Editing Demographics of Syria (section)

== Ethnicity and religion ==
{{see also|Nawar people|Religion in Syria}}
On 1 January 2011, Syria was estimated to have a population of 24 million people, distributed over its 14 governorates.<ref name=Khalifa2013>{{citation|last=Khalifa|first=Mustafa|year=2013|title=The impossible partition of Syria|url=https://www.arab-reform.net/en/node/510|pages=3–5|journal=[[Arab Reform Initiative]]|quote='''Arabs''' constitute the major ethnic group in Syria, making up between 80 and 85% of the population. <br/> '''Kurds''' are the second largest ethnic group in Syria, making up around 10% of the Syrian population and distributed among four regions...with a Yazidi minority that numbers around 40,000...<br/>'''Turkmen''' are the third largest ethnic group in Syria, making up around 4–5% of the population. Some estimations indicate that they are the second biggest group, outnumbering Kurds, drawing on the fact that Turkmen are divided into two groups: the rural Turkmen who make up 30% of the Turkmen in Syria and who have kept their mother tongue, and the urban Turkmen who have become Arabized and no longer speak their mother language... <br/> '''Assyrians''' are the fourth largest ethnic group in Syria. They represent the original and oldest inhabitants of Syria, today making up around 3–4% of the Syrian population... <br/> '''Circassians''' are the fifth largest ethnic group in Syria, making up around 1.5% of the population... <br/> '''Armenians''' are sixth largest ethnic group in Syria, making up around 1% of the population... <br/> There are also a small number of other ethnic groups in Syria, including Greek, Albanian, Bosnian, Pashtun, Russian, and Azeri people...|access-date=2019-03-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327091448/https://www.arab-reform.net/en/node/510|archive-date=2019-03-27|url-status=live}}</ref> Arabs represent 80-85% of the population, with the rest being a mixture of many ethnic and religious sects, as shown in the table below:

{| class="wikitable"
!Ethnic and religious groups 
!% of Syrian population<ref name=Khalifa2013/> 
!Notes<ref name=Khalifa2013/>
|-
| [[Syrians|Syrian Arabs]] || 80–85% || The Arabs form the majority in all districts except for the [[Al-Hasakah Governorate]].
|-
| [[Kurds in Syria|Kurds]] || 10% || The majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslims, with a Yazidi minority; concentrated in [[Syrian Kurdistan]] region and major urban centres outside that region. 1.5 million Kurds live in Syria.<ref name="HeritageforPeace">{{cite web |title=Demographics of Syria|publisher=[[Heritage for Peace]]|url=https://www.heritageforpeace.org/syria-country-information/geography/ |website=www.heritageforpeace.org |access-date=7 March 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241205182626/https://www.heritageforpeace.org/syria-country-information/geography/|archive-date=5 December 2024|quote=''Around 1.5 million Kurds form Syria’s largest ethnic minority. About a third of them live in the foothills of the Taurus Mountains north of Aleppo, and an equal number along the Turkish border in the Jazirah. A further 10 per cent can be found in the vicinity of Jarabulus northeast of Aleppo, and from 10-15 per cent in the Hayy al-Akrad (Quarter of the Kurds) on the outskirts of Damascus.''}}</ref>
|-
| [[Syrian Turkmen|Turkmen/Turkoman]] || 4–5% || Descendants of ethnic [[Turkish people|Turks]], rather than [[Turkmens]]. These figures exclude the [[Arabic]]-speaking Turks. Only approximately 30% of Turkmen speak a Turkic language. The majority are Sunni Muslims. 
|-
| [[Assyrian people|Assyrians/Syriacs]]|| 3–4% || Assyrians are exclusively Christians following the [[Syriac Christianity|Syriac Christian]] Rite.
|-
| [[Circassians in Syria|Circassians]] || 1.5% || The majority of Circassians are Sunni Muslims. 
|-
| [[Armenians in Syria|Armenians]] || 1% || The majority of Armenians are Christians.
|-
| Smaller groups of [[Albanians in Syria|Albanians]], [[Greeks in Syria|Greeks]] and [[Chechens in Syria|Chechens]], among others || <0.9% (combined) || A significant number of these ethnic groups are [[Arabized]], particularly those that adhere to Islam.
|-
|}

