Demographics of Lebanon - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Demographics of Lebanon
Indicator	Rank	Measure
Economy
GDP (PPP) per capita	51^th	$15,557
Unemployment rate	↓ 21^st	8.89%*
CO₂ emissions	78^th	3.05t Tonne The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI... ^†
Electricity consumption	77^nd	49.72GWh Watt-hour The kilowatt hour, or kilowatt-hour, is a unit of energy equal to 1000 watt hours or 3.6 megajoules.For constant power, energy in watt hours is the product of power in watts and time in hours...
Economic Freedom Index of Economic Freedom The Index of Economic Freedom is a series of 10 economic measurements created by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. Its stated objective is to measure the degree of economic freedom in the world's nations....	95^th	2.98
Politics
Human Development Index	68^rd	0.803
Political freedom Freedom in the World 2006 Freedom in the World is a yearly survey and report by U.S.-based Freedom House that attempts to measure the degree of democracy and political freedom in every nation and significant disputed territories around the world.-Origin and use:...	Unknown	4
Corruption (A higher score means less (perceived) corruption.) Corruption Perceptions Index Since 1995, Transparency International publishes the Corruption Perceptions Index annually ranking countries "by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as "the misuse of public power for private...	↓ 43^rd	5.1
Press freedom	45^th	74.00
Society
Literacy Rate	43^th	96.7%
Number of Internet users	59^rd	2,604,000 users
E-readiness E-readiness E-Readiness is the ability to use information and communication technologies to develop one's economy and to foster one's welfare.There are several benchmarking indices at the macro level, e.g., those calculated by the UNPAN, World Bank, Economist Intelligence Unit etc.Because what appear on the...	14^th	7.16±
Ease of Doing Business Ease of Doing Business Index The Ease of Doing Business Index is an index created by the World Bank. Higher rankings indicate better, usually simpler, regulations for businesses and stronger protections of property rights...	24^th	Unknown
Health
Life Expectancy	59^th	77.0
Birth rate	113^th	15.6^‡
Fertility rate	157^th	1.77^††
Infant mortality	127^th	14.39^‡‡
Death rate	157^st	7.5^‡
HIV/AIDS rate	127^st	0.10%
Quality-of-life Quality-of-life index The Economist Intelligence Unit’s quality-of-life index is based on a unique methodology that links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys to the objective determinants of quality of life across countries...	31^th	6.808±
Notes
* including several non-sovereign entities ↓ indicates rank is in reverse order (e.g. 1^st is lowest) ^† per capita ^± score out of 10 ^‡ per 1000 people ^†† per woman ^‡‡ per 1000 live births

This article is about the demographic

Demographics

Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...

features of the population

Population

A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

of Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

, including population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

, ethnicity

Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Identifying all Lebanese as ethnically Arab is a widely employed example of panethnicity

Panethnicity

Panethnicity is the grouping together, and collective labeling, of various independently distinguishable, self-identified and self-sustained ethnicities into one all-encompassing group of people.Often labels of panethnicity group together people of different nationalities and/or ethnicities that...

since in reality, the Lebanese “are descended from many different peoples who have occupied, invaded, or settled this corner of the world,” making Lebanon, “a mosaic of closely interrelated cultures”. While at first glance, this ethnic, linguistic, religious and denominational diversity might seem to cause civil and political unrest, “for much of Lebanon’s history this multitudinous diversity of religious communities has coexisted with little conflict”. About 91% of the population of Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

includes numerous Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

and Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

sects. Because the matter of religious balance is a sensitive political issue, a national census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

has not been conducted since 1932, before the founding of the modern Lebanese state. Consequently there is an absence of accurate data on the relative percentages of the population of the major religions and groups.

