 Marutea has recently experienced a boom in population, with the opening of a new pearl farm.it is populated by ex Gambier Islanders looking for pearls and maintaining the pearl farms on the atoll.Marutea Sud should not be confused with Marutea Nord located in the western area of the Tuamotu Archipelago at 17˚ 07' S, 143˚ 11' W.

The first recorded European to sight this atoll was Spanish explorer Pedro Fernández de Quirós on 4 February 1606.