This article is about the
demographicDemographics or demographic data are selected population characteristics as used in government, marketing or opinion research, or the demographic profiles used in such research...
features of the
populationIn biology, a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species; in sociology, a collection of human beings. Individuals within a population share a factor may be reduced by statistical means, but such a generalization may be too vague to imply anything...
of
LebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon
[Republic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies...]
, including
population densityPopulation density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans. It is a key term used in geography....
,
ethnicityAn ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed.Ethnic identity is further marked by the researcher Seng Yang in the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common cultural,...
, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
About 91% of the
population of LebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon
[Republic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies...]
is urban and comprises many different ethnic groups and religions, including numerous
ChristianChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
and
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
sects. Because the matter of religious balance is a sensitive political issue, a national
censusA "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.In other words every 10 years...next one would be in 2010 The term is used mostly in connection with...
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
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
, in the sense that
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
is the national language, the ethnic self-designations vary. The Arabs only reached Lebanon in the 7th century, and their culture was superimposed on an already diverse population. Lebanese are overall genetically similar to the Phoenicians, and the Canaanites, as well as other modern Levantine populations, such as
SyriansThis article is about the demographic features of the population of Syria, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population....
, Palestinians and Jordanians. 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
substituteSubstitute means to replace one thing with another.It may also refer to:-Sport:* a person who replaces an exiting competitor during the course of a game, generally for tactical reasons, or when a player becomes tired or injured...
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. Also, one could claim that over time many of the religious sects have evolved into ethnic communities in their own right; the
DruzeThe Druze are a religious community found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, whose traditional religion is said to have begun as an offshoot of Islam, but is unique in its incorporation of Gnostic, neo-Platonic and other philosophies, similar to other followers of Ismaili Shi'a...
are a prime example of this.
Many Lebanese, especially among Maronite Christians and in some cases the
DruzeThe Druze are a religious community found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, whose traditional religion is said to have begun as an offshoot of Islam, but is unique in its incorporation of Gnostic, neo-Platonic and other philosophies, similar to other followers of Ismaili Shi'a...
and some Muslims, see themselves as descendants of the
PhoeniciaPhoenicia what is now modern day Lebanon, was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and Palestine...
ns/
CanaanCanaan is an ancient term for a region encompassing modern-day Israel and Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Jordan, Syria and northeastern Egypt...
ites (recently supported by genetic studies, though it applies to Lebanese as a whole as well as some neighbouring populations) and tend to de-emphasize or deny Lebanon's Arab heritage.
MelkiteThe term Melkite is used to refer to various Christian churches and their members originating in the Middle East. The word comes from the Syriac word malkāyā , meaning "imperial"...
Greek Catholics, the Greek Orthodox, and some Maronites tend to focus more on the Greek heritage of the region from the days of the
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
, and the fact that
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
was maintained as a liturgical language until very recently. Some Christians even claim partial descent from
CrusaderThe Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between...
knights who ruled Lebanon for a couple of centuries during the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
, also backed by recent genetic studies. This identification with non-Arab civilizations also exists in other religious communities, albeit not to the same extent. Many Muslims, as well as some Greek Orthodox and rural
Roman Catholic ChristiansThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
, tend to simply consider themselves as Arabs.
Lebanese Armenians,
AssyriansThe Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people are an ethnic group whose origins lie in the Fertile Crescent, their homeland today being divided between Northern Iraq, Syria, Western...
,
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
s,
KurdsThe Kurds are an Ethnic-Iranian ethnolinguistic group mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
and Persians form more distinct ethnic minorities, all of them in possession of a separate languages and two of them, a national home area outside of Lebanon. However, they total less than 4% of the population.
Palestinian refugees
402,582
Palestinian refugeePalestinian refugees or Palestine refugees are the people and their descendants, predominantly Arabs, 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 territory of the State of...
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 WarThe 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known by Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation and by Palestinians as the Catastrophe , was the first in a series of wars fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict.The war...