The Lebanese

Ethnic background is an important factor in Lebanon. The country encompasses a great mix of cultural, religious, and ethnic groups which have been building up for more than 6,000 years. Although most of the population is today considered Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

, in the sense that Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

is the national language, the ethnic self-designations vary. Whereas the Arabs first reached Lebanon in the 3rd century AD when the Ghassanids

Ghassanids

The Ghassanids were a group of South Arabian Christian tribes that emigrated in the early 3rd century from Yemen to Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and the Holy Land....

(mostly Christian Arabs) migrated north, the majority of the Maronite

Maronites

Maronites , is an ethnoreligious group in the Middle East that have been historically tied with Lebanon. They derive their name from the Syriac saint Mar Maron whose followers moved to Mount Lebanon from northern Syria establishing the Maronite Church....

population is non-Arab in terms of ancestry. The predominant cultural backgrounds and ancestry of the Lebanese vary from Aramaean (Ancient Syria) to Canaanite (Phoenician), and Greek (Byzantine). Lebanese are overall genetically similar to the other modern Levant

Levant

The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...

ine populations, such as the Syrians

Demographics of Syria

Syrians today are an overall indigenous Levantine people. While modern-day Syrians are commonly described as Arabs by virtue of their modern-day language and bonds to Arab culture and history...

and the Palestinians. The question of ethnic identity has come to revolve more around aspects of cultural self-identification more than descent. Religious affiliation has also become a substitute in some respects for ethnic affiliation.
Generally it can be said that all religious sects comprise many different ethnic backgrounds, and that clear ethnic boundaries are difficult to define. Still, religious and ethnic distinctions sometimes coincide, since religious sects have tended to marry within the group, thus preserving not only religious but ethnic characteristics.

The Maronite Christians, are a part of the Syriac people

Syriac Christianity

Syriac or Syrian Christianity , the Syriac-speaking Christians of Mesopotamia, comprises multiple Christian traditions of Eastern Christianity. With a history going back to the 1st Century AD, in modern times it is represented by denominations primarily in the Middle East and in Kerala, India....

and belongs to the West Syriac Rite

West Syrian Rite

The West Syrian Rite, also known as the Syrian Rite or the Syro-Antiochene Rite, is a Christian liturgical rite chiefly practiced in the Syriac Orthodox Church and churches related to or descended from it. It is part of the liturgical family known as the Antiochene Rite, which originated in the...

. Their Liturgical language is the Syriac

Syriac language

Syriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Having first appeared as a script in the 1st century AD after being spoken as an unwritten language for five centuries, Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from...

-Aramaic language

Aramaic language

Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...

.

Melkite

Melkite

The term Melkite, also written Melchite, refers to various Byzantine Rite Christian churches and their members originating in the Middle East. The word comes from the Syriac word malkāyā , and the Arabic word Malakī...

Greek Catholics, the Greek Orthodox, tend to focus more on the Greek heritage of the region from the days of the Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

, and the fact that Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

was maintained as a liturgical language until very recently. Some Christians even claim partial descent from Crusader

Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

knights who ruled Lebanon for a couple of centuries during the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, also backed by recent genetic studies which found many Lebanese Christians, especially North of the country. This identification with non-Arab civilizations also exists in other religious communities, albeit not to the same extent.

Palestinian refugees

402,582 descendants of Palestinian refugee

Palestinian refugee

Palestinian refugees or Palestine refugees are the people and their descendants, predominantly Palestinian Arabic-speakers, who fled or were expelled from their homes during and after the 1948 Palestine War, within that part of the British Mandate of Palestine, that after that war became the...

s were registered in Lebanon with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in March 2005, almost all refugees or descendants of refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War

1948 Arab-Israeli War

The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...

. Some of these may have emigrated during the civil war

Lebanese Civil War

The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...

, but there are no reliable figures available. There are also a number of Palestinians who are not registered as UNRWA refugees, because they left earlier than 1948 or were not in need of material assistance. The exact number of Palestinians remain a subject of great dispute and the Lebanese government will not provide an estimate. A figure of 400,000 Palestinian refugees would mean that Palestinians constitute more than 10% of the resident population of Lebanon.