The CIA World Factbook cites the following figures for ethnic groups as in July 2018: approximately [[Arabs|Arab]] 50%, [[Alawites|Alawite]] 15%, [[Syrian Kurds|Kurd]] 10%, [[Levantine Arabic|Levantine]] 10%, other 15% (includes [[Druze people in Syria|Druze]], [[Isma'ilism|Ismaili]], [[Imamate (Twelver doctrine)|Imami]], [[Alawites|Nusairi]], [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]], [[Syrian Turkmen|Turkmen]], [[Armenians in Syria|Armenian]], and [[Chechens]]).<ref name=CIA/> Professor John A. Shoup estimated in 2018 that Kurds made 9% of the population, followed by Turkish-speaking Turkmen comprising 4-5%, Assyrians 4%, Armenians 2%, and Circassians about 1% of the total population.<ref name=Shoup>{{citation |last=Shoup|first=John A.|year=2018|title=The History of Syria|page=6|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|isbn=978-1440858352|quote=Syria has several other ethnic groups, the Kurds... they make up an estimated 9 percent...Turkomen comprise around 4-5 percent of the total population. The rest of the ethnic mix of Syria is made of Assyrians (about 4 percent), Armenians (about 2 percent), and Circassians (about 1 percent).}}</ref>

{{Pie chart
|thumb = right
|caption = Religion in Syria (est. 2021)<ref name="CIA World Factbook">{{cite web |title=Syria |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/syria/ |website=www.cia.gov |access-date=28 January 2020}}</ref>
|label1 = [[Sunni Islam]]
|value1 = 74
|color1 = Green
|label2 = [[Shia]] ([[Alawites]], [[Ismailis]], [[Twelvers]])
|value2 = 13
|color2 = LightGreen
|label3 = [[Christianity in Syria|Christianity]]
|value3 = 10
|color3 = blue
|label4 = [[Druze in Syria|Druze]]
|value4 = 3
|color4 = SaddleBrown
}}
There has been no Syrian census including a question about religion since 1960, these are thus the last official statistics available:<ref name="table p.9">{{in lang|fr}} Mouna Liliane Samman, ''La population de la Syrie: étude géo-démographique'', IRD Editions, Paris, 1978, {{ISBN|9782709905008}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=vPxWKyrAAUIC&pg=PA7 table p.9] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190812001505/https://books.google.com/books?id=vPxWKyrAAUIC&pg=PA7 |date=2019-08-12 }}</ref>

In 1991, Professor [[Alasdair Drysdale]] and Professor Raymond Hinnebusch said that some 85% of Syrians were [[Muslims]] and that the remainder were almost all [[Christians]], however, both religious groups were subdivided into many ethnic sects.<ref name=Drysdale&Hinnebusch1991>{{citation|last1=Drysdale|first1=Alasdair|last2=Hinnebusch|first2=Raymond A.|year=1991|title=Syria and the Middle East Peace Process|page=[https://archive.org/details/syriamiddleeast00alas/page/222 222]|publisher=[[Council on Foreign Relations]]|isbn=978-0876091050|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/syriamiddleeast00alas/page/222}}</ref> Among the former, approximately 75% of Syrians were [[Sunni Muslim]], of whom, 60% were [[Arabic language|Arabic]]-speaking and the remainder of Sunnis included [[Kurds in Syria|Kurds]] 8.5%, [[Syrian Turkmen|Turkmen/Turkoman]] 3%, and [[Circassians in Syria|Circassians]] (less than 1%).<ref name=Drysdale&Hinnebusch1991/> In addition, [[Alawis]] formed 5.5%, [[Druze]] 3%, and [[Ismailis]] 1.5% of the population. In regards to the Christians, they were subdivided into the [[Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch|Greek Orthodox]] 4.7%, [[Armenians in Syria|Armenians]] 4%, and [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]] 1%.<ref name=Drysdale&Hinnebusch1991/>