. Some of these may have emigrated during the
civil warThe Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in the nation of Lebanon in the Middle East. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 130,000 to 250,000 civilian fatalities...
, 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.
Their presence is controversial, and resisted by large segments of the Christian population, who argue that the primarily Sunni Muslim
PalestinianThe Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with family origins in Palestine...
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, thus increasing the Lebanese Sunni polpulation 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 occassion on the inevitability of granting these refugees Lebanese citizenship. Thus far the refugees are denied
citizenshipCitizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, or national community.Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
as well as many rights enjoyed by the rest of the population, and are confined to severely overcrowded
refugee campA refugee camp is a temporary camp built to receive refugees. Hundreds of thousands or even millions of people may live in any one single camp...
s, in which construction rights are severely constricted. Palestinians can't work in a large number of professions, such as lawyers, doctors, etc. However, after negotiations between Lebanese authorities and ministers from the
Palestinian National AuthorityThe Palestinian National Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip....
some professions for Palestinians were allowed (taxi driver, construction worker, etc..). 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
GazaGaza is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 410,000, making it the largest city under the control of the Palestinian National Authority....
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 10% or more(primarily Greek Orthodox). The numbers of Palestinian Christians has diminished in later years, as many have managed to leave Lebanon. During the
Lebanese Civil WarThe Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in the nation of Lebanon in the Middle East. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 130,000 to 250,000 civilian fatalities...
, 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, including most Christian Palestinians.
See also Demographics of PalestineThe Demographics of Palestine refers to the demography, or the statistical study of the population of Palestine. Studies of the subject can cover a wide historical and geographical scope, with the definition of Palestine varying throughout the ages, and from scholar to scholar...
.
Syrian workers and the 1994 naturalization
Lebanon holds a large population of Syrian migrant workers whom were naturalized during Syrian rule which changed the demographic balance of the country significantly.
Other immigrants and ethnic groups
There are substantial numbers of immigrants from other
Arab countriesThe Arab World refers to Arabic-speaking countries stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast...
and non-Arab-speaking Muslim countries, such as
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
, and
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
. Also, recent years have seen an influx of people from
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
and South East Asian countries such as
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, the
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
,
MalaysiaMalaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
,
Sri LankaSri Lanka , officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka , is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India...
, as well as smaller numbers of other immigrant minorities,
MexicansAn Arab Mexican is a Mexican citizen that is Arab or is of Arab descent. Arab immigration to Mexico started as early as the 19th and 20th centuries. They came mostly from Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq and are present in significant numbers in Puebla...
and
BraziliansA 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, Assyrians, Jews, Persians and Kurds form more distinct ethnic minorities, all of them in possession of a separate languages and two of them, a national home area outside of Lebanon. However, they total less than 4% 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
undocumentedIllegal immigration is immigration across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country. Illegal immigrants are also known as illegal aliens to differentiate them from legal aliens...
, with a large number having been deported or put in prison.
There are an estimated 40,000 people of Assyrian descent in Lebanon . They belong to various Syriac denominations, including the
Assyrian Church of the Eaststyle="float: right;"|- |The Assyrian Church of the East known officially as the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East , in Persian القدس وابسته به پاپ کاتولیک آشوری...
,
Syriac Orthodox ChurchThe Syriac Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Middle East, with members spread throughout the world. It parted ways with Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism over the Council of Chalcedon in 451, which the Syriac Orthodox Church rejects. It is a major...
, the
Syriac Catholic ChurchThe Syriac Catholic Church, or Syrian 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...
, and the
Chaldean Catholic ChurchThe Chaldean Catholic Church or the Chaldean Church of Babylon The Chaldean Catholic Church or the Chaldean Church of Babylon The Chaldean Catholic Church or the Chaldean Church of Babylon ( ,Syriac ܥܕܬܐ ܟܠܕܝܬܐ ܩܬܘܠܝܩܝܬܐ is an Eastern particular church of the Catholic Church, maintaining full...
.