Palestinians living in Lebanon are considered foreigners and are under the same restrictions on employment applied to other foreigners. Prior to 2010 they were under even more restrictive employment rules which permitted, other than work for the U.N., only the most menial employment. They are not allowed to attend public schools, own property, or make an enforceable will.

Palestinian refugees, who constitute nearly a tenth of the country’s population, have long been denied basic rights in Lebanon. They are not allowed to attend public schools, own property or pass on inheritances, measures Lebanon says it has adopted to preserve their right to return to their property in what constitutes Israel now.

Their presence is controversial, and resisted by large segments of the Christian population, who argue that the primarily Sunni Muslim Palestinian

Palestinian people

The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...

s dilute Christian numbers. Many Shi'a Muslims also look unfavorably upon the Palestinian presence since the camps have tended to be concentrated in their home areas. The Lebanese Sunnis, however, would be happy to see these Palestinians given the Lebanese nationality

Lebanese nationality law

The Lebanese nationality is transmitted by paternity . However, this gives the right to Lebanese to transmit citizenship to their children and foreign wives.-Citizenship Law Number 15:...

, thus increasing the Lebanese Sunni population by well over 10% and tipping the fragile electoral balance much in favor of the Sunnis. Late Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri—himself a Sunni—had hinted on more than one occasion on the inevitability of granting these refugees Lebanese citizenship

Lebanese nationality law

The Lebanese nationality is transmitted by paternity . However, this gives the right to Lebanese to transmit citizenship to their children and foreign wives.-Citizenship Law Number 15:...

. Thus far the refugees are denied citizenship

Lebanese nationality law

The Lebanese nationality is transmitted by paternity . However, this gives the right to Lebanese to transmit citizenship to their children and foreign wives.-Citizenship Law Number 15:...

as well as many rights enjoyed by the rest of the population, and are confined to severely overcrowded refugee camp

Refugee camp

A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people may live in any one single camp. Usually they are built and run by a government, the United Nations, or international organizations, or NGOs.Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu...

s, in which construction rights are severely constricted.

Palestinians may not work in a large number of professions, such as lawyers and doctors. However, after negotiations between Lebanese authorities and ministers from the Palestinian National Authority

Palestinian National Authority

The Palestinian Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip...

some professions for Palestinians were allowed (such as taxi driver and construction worker). The material situation of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon is difficult, and they are believed to constitute the poorest community in Lebanon, as well as the poorest Palestinian community with the possible exception of Gaza

Gaza

Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...

refugees. Their primary sources of income are UNRWA aid and menial labor sought in competition with Syrian guest workers.

The Palestinians are almost totally Sunni Muslim, though at some point Christians counted as high as 40% with Muslims at 60%. The numbers of Palestinian Christians has diminished in later years, as many have managed to leave Lebanon. During the Lebanese Civil War

Lebanese Civil War

, Palestinian Christians sided with the rest of the Palestinian community, instead of allying with Lebanese Greek Orthodox or other Christian communities.

60,000 Palestinians have received Lebanese citizenship

Lebanese nationality law

The Lebanese nationality is transmitted by paternity . However, this gives the right to Lebanese to transmit citizenship to their children and foreign wives.-Citizenship Law Number 15:...

, including most Christian Palestinians.

Other immigrants and ethnic groups

There are substantial numbers of immigrants from other Arab countries

Arab world

The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...

and non-Arab-speaking Muslim countries. Also, recent years have seen an influx of people from Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

and South East Asian countries such as Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, Malaysia, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

, as well as smaller numbers of other immigrant minorities, Colombians

Arab diaspora in Colombia

The Arab diaspora in Colombia refers to the Arab immigrants and their offspring in the Republic of Colombia. Most of the Middle Easterners came from Syria, Lebanon and Palestine escaping from the repression of the Ottoman Empire and financial hardships...

and Brazilians

Lebanese Brazilian

A Lebanese Brazilian is a Brazilian person of full, partial, or predominantly Lebanese ancestry, or a Lebanese-born person immigrant in Brazil....

