Jordan has a population of more than 11.1 million inhabitants as of 2023. Jordanians are the citizens of Jordan. Around 94% of Jordanians are Arabs, while the remaining 6% belong to ethnic minorities, including Circassians, Chechens, Armenians and Kurds. In early 2016 about 30% of the population were non-citizens, a figure including refugees, legal and illegal immigrants. Jordan's annual population growth rate stands at 3.05% as of 2023, with an average birth rate of 2.8. There were 1,977,534 households in Jordan in 2015, with an average of 4.8 persons per household. The official language is Arabic, while English is the second most widely spoken language by Jordanians. It is also widely used in commerce and government. In 2016, about 84% of Jordan's population live in urban towns and cities. Many Jordanians and people of Jordanian descent live across the world, mainly in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries, United States, Canada and Turkey. In 2016, Jordan was named as the largest refugee hosting country per capita in the world, followed by Turkey, Pakistan and Lebanon. Jordan hosts refugees mainly from the Palestinian territories, Syria, and Iraq, as well as smaller communities from other nations. There are also hundreds of thousands of workers from Egypt, Indonesia and South Asia, who work as domestic and construction workers.

Definition

The territory of Jordan can be defined by the history of its creation following events after the end of World War I, the League of Nations and redrawing of the borders of the Eastern Mediterranean littoral. The ensuing decisions, most notably the Sykes–Picot Agreement, which created the Mandatory Palestine. In September 1922, Transjordan was formally identified as a subdivision of the Mandate Palestine after the League of Nations approved the British Transjordan memorandum which stated that the Mandate east of the Jordan River would be excluded from all the provisions dealing with Jewish settlement west of the Jordan River.

Ethnic and religious groups

Arab

Arab Jordanians are mostly either descended from families and clans who were living in the cities and towns in Transjordan prior to Jordanian independence in 1946, most notably in the governorates of Jerash, Ajlun, Balqa, Irbid, Madaba, Al Karak, Aqaba, Amman and some other towns in the country, or from the Palestinian families who sought refuge in Jordan in different times in the 20th century, mostly during and after the wars of 1948 and 1967. Many Christians are natives especially in towns such as Fuhies, Madaba, Al Karak, Ajlun, or have Bedouin origins, and a significant number came in 1948 and 1967 mainly from Jerusalem, Jaffa, Lydda, Bethlehem, and other Palestinian cities.

Druze

The Druze people are believed to constitute about 0.5% of the total population of Jordan, around 32,000 people. The Druze, who refer to themselves as al-Muwahhideen, or "believers in one God," are concentrated in the rural, mountainous areas west and north of Amman. Even though the faith originally developed out of Ismaili Islam, most Druze do not identify as Muslims, and they do not accept the five pillars of Islam.

Bedouin Arabs

The other group of Jordanians is descended from Bedouins, of which less than 1% live a nomadic lifestyle. Bedouin settlements are concentrated in the south and east of the country.

Afro-Jordanians

An unknown but considerable number of Jordanians are of African descent.

Armenians

There were an estimated 5,000 Armenians living within the country in 2009. An estimated 4,500 of these are members of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and predominantly speak the Western dialect of the Armenian language. This population makes up the majority of non-Arab Christians in the country.

Assyrians

There is an Assyrian refugee population in Jordan. Many Assyrians have arrived in Jordan as refugees since the invasion of Iraq, making up a large part of the Iraqi refugees.

Turks

There are people of Turkish ancestry living in Jordan. These people have had a thriving presence in Jordan since the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Today, there is a minority of about 60,000 people in the country who are the descendants of the Ottoman-Turkish immigrants. As of 2009, there are also 8,262 Turkish citizens who are recent migrants to Jordan.

Circassians

By the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman Authorities directed the Circassian immigrants to settle in Jordan. The Circassians are Sunni Muslims and are estimated to number 100,000 to 170,000 people.

Chechens

There are about 10,000 Chechens estimated to reside in Jordan.

Doms

There are around 70,000 gypsies in Jordan.

Refugees

Jordan is a home to 2,175,491 registered Palestinian refugees. Out of those 2,175,491 refugees, 634,182 have not been given Jordanian citizenship. Jordan also hosts around 1.4 million Syrian refugees who fled to the country due to the Syrian Civil War since 2011. About 31,163 Yemenis and 22,700 Libyan refugees live in Jordan as of January 2015. There are thousands of Lebanese refugees who came to Jordan when civil strife and war and the 2006 war broke out in their native country. Up to 1 million Iraqis came to Jordan following the Iraq War in 2003. In 2015, their number was 130,911. About 2,500 Iraqi Mandaean refugees have been resettled in Jordan.

Genetics

Bahri et al. (2011) observed that the Jordanians have a genetic profile that is Arabian Semitic, despite the succession of several civilizations in Jordan. They have a common origin in Mesopotamia and are not too genetically dissimilar from the peoples of the United Arab Emirates and North Africa, who respectively have a common origin in Arabia and North Africa. Zanetti et al. (2014) discovered significant genetic differentiation between general Jordanians and Bedouin Arabs. General Jordanians were more similar to other Middle Eastern populations whilst Bedouin Arabs were more similar to North Africans. However, the Bedouin Arabs played a significant role in the "peopling" of Jordan, both in the past and present.

Religion

Health and education

Jordan prides itself on its health services, some of the best in the region. Qualified medics, favourable investment climate and Jordan's stability have contributed to the success of this sector. Jordan has a very advanced education system. The school education system comprises 2 years of pre-school education, 10 years of compulsory basic education, and two years of secondary academic or vocational education, after which the students sit for the General Certificate of Secondary Education Exam (Tawjihi). Scholars may attend either private or public schools. Access to higher education is open to holders of the General Secondary Education Certificate, who can then choose between private Community Colleges, public Community Colleges or universities (public and private). The credit-hour system, which entitles students to select courses according to a study plan, is implemented at universities. The number of public universities has reached (10), besides (17) universities that are private, and (51) community colleges. Numbers of universities accompanied by significant increase in number of students enrolled to study in these universities, where the number of enrolled students in both public and private universities is estimated at nearly (236) thousand; (28) thousand out of the total are from Arab or foreign nationalities. Source: UN World Population Prospects

Statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

Total population

11,200,320 (According to the Population Clock as of July 23, 2022).

Gender ratio

Age structure

Structure of the population

Median age

Population growth rate

Birth rate

Births and deaths

Death rate

Net migration rate

Urbanization

Maternal mortality rate

Life expectancy at birth

Total fertility rate

Fertility Rate (The Demographic Health Survey) Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and CBR (Crude Birth Rate): Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) by nationality As of 2023, the total fertility rate was between 2.9-3.1 in the northern governorates of Irbid, Ajloun, Jarash, Mafraq, and Zarqa; and between 1.9-2.4 in all other governorates.

Health expenditures

Physicians density

Hospital bed density

Obesity - adult prevalence rate

Government health reports indicate that about 40% of Jordanian adults are overweight and child obesity stands at more than 50%.

Children under the age of 5 years underweight

Literacy rate

15–24 years (in 2015): 15 years and older (in 2015):

UN estimates