Demographics of the Middle East

Last updated November 14, 2024

The Demographics of the Middle East describes populations of the Middle East, a region covering western and northern parts of the Asian and African continents respectively.

Overview

Population growth^[1] There are 371,000,000 Muslims in middle east there are between 11 and 10 Million Christians across the Middle East, there are 800,000 - 1,100,000 Druze who live in Israel, Syria and Lebanon. There are large communities of Hindus in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia who number over 3.1 Million and an estimated 902,890 Buddhists and 700,000 Yazidi and numerous other religions. Non Muslims are about 43 Million or 23% of the Middle East population, Muslims form the majority and the rest.
#		1990	2008	2010	1990-2008	2016	Growth %
		Million				1990-08	1990-10
1	Bahrain	0.49	0.77	1.26	0.3	56%	157%
2	Cyprus	0.58	0.80	0.80	0.2	38%	38%
3	Egypt	57.79	81.53	81.12	23.7	41%	40%
6	Iran	54.40	71.96	73.97	17.6	32%	36%
5	Iraq	18.14	28.22	32.32	10.1	56%	78%
6	Israel	4.68	7.31	7.62	2.6	56%	63%
7	Jordan	3.17	5.91	6.05	2.7	86%	91%
8	Kuwait	2.13	2.73	2.74	0.6	28%	29%
9	Lebanon	2.97	4.14	4.23	1.2	39%	42%
10	Oman	1.84	2.79	2.78	0.9	51%	51%
11	Palestine	1.90	3.91	4.12	2.0	106%	117%
12	Qatar	0.47	1.28	1.76	0.8	174%	274%
13	Saudi Arabia	16.38	24.65	27.45	8.3	50%	68%
14	Syria	12.72	21.23	20.45	8.5	67%	61%
15	Turkey	55.12	71.08	72.85	16.0	29%	32%
16	UAE	1.87	4.37	7.51	2.5	134%	302%
17	Yemen	12.31	23.05	24.05	10.7	87%	95%
x	Total	246.96	355.73	371.08	66.9	51 %	61%
x	World	5,265.2	6,687.9	6,825	1,422.7	27 %	30%
Source: OECD/World Bank

Encyclopedia Britannica definition of Middle East

Encyclopedia Britannica stated in 2018 that "by the mid-20th century a common definition of the Middle East encompassed the states or territories of Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, and the various states and territories of Arabia proper (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and the Trucial States, or Trucial Oman [now United Arab Emirates])."^[2]

Life expectancy

List of countries by life expectancy at birth for 2022 according to the World Bank Group:^[3]^[4]^[5]

