List of states with indigenous, native-speaking Arab populations
Arabic is spoken by around 240 million native speakers and around 60 million people as a second language. The following information is partly rough estimates or is based on information and counts that are often many years old.
| country | Number of speakers | Share in the total population |
annotation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Afghanistan | 5,000 | <0.001% | In four northern provinces (also in Tajikistan ) |
| Egypt 1) | 76,000,000 | > 99% | |
| Algeria 1) | 27,000,000 | > 60% | |
| Bahrain 1) | 400,000 | <60% | 300,000 Shiites and 100,000 Sunnis, whose dialects are different. |
| Djibouti 1) | 50,000 | > 10% | |
| Eritrea | (?) 30,000 | <1% | Camel nomads on the Red Sea coast, the middle of the 19th century. came from the Arabian Peninsula. |
| Iran | 1,400,000 | > 2% | 1.2 million Mesopotamian Arabic speakers in Chuzestan , 200,000 Gulf Arabic speakers on the south coast, approx. 5,000 Khorasan Arabic speakers |
| Iraq 1) | 18,000,000 | > 70% | |
| Israel | 1,400,000 | > 22% | Including approx. 475,000 Judeo-Arabic speakers (data from 1995) |
| Yemen 1) | 14,700,000 | > 70% | |
| Jordan 1) | 2,500,000 | 45% | The majority of the Jordanian population are Palestinian refugees or their descendants. |
| Cameroon | 60,000 | 0.4% | In the northernmost province, Chadian Arabic |
| Qatar 1) | 100,000 | > 10% | |
| Kenya | 15,000 | <0.05% | On the coast. Came in the 9th century. from Yemen and Oman. Most of them speak Swahili as their first language today . |
| Kuwait 1) | 500,000 | <25% | |
| Lebanon 1) | 3,200,000 | 85% | Approx. 1,500,000 Palestinian and Syrian refugees or their descendants not included. |
| Libya 1) | 4,200,000 | 75% | |
| Mali | 100,000 | > 8% | Ḥasaniyya dialect like in Mauritania |
| Morocco 1) | 19,000,000 | <60% | Including 40,000 Ḥassaniyya speakers and 9,000 Judeo-Moroccan speakers |
| Mauritania 1) | 2,500,000 | > 80% | |
| Niger | 30,000 | <0.3% | |
| Nigeria | 100,000 | <0.1% | Chadian Arabic |
| Northern Cyprus 2) | 1,300 | <0.002% | Maronites in the village of Kormakitis |
| Oman 1) | 1,250,000 | 53% | |
| Palestinian Territories 1) 2) | 2,200,000 | > 50% | The total population of 4.3 million includes 1.7 million non-indigenous refugees or their descendants and 400,000 settlers. |
| Saudi Arabia 1) | 14,200,000 | > 50% | |
| Sudan 1) | 15,000,000 | <40% | Including 20,000 Kreol speakers |
| Syria 1) | 11,500,000 | > 60% | |
| Tajikistan | 1,000 | > 0.01% | |
| Tanzania | 200,000 | > 0.5% | In Zanzibar , Oman Arabic |
| Chad | 760,000 | 8th % | |
| Tunisia 1) | 9,000,000 | 90% | Including around 500 Judeo-Arabic speakers |
| Turkey | 500,000 | > 0.5% | see Arabs in Turkey |
| Uzbekistan | 700 | > 0% | |
| United Arab Emirates 1) | 750,000 | 30% | |
| country | Number of speakers | Share in the total population |
annotation |
- 1) Member of the Arab League
- 2) Not internationally recognized as a state
- <means "a little less than",> means "a little more than"
- Remarks
- Those native speakers of Arabic who have been living outside of their country of origin for a short time or only a few generations were not recorded , including around five million Palestinians.
- Note that only the indigenous Arabic-speaking population is recorded in this table . This often explains a surprisingly low percentage of the total population.
Web links
This list is largely based on information