During European colonialism, there was a fairly large French minority. Most of French settlers left after Lebanese independence in 1943. Their most important colonial influence is the frequent use of French language.
The sectarian system
Lebanon's
religiousA religion is a system of human thought which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity or deities, or ultimate truth...
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 cleansingEthnic cleansing is a term that has come to be used broadly to describe all forms of ethnically inspired violence, ranging from murder, rape, and torture to the forcible removal of populations...
- most recently during the
Lebanese Civil WarThe Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in the nation of Lebanon in the Middle East. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 130,000 to 250,000 civilian fatalities...
- has brought some important changes to the religious map of the country. (See also
History of LebanonThe history of Lebanon is almost as old as the earliest evidence of humankind. Its geographic position as a crossroads linking the Mediterranean Basin with the great Asian hinterland has conferred on it a cosmopolitan character and a multicultural legacy....
.)
Lebanon has by far the largest proportion of
ChristiansChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
of any
Arab countryThe Arab World refers to Arabic-speaking countries stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast...
, but both Christians and
MuslimsIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
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. It is not uncommon to hear Sunnis, Shi'as and Maronites (the three largest sects) 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
censusA "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.In other words every 10 years...next one would be in 2010 The term is used mostly in connection with...
, out of 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
OttomanThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
times (the
milletMillet is an Ottoman Turkish term for a confessional community in the Ottoman Empire. In the 19th century, with the Tanzimat reforms, the term started to refer to legally protected religious minority groups, other than the ruling Sunni. Millet comes from the Arabic word millah and literally means...
system). The practice was reinforced during
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
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. interventionThe 1958 Lebanon crisis was a Lebanese political crisis caused by political and religious tensions in the country. It included a U.S. military intervention, leading to the easing of tensions.-Background:...
) and again in the grueling
Lebanese Civil WarThe Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in the nation of Lebanon in the Middle East. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 130,000 to 250,000 civilian fatalities...
, in 1975-90.
The balance of power has been slightly adjusted in the 1943
National PactThe 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
independenceIndependence is the self-government of a nation, country, or state by its residents and population, or some portion thereof, generally exercising sovereignty....
, 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 proportion. 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 ConstitutionThe 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 lawFamily 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
The Alawis or Alawites are a prominent minority religious group in Syria who describe themselves as a sect of Shī‘ah Islam...
- Armenian Catholic
- Armenian Orthodox
- Assyrian Church of the East
style="float: right;"|- |The Assyrian Church of the East known officially as the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East , in Persian القدس وابسته به پاپ کاتولیک آشوری...
- Chaldean Catholic
The Chaldean Catholic Church or the Chaldean Church of Babylon The Chaldean Catholic Church or the Chaldean Church of Babylon The Chaldean Catholic Church or the Chaldean Church of Babylon ( ,Syriac ܥܕܬܐ ܟܠܕܝܬܐ ܩܬܘܠܝܩܝܬܐ is an Eastern particular church of the Catholic Church, maintaining full...
- Copt
A Copt is a native Egyptian Christian...
s
- Druze
The Druze are a religious community found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, whose traditional religion is said to have begun as an offshoot of Islam, but is unique in its incorporation of Gnostic, neo-Platonic and other philosophies, similar to other followers of Ismaili Shi'a...
- Evangelical Christian (incl. Protestant groups such as Baptist
A Baptist is a Christian who subscribes to a theology and may belong to a church that, among other things, is committed to believer's baptism and, with respect to church polity, favors the congregational model...
s and Seventh-day AdventistThe Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ. It is the eighth largest international body of...
s)
- Greek Catholic
- Greek Orthodox
- Isma'ili
- Jew
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish
- Maronite
- Roman Catholic
- Sunni
- Shi'a
- Syriac Catholic
- Syriac Orthodox
Religious population statistics
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with family origins in Palestine...
s and SyriaSyria , 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 citizenshipCitizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, or national community.Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
. The numbers only include the present population of Lebanon, and not the Lebanese diasporaA diaspora is any movement of a population sharing common ethnic identity. While refugees may or may not ultimately settle in a new geographic location, the term diaspora refers to a permanently displaced and relocated collective.Diasporic cultural development often assumes a different course from...