(of Lebanese descent themselves). Most of these are employed as guest workers in the same fashion as Syrians and Palestinians, and entered the country to search for employment in the post-war reconstruction of Lebanon. Apart from the Palestinians, there are approximately 180,000 stateless persons in Lebanon.

Lebanese Armenians, Jews, Persians form more distinct ethnic minorities, all of them in possession of a separate languages and a national home area outside of Lebanon. However, they total 5% of the population.

Due to the US-led invasion of Iraq, Lebanon has received a mass influx of Iraqi refugees numbering at around 100,000. The vast majority of them are undocumented

Illegal immigration

Illegal immigration is the migration into a nation in violation of the immigration laws of that jurisdiction. Illegal immigration raises many political, economical and social issues and has become a source of major controversy in developed countries and the more successful developing countries.In...

, with a large number having been deported or put in prison.

There are an estimated 40,000 Asyrians (Syriac Christians) in Lebanon (estimate do not inclued the member of the Maronite Syriac Church). They belong to various Syriac denominations, including the Assyrian Church of the East

Assyrian Church of the East

The Assyrian Church of the East, officially the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East ʻIttā Qaddishtā w-Shlikhāitā Qattoliqi d-Madnĕkhā d-Āturāyē), is a Syriac Church historically centered in Mesopotamia. It is one of the churches that claim continuity with the historical...

, Syriac Orthodox Church

Syriac Orthodox Church

The Syriac Orthodox Church; is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Eastern Mediterranean, with members spread throughout the world. The Syriac Orthodox Church claims to derive its origin from one of the first Christian communities, established in Antioch by the Apostle St....

, the Syriac Catholic Church

Syriac Catholic Church

The Syriac Catholic Church is a Christian church in the Levant having practices and rites in common with the Syriac Orthodox Church. They are one of the Eastern Catholic Churches following the Antiochene rite, the Syriac tradition of Antioch, along with the Maronites and Syro-Malankara Christians...

, and the Chaldean Catholic Church

Chaldean Catholic Church

The Chaldean Catholic Church , is an Eastern Syriac particular church of the Catholic Church, maintaining full communion with the Bishop of Rome and the rest of the Catholic Church...

.

There are about 200,000 Mardalli Arabs in Lebanon, i.e. Arabs originating from the Mardin

Mardin

Mardin is a city in southeastern Turkey. The capital of Mardin Province, it is known for its Arabic-like architecture, and for its strategic location on a rocky mountain overlooking the plains of northern Syria.-History:...

province in Turkey, most of them live in Beirut. The Mardallis are often falsely referred to as Kurds by the Lebanese people because of the lack of knowledge about their background by the Lebanese people and since they originate from an area that have a big Kurdish population today.

During European colonialism, there was a fairly large French minority. Most of the French settlers left after Lebanese independence in 1943. Their most important colonial influence is the frequent use of French language

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

The sectarian system

Lebanon's religious

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

divisions are extremely complicated, and the country is made up by a multitude of religious groupings. The ecclesiastical and demographic patterns of the sects are complex. Divisions and rivalries between groups date back as far as 15 centuries, and still are a factor today. The pattern of settlement has changed little since the 7th century, but instances of civil strife and ethnic cleansing

Ethnic cleansing

Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....

, most recently during the Lebanese Civil War

Lebanese Civil War

, has brought some important changes to the religious map of the country. (See also History of Lebanon

History of Lebanon

This article deals with the history of Lebanon, and the nations previously occupying its territory.-Phoenicia:The coastal plain of Lebanon is the historic home of a string of coastal trading cities of Semitic culture, which the Greeks termed Phoenicia, whose maritime culture flourished there for...

.)

