Syria Population

Ethnic Syrians are of Semitic stock. Syria's population is 90% Muslim, 74% Sunni, and 16% other Muslim groups, including the Alawi, Shia, and Druze--and 10% Christian. There also is a small Syrian Jewish community. Arabic is the official, and most widely spoken, language.

Arabs, including some 300,000 Palestinian refugees, make up 90% of the population. Many educated Syrians also speak English or French, but English is the more widely understood. The Kurds, many of whom speak Kurdish, make up 9% of the population and live mostly in the northeast corner of Syria, though sizable Kurdish communities live in most major Syrian cities as well. Armenian and Turkic are spoken among the small Armenian and Turkoman populations.

POPULATION GRAPH

People Syria
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Population:

17,155,814 (July 2002 est.)
note: in addition, about 40,000 people live in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights - 20,000 Arabs (18,000 Druze and 2,000 Alawites) and about 20,000 Israeli settlers (February 2003 est.)
Age structure:

0-14 years: 39.3% (male 3,467,267; female 3,264,639)
15-64 years: 57.5% (male 5,052,841; female 4,817,662)
65 years and over: 3.2% (male 267,803; female 285,602) (2002 est.)
Population growth rate:

2.5% (2002 est.)
Birth rate:

30.11 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Death rate:

5.12 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Net migration rate:

0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Sex ratio:

at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.94 male(s)/female
total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2002 est.)
Infant mortality rate:

32.73 deaths/1,000 live births (2002 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 69.08 years
female: 70.32 years (2002 est.)
male: 67.9 years
Total fertility rate:

3.84 children born/woman (2002 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:

0.01% (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:

NA
HIV/AIDS - deaths:

NA
Nationality:

noun: Syrian(s)
adjective: Syrian
Ethnic groups:

Arab 90.3%, Kurds, Armenians, and other 9.7%
Religions:

Sunni Muslim 74%, Alawite, Druze, and other Muslim sects 16%, Christian (various sects) 10%, Jewish (tiny communities in Damascus, Al Qamishli, and Aleppo)
Languages:

Arabic (official); Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian widely understood; French, English somewhat understood
Literacy:

definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 70.8%
male: 85.7%
female: 55.8% (1997 est.)