.
The 1932 census stated that
ChristiansChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
made up 55% of the population. Maronites, largest among the Christian sects and then largely in control of the state apparatus, accounted for 29% of the total population. But since the 19th century,
MuslimIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
birth rates have been continually higher than Christian birth rates. Also, far larger numbers of Christians emigrated from Lebanon than Muslims. Data varies over time, as of 1985 an estimated data showed Muslims 75% (including Shia, Sunni and Druze) and Christians 25% (Maronite, Orthodox and others). And according to more recent statistics by the CIA Factbook; there are 59.7% of the Lebanese population are Muslims, while 40% are Christians.
Muslims
Today, there is general 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 27% or 25% of the total population.
- Sunni Muslims constitute 24% or 25% 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.
- The Druze
The Druze are a religious community found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, whose traditional religion is said to have begun as an offshoot of Islam, but is unique in its incorporation of Gnostic, neo-Platonic and other philosophies, similar to other followers of Ismaili Shi'a...
, constitute 5% of the population.
- Other Muslim sects have a small presence, with the Isma'ilis and Alawite
The Alawis or Alawites are a prominent minority religious group in Syria who describe themselves as a sect of Shī‘ah Islam...
s combined comprising less than 1% of the population.
Christians
Today, it is estimated that the Christian population makes up about 39% (or 35% ) 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
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
, but have their own patriarch, liturgyA liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions. The word may refer to an elaborate formal ritual such as the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy and Catholic Mass, or a daily activity such as the Muslim salat and Jewish services...
, and customs. Traditionally they had good relations with the Western worldThe Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context...
, especially FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and the VaticanThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and 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 speaks for the whole Catholic...
. They traditionally dominated the Lebanese government, and the President of Lebanon is always Maronite. Their influence in later years has diminished, due to their relative decrease in numbers, but also due to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, which generally benefited Shi'a and other Muslim communities, and was resisted by most Maronites. Today the Maronites are believed to compose nearly 25.2% of the population, scattered around the Lebanese countryside but with heavy concentrations on Mount LebanonMount Lebanon , as a geographic designation, is the Lebanese mountain range, known as the Western Mountain Range of Lebanon. It extends across the whole country along about , parallel to the Mediterranean coast with the highest peak, Qurnat as Sawda', at . Lebanon has historically been defined by...
and in BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean sea, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan Area, which...
.
- 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 , 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 7.8% of the total population, not counting the Palestinian Greek Orthodox community.
- The remaining Christian churches are thought to constitute another 9% (350,000) of the population (Greek Catholics i.e. Melkites about 200,000, Armenian Apostolic, Armenian Catholic, Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Assyrians, Protestants) with no single group over 5% 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
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....
.
Other religions
Other religions account for only an estimated 1.3% of the population, according to the CIA Factbook. There remains a very small
JewishThe Lebanese Jews are traditionally a Mizrahi community living in the present-day country of Lebanon, mostly in and around the city of Beirut. Almost all of the community has emigrated to Israel, France, and North America. There are between 50 and 1,000 Jews now living in the country, compared to...
population, traditionally centered in
BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean sea, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan Area, which...
. It has been larger - most Jews left the country after the Six Day War in 1967. Add to this some negligible numbers of native
Bahá'ísThe Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in nineteenth-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories.The Bahá'í Faith teaches a doctrine of...
, Buddhists, and
HinduA Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, a set of religious, philosophical and cultural systems that originated in the Indian subcontinent. The vast body of Hindu scriptures, divided into Śruti and Smriti , lay the foundation of Hindu beliefs which primarily include dhárma, kárma, ahimsa and saṃsāra...
s, of long since-naturalized immigrant families. New immigrants from South East Asia have recently brought in larger numbers of Buddhists and Hindus, and small populations of other immigrant religions are also present.
