The Lebanese Population

According to the CIA World Factbook estimate (July 2007), over 3,925,502 people live in Lebanon, and it is a fairly youthful population, as well. Some 26.2% of the people are between 0 and 14 years, while 66.7% is between 15 and 64 years and 7.1% of the people are over 65 years. As a comparison, the United States has over 12% of its population at 65 years and above. However, Europa World Plus estimates that Lebanon’s population growth rate has declined from 2.9% in 1995 to 1.2% in 2007.

The largest ethnic group in Lebanon is Arab, accounting for about 95% of the population. Just 4% is Armenian and 1% is identified as “other”. It is important to note that many Christian Lebanese do not refer to themselves as Arab but as descendents of ancient Canaanites, preferring “Phoenician” as their ethnic group. Although 59.7% of Lebanese are Muslim (majority is Shi’a), 39% of the population is Christian (majority is Maronite, Catholic and Greek Orthodox), which is unique for a Middle Eastern country. Its neighbor, Syria, identifies just 10% of its population as Christian. Even though the CIA's World Fact Book is generally pretty accurate, Lebanon has not conducted an official census since 1932; therefore, some of these population figures could be a bit skewed.

Lebanon’s official language is Arabic, but French is widely understood due to its French colonization in the early 20th century. English and Armenian are also spoken but in far fewer places.

Of the Lebanese people, over 28% of the population lives below the poverty line. To compare, Syria has only 11.9% of its population below the poverty line, as does the United States, at 12%. (Neighboring Israel uses a different scale to measure poverty, so its figures cannot be directly compared.) Additionally, Lebanon has a 20% unemployment rate (Syria’s unemployment rate is 10%, while Israel’s is 7.6% and the United States’ is 4.6%).