Lebanon has by far the largest proportion of Christians

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

of any Arab country

Arab world

, but both Christians and Muslims

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

are sub-divided into many splinter sects. All population statistics are by necessity controversial, and all sects have a vested interest in inflating their own numbers. Sunnis, Shi'as and Maronites (the three largest sects) all often claim that their particular religious affiliation holds a majority in the country, adding up to over 150% of the total population, even before counting the other sects. One of the rare things that most Lebanese religious leaders will agree on is to avoid a new general census

Census

, for fear that it could trigger a new round of sectarian conflict. The last official census was performed in 1932.

Religion has traditionally been of overriding importance in defining the Lebanese population. Dividing state power between the religious sects, and granting religious authorities judicial power, dates back to Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

times (the millet

Millet (Ottoman Empire)

Millet is a term for the confessional communities in the Ottoman Empire. It refers to the separate legal courts pertaining to "personal law" under which communities were allowed to rule themselves under their own system...

system). The practice was re-inforced during French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

mandate, when Christian groups were granted privileges. This system of government, while partly intended as a compromise between sectarian demands, has caused tensions that still dominate Lebanese politics to this day.

The Christian population majority is believed to have ended in the early 1930s, but government leaders would agree to no change in the political power balance. This led to Muslim demands of increased representation, and the constant sectarian tension slid into violent conflict in 1958 (prompting U.S. intervention

Lebanon crisis of 1958

The 1958 Lebanon crisis was a Lebanese political crisis caused by political and religious tensions in the country. It included a U.S. military intervention.-Background:...

) and again in the grueling Lebanese Civil War

Lebanese Civil War

, in 1975–90.

The balance of power has been slightly adjusted in the 1943 National Pact

National Pact

The National Pact is an unwritten agreement that laid the foundation of Lebanon as a multi-confessional state, and has shaped the country to this day. Following negotiations between the Shi'ite, Sunni, and Maronite leaderships, the National Pact was born in the summer of 1943 allowing Lebanon to...

, an informal agreement struck at independence

Independence

Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....

, in which positions of power were divided according to the 1932 census. The Sunni elite was then accorded more power, but Maronites continued to dominate the system. The sectarian balance was again adjusted towards the Muslim side but simultaneously further reinforced and legitimized. Shi'a Muslims (by now the largest sect) then gained additional representation in the state apparatus, and the obligatory Christian-Muslim representation in Parliament was downgraded from a 6:5 to a 1:1 ratio. Christians of various sects were then generally thought to constitute about 40% of the population, although often Muslim leaders would cite lower numbers, and some Christians would claim that they still held a majority of the population.

The 18 recognized sects

The present Lebanese Constitution

Constitution of Lebanon

The Constitution of Lebanon was adopted on 23 May 1926.The most recent amendment of the Constitution was for the Charter of Lebanese National Reconciliation , in October, 1989....

officially acknowledges 18 religious groups (see below). These have the right to handle family law

Family law

Family law is an area of the law that deals with family-related issues and domestic relations including:*the nature of marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships;...

according to their own courts and traditions, and they are the basic players in Lebanon's complex sectarian politics. Still, it is important to note that these groups are not internally homogeneous; for example, the Maronite, Shi'a and Druze communities have been wracked by internal fighting even in recent times.

Alawite
Alawite
The Alawis, also known as Alawites, Nusayris and Ansaris are a prominent mystical and syncretic religious group centred in Syria who are a branch of Shia Islam.-Etymology:...
Armenian Catholic
Armenian Orthodox
Assyrian Church of the East
Assyrian Church of the East
The Assyrian Church of the East, officially the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East ʻIttā Qaddishtā w-Shlikhāitā Qattoliqi d-Madnĕkhā d-Āturāyē), is a Syriac Church historically centered in Mesopotamia. It is one of the churches that claim continuity with the historical...
Chaldean Catholic
Chaldean Catholic Church
The Chaldean Catholic Church , is an Eastern Syriac particular church of the Catholic Church, maintaining full communion with the Bishop of Rome and the rest of the Catholic Church...
Copt
Copt
The Copts are the native Egyptian Christians , a major ethnoreligious group in Egypt....

