 | 1,270 | 0.56 |
On Dhigurah there are more licensed tourist beds than residents. That does not make it a bad island — it makes it a busy one, with the restaurants, dive shops and excursion boats that follow from it.
Where the island stays a village
| Island | Beds | Residents | Beds per resident |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hithadhoo | 142 | 13,759 | 0.01 |
| Velidhoo | 50 | 1,832 | 0.03 |
| Mahibadhoo | 94 | 2,580 | 0.04 |
| Fuvahmulah | 414 | 9,177 | 0.05 |
| Hanimaadhoo | 152 | 2,664 | 0.06 |
At the bottom of the table you are one of very few visitors on an island that goes about its own business. Fewer places to eat, fewer boats, and nobody selling you anything.
How to read the number
It is a capacity figure, not an occupancy figure — it says how many visitors could be there, not how many are. In August and in January the difference matters; in the low season a busy island can feel empty.
The bed counts are the licensed capacity from the Ministry of Tourism register, checked 8 August 2026. Population figures come from the island records. Where either is missing, the island is not in the tables above rather than estimated into them.