Demographics of Jordan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jordanians are mostly Arabs, except for a few small communities of Circassians, Chechens, Armenians, and Kurds which have adapted to Arab culture. Jordan was largely made of people of Bedouin Arab descent, but today, some sources say, two-thirds of Jordanians are descendants of Palestinians.[1] The official language is Arabic, but English is used widely in commerce and government. About 70% of Jordan's population is urban; less than 6% of the rural population is nomadic or semi-nomadic. Most people live where the rainfall supports agriculture.
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[edit] Refugees
According to official statistics, 44.3% of Jordanians are originally Palestinian refugees, from the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli conflicts. The exact proportion of Palestinians vs. "original" Jordanians is a politically very sensitive and contested issue because it's also directly related to the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is claimed that Palestinian Arabs have always comprised the vast majority of the population of Jordan. Jordan does not encourage research in the exact percentage of Palestinians which according to some is higher than 80% .
[edit] Education
The era of King Hussein saw increased school enrollment rates, which resulted in a rapid rise in the literacy rate in Jordan. At the beginning of his reign in 1952 the literacy rate was 33% and grew to 85% in 1996; according to the 2005 estimate, it is now 91.3% of the total population.
[edit] Statistics
Population: 5,759,732 (July 2005 est.)
Population growth rate: 2.56% (2005 est.)
Birth rate: 21.76 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Death rate: 2.63 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Net migration rate: 6.42 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 34.5% (male 1,015,084; female 973,220)
15-64 years: 61.7% (male 1,897,643; female 1,656,570)
65 years and over: 3.8% (male 106,168; female 111,047) (2005 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.15 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.96 male(s)/female
total population: 1.1 male(s)/female (2005 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 17.35 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 78.24 years
male: 75.75 years
female: 80.88 years (2005 est.)
Total fertility rate: 2.71 children born/woman (2005 est.)
Nationality:
noun: Jordanian(s)
adjective: Jordanian
non-Jordanians: 349.933 (7%) at the 2004 Census
Ethnic groups: Arab 98%, Circassian 1%, Armenian 1%
Religions: Muslim (Sunni) 92%, Christian 6% (majority Greek Orthodox, but some Greek and Roman Catholics, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Protestant denominations), other 2% (several small Shi'a Muslim and Druze populations) (2001 est.)
Languages: Arabic (official), English widely understood among the educated and the upper and middle classes
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 91.3%
male: 95.9%
female: 86.3% (2003 est.)