The Lebanese diaspora
Apart from the three and a half million citizens of Lebanon proper, there is a sizeable Lebanese
diasporaA diaspora is any movement of a population sharing common ethnic identity. While refugees may or may not ultimately settle in a new geographic location, the term diaspora refers to a permanently displaced and relocated collective.Diasporic cultural development often assumes a different course from...
. 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. Lebanese Christian families are economically and politically prominent in several
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n countries (in 2007 Mexican
Carlos Slim HelúCarlos Slim Helú , simply known as Carlos Slim is a Mexican engineer, businessman and philanthropist largely focused on the telecommunications industry. He is currently the third wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of around US$35 billion through his holdings...
, 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
Arab American community in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The largest Lebanese diaspora is located in
BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
, where about 6-7 million people have Lebanese descent (see
Arab BrazilianAn Arab Brazilian is a Brazilian-born person of Arab descent. The population of Brazil identifying with either full or partial Arabic descent is estimated at between 8 to 10 million people, most of them tracing their roots back to Lebanese and Syrian immigrants who arrived in Brazil in the early...
).
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
PhoeniciaPhoenicia what is now modern day Lebanon, was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and Palestine...
n origins and its role as a "gateway" of relations between
EuropeEurope 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 water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to 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 cleansingEthnic cleansing is a term that has come to be used broadly to describe all forms of ethnically inspired violence, ranging from murder, rape, and torture to the forcible removal of populations...
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,
BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean sea, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan Area, which...
passed legislation which prevented second-generation Lebanese of the diaspora from automatically obtaining Lebanese
citizenshipCitizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, or national community.Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
. 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
citizenshipCitizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, or national community.Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
to attain the vote from abroad. 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.
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
civil warThe Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in the nation of Lebanon in the Middle East. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 130,000 to 250,000 civilian fatalities...
(1975-90). Although some have since returned, this permanently disturbed Lebanese population growth, and has greatly complicated demographic statistics.
Another result of the war was a large number of
internally displaced personInternally displaced persons are people forced to flee their homes but who, unlike refugees, remain within their country's borders. At the end of 2006 estimates of t4.5 million in some 52 countries. The region with the largest IDP population is Africa with some 11.8 million in 21...
s. This especially affected the southern Shi'a community, as
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
i invasion of southern Lebanon in
1978The 1978 South Lebanon conflict was an intervention in Lebanon up to the Litani River carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in 1978. It was a military success, as PLO forces were pushed north of the river...
,
1982The 1982 Lebanon War , , called Operation Peace for Galilee by Israel, and later also known colloquially in Israel as the 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 fightingThe Israeli Security Zone in southern Lebanon was a strip of territory of varying width, 5 to 25km, from the Israeli border and the occupied 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
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
(official),
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
, and
ArmenianThe 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...
.
CIA World Factbook demographic statistics
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
- Total population: 3,826,018 (July 2005 est.)
- 0-14 years: 26.7% (male 520,270; female 499,609)
- 15-64 years: 66.4% (male 1,216,738; female 1,324,031)
- 65 years and over: 6.9% (male 120,176; female 145,194) (2005 est.)
- Total: 27.34 years
- Male: 26.28 years
- Female: 28.43 years (2005 est.)
- 1.26% (2005 est.)
- 18.88 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)
- 6.24 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)
- 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)
- 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.)
- total: 24.52 deaths/1,000 live births
- male: 27.18 deaths/1,000 live births
- female: 21.71 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)
- Life expectancy at birth:
- total population: 72.63 years
- male: 70.17 years
- female: 75.21 years (2005 est.)
- 1.92 children born/woman (2005 est.)
Marganilized portions of society
According to a UNDP study, as much as 10% of the Lebanese had a
disabilityDisability is defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 as "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities."...
in 1990. Other studies have pointed to the fact that this portion of society is highly marganilized due to the lack of educational and governmental support of their advancement.