Population and Demographics

Libya has a small population within its large territory, with a population density of about 3 people per square kilometre in the two northern regions of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, and less than one person per square kilometre elsewhere. Libya is thus one of the least dense nations by area in the world.

90% of the people live in less than 10% of the area, mostly along the coast. More than half the population is urban, concentrated to a greater extent, in the two largest cities, Tripoli and Benghazi.

Native Libyans are primarily a mixture of Arabs and Berbers. There are small Tuareg (a Berber population) and Tebu tribal groups concentrated in the south, living nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyles. Among foreign residents, the largest groups are citizens of other African nations, including North Africans (primarily Egyptians and Tunisians), West Africans and Sub-Saharan Africans. Libyan Berbers and Arabs constitute 97% of the population; the other 3% are Sub-Saharan Africans, Greeks, Maltese, Italians, Egyptians, Afghanis, Turks, Indians and Tunisians. However, Libyan authorities estimate that illegal aliens from Sub-Saharan Africa number as much as two million out of a population of 5.5 million, which if true would indicate the black African population may be as high as 36%.

97 % of the population are Sunni Muslim.