According to Pierre Beckouche, before 2011, [[Sunni Muslims]] accounted for 78% of Syria's population, which included 500,000 Palestinian refugees and the non-Arab Sunni Muslims, namely the [[Kurds in Syria|Kurds]] 9-10% and the [[Syrian Turkmen|Turkmen/Turkoman]] 4%.<ref name=Pierre>{{citation |last=Pierre|first=Beckouche|year=2017|chapter=The Country Reports: Syria|title=Europe's Mediterranean Neighbourhood|page=178|publisher=[[Edward Elgar Publishing]]|isbn=978-1786431493}}</ref> Other Muslims included [[Shias]] and [[Alawites]] 11%-16%, whilst the [[Christians]] made up 6% of the population.<ref name=Pierre/> There were also a few [[History of the Jews in Syria|Jewish communities]] in [[Aleppo]] and [[Damascus]].<ref name=Pierre/>

The CIA World Factbook cites the following figures for religious groups: 
religions - [[Muslim]] 87% (official; includes [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] 74% and Alawi, Ismaili, and [[Shia Islam|Shia]] 13%), [[Christians|Christian]] 10% (mainly of the [[Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch|Greek Orthodox]] and [[Melkite Greek Catholic Church|Greek Catholic]] churches<ref name=IRFR2006>{{cite web |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71432.htm |title=Syria |work=U.S. Department of State |access-date=2019-05-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190722104603/https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71432.htm |archive-date=2019-07-22 |url-status=live }}</ref> - may be smaller as a result of Christians fleeing the country), [[Druze]] 3%.<ref name=CIA/>

The first census which focused on the sectarian distribution was carried out in 1932 under the [[French mandate]], however, this census was only carried out in the lands under the short-lived Government of Latakia (the [[Alawite State]] established by the French) which covered only {{cvt|7000|km2}} out of modern Syria's total area of {{cvt|185,000|km2}}.<ref name=Khalifa2013page3/> A general census of Syria in 1943 gave details of religious groups of the population and the rate of growth of each and estimates of the population in 1953 from an unnamed source were as follows:

{| class="wikitable"
!
!1943 census<ref name=Khalifa2013page3>{{citation|last=Khalifa|first=Mustafa|year=2013|title=The impossible partition of Syria|url=https://www.arab-reform.net/en/node/510|pages=3|journal=[[Arab Reform Initiative]]|access-date=2019-03-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327091448/https://www.arab-reform.net/en/node/510|archive-date=2019-03-27|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Hourani>{{citation|last=Hourani|first=Albert|year=1947|title=Minorities in the Arab World|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}. See also [[Albert Hourani]].</ref>
!1953 census<ref name=Khalifa2013page3/>
!Growth<ref name=Khalifa2013page3/> 
|-
| Total Muslims || 2,427,605 (84.87%) || 3,145,287 (86.03%) || 30%
|-
! colspan="4" |Individual sects and religions 
|-
| Sunnis || 1,971,053 (68.91%)  || 2,578,810 (70.54%) || 31%
|-
| Christians || 403,036 (14.09%) || 478,970 (13.10%) || 19%
|-
| Alawites || 325,311 (11.37%) || 398,445 (10.90%) || 22%
|-
| Druze || 87,184 (3.05%) || 113,318 (3.10%) || 30%
|-
| Ismailis || 28,527 (1.00%) || 36,745 (1.01%) || 29% 
|-
| Jews || 29,770 (1.04%) || 31,647 (0.87%) || 6%
|-
| Shi'ites|| 12,742 (0.45%) || 14,887 (0.41%) || 17%
|-
| Yezidi || 2,788 (0.10%) || 3,082 (0.08%) || 11%
|}