Most inhabitants of Yemen are ethnic Arabs, although there exist relatively small communities of Africans, South Asians, and Europeans. Thousands of refugees from the conflict in Somalia were residing in Yemen in the early 1990s. A significant minority of the population is organized into tribes, and for many Yemenis tribal identity is of primary importance. This is particularly true in the northern highlands, where the sheikhs of several individual tribes and two large tribal confederations, the Hashid and Bakil, can still mobilize large numbers in defense of tribal interests. Virtually all of the inhabitants of northern Yemen are sedentary, meaning they have fixed homes and do not move from place to place like nomads. A slightly smaller percentage is sedentary in the south. A small number of nomadic pastoralists can be found on the edge of the desert far to the east. Although Yemen has traditionally been characterized by a stratified social system marked by castelike groups at the top and bottom, this structure is breaking down as economic opportunities become available and new social ideas come to prevail.

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Population Characteristics

The total population of Yemen is 19,349,881 (2003 estimate). The average population density is 37 persons per sq km (95 per sq mi). Although more than one and a half times its size in land area, the former South Yemen had less than one-third the population of the former North Yemen in the late 1980s. The population of southern Yemen is concentrated in a few areas, including Al Mukalla and the other towns of Hadhramaut, the highlands north and east of Aden, and above all, in Aden proper and its metropolitan area. By contrast, the far larger population of northern Yemen is scattered over a great many towns, villages, and hamlets; the combined populations of its principal urban centers, Sana 'a, Ta'izz, and Al-Hudaydah, comprised less than 10 percent of the north's total population in the late 1980s.

Brief Summary:

Population: 19,349,881 (July 2003 est.)

Age structure:

0-14 years: 46.8% (male 4,606,110; female 4,446,229)
15-64 years: 50.4% (male 4,972,946; female 4,778,034)
65 years and over: 2.8% (male 272,921; female 273,641) (2003 est.)

Median age:

Total: 16.4 years
Male: 16.4 years
Female: 16.4 years (2002)

Population growth rate: 3.42% (2003 est.)

Nationality: Yemeni

Languages: Arabic

Ethnic groups: Predominantly Arab; but also Afro-Arab, South Asians, Europeans

Literacy:

Definition: age 15 and over can read and write
Total population: 50.2%
Male: 70.5%
Female: 30% (2003 est.)