s
Druze
Druze
The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...
Greek Catholic
Greek Orthodox
Isma'ili
Jewish
Maronite
Protestant
Roman Catholic
Sunni
Shi'a
Shi'a Islam in Lebanon
Shi'a Islam constitutes between 40% to 47% of Lebanon's population, forming the fastest growing population in Lebanon. Most of its adherents live in the northern and western area of the Beqaa Valley, southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs...
Syriac Catholic
Syriac Orthodox

Religious population statistics

Note: stateless Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...

s and Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

ns are not included in the statistics below since they do not hold Lebanese citizenship
Lebanese nationality law
The Lebanese nationality is transmitted by paternity . However, this gives the right to Lebanese to transmit citizenship to their children and foreign wives.-Citizenship Law Number 15:...

. The numbers only include the present population of Lebanon, and not the Lebanese diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...

.

The 1932 census stated that Christians

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

made up 54% of the population. Maronites

Maronites

, largest among the Christian sects and then largely in control of the state apparatus, accounted for 29% of the total resident population. But since the 19th century, Muslim

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

birth rates have been continually higher than Christian birth rates. Also, far larger numbers of Christians emigrated from Lebanon than Muslims. According to recent statistics by the CIA Factbook, 59.7% of the Lebanese population are Muslims, while 40% are Christians.

Christians

Today, it is estimated that the Christian population makes up about 39% to 43% of the total population.

The Maronites are the largest of the Christian groups. They have had a long and continuous association with the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

, but have their own patriarch, liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

, and customs. Traditionally they had good relations with the Western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

, especially France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

and the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

. They traditionally dominated the Lebanese government, and the President of Lebanon is always a Maronite. Their influence in later years has diminished, because of their relative decrease in numbers but also due to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, which generally benefited Muslim communities, and was resisted by most Maronites. Today the Maronites are believed to compose about 21% of the population, scattered around the Lebanese countryside but with heavy concentrations on Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon , as a geographic designation, is a Lebanese mountain range, averaging above 2,200 meters in height and receiving a substantial amount of precipitation, including snow, which averages around four meters deep. It extends across the whole country along about , parallel to the...

and in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

.
The second largest Christian group is the Greek Orthodox. The church exists in many parts of the Arab world and Greek Orthodox Christians have often been noted for pan-Arab or pan-Syrian
Greater Syria
Greater Syria , also known simply as Syria, is a term that denotes a region in the Near East bordering the Eastern Mediterranean Sea or the Levant....

leanings; it has had less dealings with Western countries than the Maronites. They are believed to constitute about 8% of the total population, including the Palestinian Greek Orthodox community, much of whom have been given Lebanese citizen.
The remaining Christian churches are thought to constitute another 8% of the population (Greek Catholics or Melkites, Armenian Apostolic, Armenian Catholic, Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Assyrians, Protestants) with no single group over 4% of the total population. Please refer to their articles in the list above, for more information.

For the Roman Catholics see Roman Catholicism in Lebanon
Roman Catholicism in Lebanon
The Roman Catholic Church in Lebanon is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome....

.

Muslims

Today, there is consensus that Muslims constitute a solid majority of the population.
According to the CIA World Factbook The Muslim population is estimated at 59.7% (Shia, Sunni, Druze, Isma'ilite, Alawite or Nusayri).
Sectarian Breakdown:

Shi'a Muslims are around 28% of the total population. Shias are the only sect eligible for the post of Speaker of Parliament. The Shiites are concentrated their two traditional heartlands in the northern half of the Beqaa
Beqaa
Beqaa can refer to two places in Lebanon:* Beqaa Governorate* Beqaa Valley...

and Jabal Amel
Jabal Amel
Jabal Amel or Amil is a mountainous region of Southern Lebanon.The region is named after the Banu 'Amilah, a Yemenite tribe who, along with the kindred tribes of Hamadan, Lakhm, and Judham, settled in Syria, Palestine, parts of Jordan, and Lebanon. The area was known in ancient times as Jabal...