Countries & territories	2022				Historical data									recovery from COVID-19: 2019→2022
Countries & territories	All	Male	Female	Sex gap	2014	2014 →2019	2019	2019 →2020	2020	2020 →2021	2021	2021 →2022	2022	recovery from COVID-19: 2019→2022
Israel	82.70	80.70	84.80	4.10	82.15	0.65	82.80	−0.16	82.65	−0.15	82.50	0.20	82.70	−0.10
Cyprus	81.89	80.07	83.67	3.61	80.77	0.63	81.40	−0.01	81.39	−0.19	81.20	0.69	81.89	0.49
Qatar	81.56	80.63	83.10	2.47	79.77	1.22	80.99	−1.89	79.10	0.17	79.27	2.29	81.56	0.57
Kuwait	80.26	78.88	82.75	3.87	79.44	0.24	79.69	−2.77	76.92	1.75	78.67	1.59	80.26	0.58
Bahrain	79.25	78.24	80.50	2.25	79.33	0.69	80.02	−0.84	79.17	−0.41	78.76	0.49	79.25	−0.77
United Arab Emirates	79.20	77.72	81.41	3.69	79.04	0.68	79.73	−0.78	78.95	−0.24	78.71	0.49	79.20	−0.53
Turkey	78.47	75.38	81.50	6.12	76.56	1.27	77.83	−1.98	75.85	0.18	76.03	2.44	78.47	0.64
Saudi Arabia	77.91	76.67	79.53	2.86	76.76	0.55	77.30	−1.06	76.24	0.70	76.94	0.97	77.91	0.60
Iran	74.56	71.93	77.45	5.52	74.78	1.32	76.10	−1.27	74.83	−0.96	73.88	0.68	74.56	−1.55
Lebanon	74.42	72.24	76.60	4.36	78.97	0.26	79.24	−1.43	77.80	−2.76	75.05	−0.63	74.42	−4.82
Jordan	74.22	72.12	76.67	4.55	74.79	1.25	76.04	−0.86	75.18	−0.93	74.26	−0.04	74.22	−1.83
Oman	73.94	72.36	76.05	3.69	77.45	0.56	78.00	−3.24	74.76	−2.22	72.54	1.39	73.94	−4.07
Palestine	73.44	71.02	75.95	4.92	72.62	2.62	75.24	−0.84	74.40	−0.93	73.47	−0.03	73.44	−1.80
Syria	72.30	68.67	76.12	7.45	63.15	8.67	71.82	0.32	72.14	−0.08	72.06	0.24	72.30	0.48
World	72.00	69.60	74.53	4.93	71.88	1.10	72.98	−0.74	72.24	−0.92	71.33	0.67	72.00	−0.98
Iraq	71.34	69.16	73.36	4.20	68.91	2.66	71.58	−2.45	69.12	1.25	70.38	0.96	71.34	−0.24
Egypt	70.16	67.87	72.56	4.69	70.42	0.94	71.36	−0.37	70.99	−0.77	70.22	−0.06	70.16	−1.20
Yemen	63.72	60.49	67.22	6.73	67.38	−2.29	65.09	−0.44	64.65	−0.90	63.75	−0.03	63.72	−1.37

Change in life expectancy in the Middle East from 2019 to 2021^[3]

Historical

In the year 1600, the population of the Middle East stood at about 18.5 million. Within modern borders:^[6]

Anatolia - c. 6,500,000^[7]
Iran - 4,472,000
Yemen - 2,243,000
Saudi Arabia - 1,809,000
Syria - 1,175,000
Iraq - 1,000,000
Lebanon - 292,000
Oman - 275,000
Jordan - 191,000
Israel/Palestine- 161,000
Cyprus - 98,000
Kuwait - 71,000
Bahrain - 54,000
United Arab Emirates - 35,000

In addition, the population of North Africa was 12 million, with the following breakdown within borders:

Egypt - 5,000,000
Algeria - 2,250,000
Morocco - 2,250,000
Tunisia - 2,000,000
Libya - 500,000

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References

↑ Population 1971-2010 (pdf Archived 2012-01-06 at the Wayback Machine pages 89) IEA (OECD/ World Bank) (original population ref OECD/ World Bank e.g. in IEA Key World Energy Statistics 2010 page 57)
↑ "Middle East | Countries & Facts," Britannica.com.
1 2 "Life expectancy at birth, total". The World Bank Group. 30 May 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
↑ "Life expectancy at birth, male". The World Bank Group. 30 May 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
↑ "Life expectancy at birth, female". The World Bank Group. 30 May 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
↑ Alexander V. Avakov, Two Thousand Years of Economic Statistics, Volume 1, pages 12 to 14.
↑ The figure is 7,275,000 counting all of modern Turkey, which includes East Thrace and the city of Istanbul/Constantinople, both of which were very densely populated.

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[IEApop2011-1] Population 1971-2010 (pdf Archived 2012-01-06 at the Wayback Machine pages 89) IEA (OECD/ World Bank) (original population ref OECD/ World Bank e.g. in IEA Key World Energy Statistics 2010 page 57)

[2] "Middle East | Countries & Facts," Britannica.com.

[wbg_total-3] 1 2 "Life expectancy at birth, total". The World Bank Group. 30 May 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.

[wbg_male-4] "Life expectancy at birth, male". The World Bank Group. 30 May 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.

[wbg_female-5] "Life expectancy at birth, female". The World Bank Group. 30 May 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.

[6] Alexander V. Avakov, Two Thousand Years of Economic Statistics, Volume 1, pages 12 to 14.

[7] The figure is 7,275,000 counting all of modern Turkey, which includes East Thrace and the city of Istanbul/Constantinople, both of which were very densely populated.

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