FACTBOX - Key facts about the Maldives

A demonstrator holds up an image of Maldives' President Mohamed Nasheed during a protest calling for the release of the Criminal Court Chief Justice Abdulla Mohamed, in Male January 29, 2012.

MALE (Reuters) - Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed resigned on Tuesday after three weeks of opposition-led protests boiled over into a police mutiny.

Following are key facts about the country.

GEOGRAPHY: The Maldives is a group of 1,192 islands scattered across 500 miles of the Indian Ocean off the southern tip of India.

POPULATION: The capital island is home to almost 200,000 of the Maldives' 330,000 people, all Sunni Muslims.

ETHNIC GROUPS: The archipelago's population stems from migrations of Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, Sinhalese and Arab people.

RELIGION: Opponents of President Mohamed Nasheed have adopted a hardline style of political Islam which has unnerved practitioners of traditionally moderate Maldivian Islam and Western governments alike.

LANGUAGE: Dhivehi (related to Sinhalese) is the official language, but English and Arabic are also spoken.

CAPITAL: Male

ECONOMY: The country is under a $92.5 million IMF loan programme, part of a plan to turn around perennial government deficits in the tourism- and fishing-dependent economy.

TOURISM: Most tourists are taken straight to their island hideaway by seaplane or speedboat, where they are free to drink alcohol and get luxurious spa treatments, insulated from the everyday Maldives, where alcohol is outlawed and skimpy beachwear frowned upon.

(Editing by Ron Popeski)