Demographics of Syria
| Demographics of Syria | |
|---|---|
Population pyramid of Syria in 2020 | |
| Population | 25,255,139 (2025 est.) |
| Density | 140/km2 (360/sq mi) (2024 est.) |
| Growth rate | 4.57% (2024 est.) |
| Birth rate | 21.7 births/1,000 population (2024 est.) |
| Death rate | 4 deaths/1,000 population (2024 est.) |
| Life expectancy | 74.8 years (2024 est.) |
| • male | 73.4 years |
| • female | 76.4 years |
| Fertility rate | 2.69 children born/woman (2024 est.) |
| Infant mortality rate | 15.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2024 est.) |
| Net migration rate | -1.1 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2024 est.) |
| Age structure | |
| 0–14 years | 33% (male 4,037,493/female 3,828,777) |
| 15–64 years | 62.8% (male 7,475,355/female 7,522,797) |
| 65 and over | 4.2% (2024 est.) (male 468,730/female 532,271) |
| Sex ratio | |
| Total | 1.01 male(s)/female (2024 est.) |
| At birth | 1.06 male(s)/female |
| Under 15 | 1.05 male(s)/female |
| 15–64 years | 0.99 male(s)/female |
| 65 and over | 0.88 male(s)/female |
| Nationality | |
| Nationality | noun: Syrian(s) adjective: Syrian |
| Major ethnic |
|
| Minor ethnic |
|
| Language | |
| Official | Arabic |
| Spoken | Kurdish, Turkish, Neo-Aramaic (Turoyo, Western Neo-Aramaic, Sureth |
Syria's estimated pre–Syrian Civil War 2011 population was 22 ±.5 million permanent inhabitants, which included 21,124,000 Syrians, as well as 1.3 million Iraqi refugees and over 500,000 Palestinian refugees. The war makes an accurate count of the Syrian population difficult, as the numbers of Syrian refugees, internally displaced Syrians and casualty numbers are in flux. The CIA World Factbook showed an estimated 20.4 m people as of July 2021. Of the pre-war population, six million are refugees outside the country, seven million are internally displaced and two million live in the Kurdish-ruled Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
Most modern-day Syrians are commonly described as Arabs by virtue of their modern-day language and bonds to Arab culture and history. But they are, in fact, genetically a blend of the various Semitic-speaking groups indigenous to the region. With around 10% of the population, Kurds are the second biggest ethnic group in Syria, followed by Turkmen.