, the region east of Tyre
Tyre
Tyre is a city in the South Governorate of Lebanon. There were approximately 117,000 inhabitants in 2003, however, the government of Lebanon has released only rough estimates of population numbers since 1932, so an accurate statistical accounting is not possible...

and in the southern suburbs of Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

and Lebanon.
Sunni Muslims constitute also about 28% of the total population. Sunni notables traditionally held power in the Lebanese state together, and they are still the only sect eligible for the post of Prime Minister Sunnis are concentrated in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

, Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...

, Sidon
Sidon
Sidon or Saïda is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km north of Tyre and 40 km south of the capital Beirut. In Genesis, Sidon is the son of Canaan the grandson of Noah...

and in the countryside of the Akkar and the central Beqaa
Beqaa
Beqaa can refer to two places in Lebanon:* Beqaa Governorate* Beqaa Valley...

.
The Druze
Druze
The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...

constitute 5% of the population (however, most Druze do not consider themselves as an Islamic sect but rather as a separate religion).
Other Muslim sects have a small presence, with the Isma'ilis and Alawite
Alawite
The Alawis, also known as Alawites, Nusayris and Ansaris are a prominent mystical and syncretic religious group centred in Syria who are a branch of Shia Islam.-Etymology:...

s combined comprising less than 1% of the population.

Other religions

Other religions account for only an estimated 1.3% of the population, according to the CIA Factbook. There remains a very small Jewish

History of the Jews in Lebanon

The history of the Jews in Lebanon deals with the presence of Jews in Lebanon, which stretches back to Biblical times.-Jews in Lebanon today:Lebanese Jews are traditionally a Mizrahi community living mostly in and around Beirut...

population, traditionally centered in Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

. It has been larger: most Jews left the country after the Lebanese Civil War

Lebanese Civil War

(1975–1990).

The Lebanese diaspora

Apart from the three and a half million citizens of Lebanon proper, there is a sizeable Lebanese diaspora

Diaspora

A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...

. No accurate numbers are available, so estimates on the total size of the diaspora vary wildly, from conservative estimates of 4–5 million to a maximum, and probably inflated, figure of 15 million. Most Lebanese emigrants and their descendants are Christian; however, there are some who are Muslim. Lebanese Christian families are economically and politically prominent in several Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

n countries (in 2007 Mexican Carlos Slim Helú

Carlos Slim Helú

Carlos Slim Helú is a Mexican business magnate and philanthropist who as of 2011 is the richest person in the world, for the second year in a row...

, son of Lebanese immigrants, was determined to be the wealthiest man in the World by Fortune Magazine), and make up a substantial portion of the Lebanese American community in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The largest Lebanese diaspora is located in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, where about 6–7 million people have Lebanese descent (see Lebanese Brazilian

Lebanese Brazilian

A Lebanese Brazilian is a Brazilian person of full, partial, or predominantly Lebanese ancestry, or a Lebanese-born person immigrant in Brazil....

).

The large size of Lebanon's diaspora may be partly explained by the historical and cultural tradition of sea-faring and traveling, which stretches back to Lebanon's ancient Phoenicia

Phoenicia

Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...

n origins and its role as a "gateway" of relations between Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

and the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

. It has been commonplace for Lebanese citizens to emigrate in search of economic prosperity. Furthermore, on several occasions in the last two centuries the Lebanese population has endured periods of ethnic cleansing

Ethnic cleansing

and displacement (for example, 1840–60 and 1975–90). These factors have contributed to the geographical mobility of the Lebanese people.

While under Syrian occupation, Beirut passed legislation which prevented second-generation Lebanese of the diaspora from automatically obtaining Lebanese citizenship

Lebanese nationality law

The Lebanese nationality is transmitted by paternity . However, this gives the right to Lebanese to transmit citizenship to their children and foreign wives.-Citizenship Law Number 15:...

