Lebanese people

Lebanese people
Total population
 Lebanon:4 million
(Lebanese diaspora) 4–14 million
 Brazil1,000,000 – 7,000,000
 Argentina1,200,000 – 1,500,000
 United States440,279
 France300,000
 Canada250,000
 Australia248,434
 Venezuela130,000 – 340,000
 Colombia125,000 – 700,000 – 3,200,000
 Saudi Arabia120,000 – 300,000
 Ivory Coast100,000 – 300,000
 Mexico100,000
 Ecuador98,000 – 170,000
 Dominican Republic80,000
 United Arab Emirates80,000
 Uruguay70,000
 Senegal50,000
 Sweden46,823
 Kuwait40,500
 Guinea40,000
 Chile32,000
 Costa Rica30,000
 Greece27,420
 El Salvador27,400
 Cyprus25,700
 Democratic Republic of the Congo25,000
 Nigeria25,000 – 30,000
 Guatemala22,500
 Cuba20,000
 Honduras20,000
 Paraguay15,500 – 200,000
 Haiti12,000
 Belgium11,000
  Switzerland10,000
 Guadeloupe (Overseas France)9,000
 Republic of the Congo9,000
 Gabon8,000
 Cameroon6,000
 South Africa5,800 – 20,000
 Israel3,500
 Sierra Leone3,000
 Benin3,000
 Peru2,400
 Germany2,350
 Togo1,600
 Angola1,500
 Burkina Faso1,300
 Martinique (Overseas France)1,000
 Luxembourg400
Languages
Spoken Vernacular
Lebanese Arabic & Cypriot Maronite Arabic
Diaspora
French, English, Spanish, Portuguese
Religion
Islam (59.5% in Lebanon):2
(Shia,3 Sunni,3 Alawites, Ismailis and Druze)4
Christianity (40.5% in Lebanon; majority of diaspora):1
(Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Melkite and Protestant)
Related ethnic groups
Syrians, Palestinians and Jordanians

Notes:
  1. Lebanese Christians of all denominations constitute the majority of all Lebanese worldwide, but represent only a large minority within Lebanon.
  2. Lebanese Muslims of all denominations represent a majority within Lebanon, but add up to only a large minority of all Lebanese worldwide.
  3. Shias and Sunnis account for 54% of Lebanon's population together, even split in half (27%).
  4. In Lebanon, the Druze quasi-Muslim sect is officially categorized as a Muslim denomination by the Lebanese government.

The Lebanese people (Arabic: الشعب اللبناني / ALA-LC: ash-shaʻb al-Lubnānī, Lebanese Arabic pronunciation: [eʃˈʃæʕeb ellɪbˈneːne]) are the people inhabiting or originating from Lebanon. The term may also include those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state. The major religious groups among the Lebanese people within Lebanon are Shia Muslims (27%), Sunni Muslims (27%), Maronite Christians (21%), Greek Orthodox Christians (8%), Melkite Christians (5%), Druze (5%), Protestant Christians (1%). The largest contingent of Lebanese, however, comprise a diaspora in North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Africa, which is predominantly Maronite Christian.

As the relative proportion of the various sects is politically sensitive, Lebanon has not collected official census data on ethnic background since 1932 under the French Mandate. It is therefore difficult to have an exact demographic analysis of Lebanese society. The largest concentration of people with Lebanese ancestry may be in Brazil, having an estimated population of 5.8 to 7 million. However, it may be an exaggeration given that an official survey conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed that less than 1 million Brazilians claimed any Middle-Eastern origin. The Lebanese have always traveled the world, many of them settling permanently within the last two centuries.

Estimated to have lost their status as the majority in Lebanon itself, with their reduction in numbers largely as a result of their emigration, Christians still remain one of the principal religious groups in the country. Descendants of Lebanese Christians make up the majority of Lebanese people worldwide, appearing principally in the diaspora.