. This has reinforced the émigré status of many diaspora Lebanese. There is currently a campaign by those Lebanese of the diaspora who already have Lebanese citizenship

Lebanese nationality law

The Lebanese nationality is transmitted by paternity . However, this gives the right to Lebanese to transmit citizenship to their children and foreign wives.-Citizenship Law Number 15:...

to attain the vote from abroad, which has been successfully passed in the Lebanese parliament and will be effective as of 2013 which is the next parliamentary elections. If suffrage was to be extended to these 1.2 million Lebanese émigré citizens, it would have a significant political effect, since as many as 90% of them are believed to be Christian.

Lebanese Civil War refugees and displaced persons

With no official figures available, it is estimated that 600,000–900,000 persons fled the country during the Lebanese Civil War

Lebanese Civil War

(1975–90). Although some have since returned, this permanently disturbed Lebanese population growth and greatly complicated demographic statistics.

Another result of the war was a large number of internally displaced person

Internally displaced person

An internally displaced person is someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the current legal definition of a refugee. At the end of 2006 it was estimated there were...

s. This especially affected the southern Shi'a community, as Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i invasion of southern Lebanon in 1978

Operation Litani

The 1978 South Lebanon conflict was an invasion in Lebanon up to the Litani River carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in 1978. It was a military success for the Israeli Defense Forces, as PLO forces were pushed north of the river...

, 1982

1982 Lebanon War

The 1982 Lebanon War , , called Operation Peace for Galilee by Israel, and later known in Israel as the Lebanon War and First Lebanon War, began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon...

and 1996 prompted waves of mass emigration, in addition to the continual strain of occupation and fighting

Israeli Security Zone

The Israeli Security Zone in southern Lebanon was a strip of territory of varying width, , from the Israeli border and the Golan Heights, occupied by Israeli forces from 1985 to 2000. Additional regions controlled by the South Lebanon Army are sometimes included under the term...

between Israel and Hizbullah (mainly 1982 to 2000).

Many Shi'a resettled in hastily constructed slum suburbs south of Beirut, the so-called "belt of misery". After the war, the pace of Christian emigration accelerated, as many Christians felt discriminated against in a Lebanon under increasingly oppressive Syrian occupation.

Languages in Lebanon

Commonly spoken languages in Lebanon include Lebanese/Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

(official), French

French language

(official), Syriac official language of Lebanese Christian Maronite church, English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, and Armenian

Armenian language

The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...

, Greek is the liturgical language of Greek Christians.
Kurdish and Coptic are minority languages Mainly spoken between their respective populations.

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

Population:

Total population: 4,143,101 (July 2011 est.)

Age structure:
0–14 years: 21.5% (male 487,930/female 464,678)
15–64 years: 68% (male 1,370,628/female 1,466,173)
65 years and over: 10.5% (male 173,073/female 200,619) (2010 est.)

Median age:

Total: 29.34 years

Male: 27.28 years

Female: 31.43 years (2011 est.)

Population growth rate:

1.04% (2005 est.)

0.96% (2011 est.) according to CIA Factbook

Birth rate:

18.5 births/1,000 population (2011 est.)

Death rate:

6.46 deaths/1,000 population (2011 est.)

Net migration rate:

-4.43 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2011 est.)

Sex ratio:

at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female

total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2005 est.)

Infant mortality rate:

total: 14.4 deaths/1,000 live births

male: 14.52 deaths/1,000 live births

female: 16.28 deaths/1,000 live births (2010 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 76.82 years

male: 75.28 years

female: 78.36 years (2010 est.)

Total fertility rate:

2.02 children born/woman (2005 est.)

1.98 children born/woman (2011 est.)

Marginalized portions of society

According to a UNDP study, as much as 10% of the Lebanese had a disability

Disability

A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...

in 1990. Other studies have pointed to the fact that this portion of society is highly marginalized due to the lack of educational and governmental support of their advancement.

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