Jordan
Name
| Official name | Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan — al-Mamlaka al-Urdunniyya al-Hāshimiyya (المملكة الأردنية الهاشمية) |
|---|---|
| Former names | The Emirate of Transjordan (1921–1946); the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan (1946–1949); the Ottoman sanjaks of the vilayet of Syria before |
| Demonym | Jordanian |
| Meaning of the name | From the Jordan River — Yarden in Hebrew, "the descender," the river that falls from Hermon to the Dead Sea; Hashemite for the house of Hashim, the Prophet's clan |
| Motto | "Allāh, al-Waṭan, al-Malik" — God, homeland, king; on the arms |
Quick facts
| Capital | Amman — Philadelphia of the Decapolis, the capital since 1921; about 4.5 million in the governorate |
|---|---|
| Largest cities | Amman; Zarqa, about 700,000; Irbid; Russeifa; Aqaba; Madaba; Salt; Karak; Mafraq |
| Official language | Arabic; English the second language of business and the universities; the Circassian and Chechen of the old communities |
| Currency | Jordanian dinar — ISO code JOD, JD; 1,000 fils; pegged at 0.709 to the U.S. dollar since 1995 |
| Time zone | Jordan Time, UTC+3, all year — summer time made permanent in October 2022 |
| Calling code | +962 |
| Internet domains | .jo and .الاردن |
| ISO 3166 codes | JO · JOR · 400 |
| Vehicle registration code | HKJ |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 230 V, 50 Hz; plug types C, D, F, G and J — every kind, from every ruler |
| Independence | 25 May 1946, from the British Mandate — Abdullah I proclaimed king; the emirate founded 11 April 1921 |
| National days | 25 May, Independence Day; 30 January, the King's Birthday; 10 June, Army Day and the anniversary of the Arab Revolt of 1916; 1 May; the Islamic feasts and the Christian Christmas for the Christians |
| Constitution | 8 January 1952 — the Constitution of the Hashemite Kingdom, of King Talal's year; amended in 2011, 2014, 2016 and 2022, the last creating the National Security Council under the King; the elections law of 2022 for the parties |
| Population | 9,531,712 at the census of 2015, about 2.9 million of them foreigners; about 11.6 million (Department of Statistics, 2025 est.) |
| Area | 89,342 km² (34,495 sq mi) — land 88,802 km², water 540 km² |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | The flag of the Arab Revolt — horizontal bands of black, white and green for the Abbasid, Umayyad and Fatimid caliphates, with a red triangle at the hoist for the Hashemites bearing a white seven-pointed star for the seven verses of the Fatiha and the unity of the Arab peoples; adopted 16 April 1928.Flag of Jordan |
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| Coat of arms | An eagle of the Prophet's banner on a globe, before the flags of the Revolt, with a shield, spears and swords, a Bedouin's wheat and palm, under the Hashemite crown on a mantle, with the Order of the Renaissance and a scroll bearing the King's name and the motto — designed 1921, fixed 1934 |
| National anthem | "As-Salam al-Malaki al-Urduni" ("The Royal Anthem of Jordan") — "Long live the King" — words by Abdul Munim al-Rifai, music by Abdul Qadir al-Tanir; adopted 1946; the short form of four lines sung |
| National motto | "Allāh, al-Waṭan, al-Malik" |
| National colors | Black, white, green and red |
| National flower | The black iris — Iris nigricans, the dark flower of the hills of Madaba in spring; declared |
| National bird | The Sinai rosefinch — the pink finch of Petra's cliffs; widely cited |
| National animal | The Arabian oryx — extinct in the wild by 1972 and returned at the Shaumari reserve in 1978, the first such return; widely cited |
| National dish | Mansaf — lamb cooked in the fermented dried yogurt, jameed, on rice and shrak bread, eaten by hand from the great tray — the dish of the Bedouin and the state, on UNESCO's intangible list since 2022 |
| Symbol status | The flag and arms are fixed by the Constitution and decree; the anthem by decree; the flower by declaration; the mansaf by UNESCO listing; the bird and animal widely cited |
Geography
| Location | The Middle East — the Levant's east, between Israel and the West Bank across the Jordan, Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the east and south; the Gulf of Aqaba at the foot |
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| Land borders | 1,744 km (1,084 mi) — Saudi Arabia 731, Syria 379, Israel 307, Iraq 179, the West Bank 148 |
| Coastline | 26 km (16 mi) — the Gulf of Aqaba, the country's only sea; the border with Saudi Arabia moved in 1965 to lengthen it |
| Highest point | Jabal Umm ad Dami, 1,854 m (6,083 ft), in the south by Wadi Rum |
| Lowest point | The Dead Sea, 430 m (1,411 ft) below sea level — the lowest land on earth |
| Mean elevation | 812 m (2,664 ft) |
| Rivers and lakes | The Jordan, the western border, reduced to a trickle by the diversions of three countries; the Yarmouk from Syria with the Unity Dam of 2006; the Zarqa, the Jabbok of Genesis; the Mujib and the Hasa to the Dead Sea; the Dead Sea, 605 km², shrinking; the Azraq oasis, pumped dry and refilled in part |
| Terrain | The Jordan Rift Valley along the west, the Ghor of the farms below the sea; the highlands of the western plateau at 700 to 1,600 m with the cities and the wadis — Mujib, the "Grand Canyon of Jordan"; the eastern desert, three-quarters of the land, the basalt of the north and the sand of the south; Wadi Rum |
| Climate | Mediterranean on the plateau — wet winters with snow on Amman, dry summers; desert over the east with under 100 mm; the Ghor subtropical, 40°C in summer; the khamsin of spring |
| Natural hazards | Drought — among the most water-scarce countries in the world; flash floods in the wadis, the Dead Sea school bus of 26 October 2018 with 21 dead; the sinkholes of the Dead Sea shore; earthquakes on the rift, the last great one in 1927; dust storms |
| Natural resources | Phosphates at Eshidiya and Al-Abyad, among the largest reserves in the world; potash and bromine from the Dead Sea; oil shale, the largest reserves after the great powers, burned since 2023 at Attarat; uranium; the sun and wind; little water and no oil |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 12%; forest about 1% |
| National parks and reserves | Dana, the largest, from the highlands to the Araba; Wadi Rum, the protected area; Mujib, the lowest reserve on earth; Azraq wetland and Shaumari of the oryx; Ajloun forest; the Aqaba marine park |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 7 — Petra and Quseir Amra (1985); Um er-Rasas (2004); the Wadi Rum protected area (2011), a mixed site; Bethany Beyond the Jordan, the baptism site (2015); As-Salt, the place of tolerance and urban hospitality (2021); Umm Al-Jimāl (2024); the mansaf and the Bedouin traditions of Petra and Wadi Rum on the intangible list |
| Administrative divisions | 12 governorates — Amman, Irbid, Zarqa, Balqa, Mafraq, Karak, Jerash, Madaba, Ajloun, Aqaba, Tafilah and Ma'an — in three regions; the Aqaba Special Economic Zone of 2001 |
People
| Population | 9,531,712 (census of 2015); about 11.6 million (2025 est.) |
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| Population density | About 130 per km² (335 per sq mi) overall — above 1,000 in Amman, under 10 in the desert |
| Population growth | About 1% a year now — the doubling of 2000–2020 by the births and the refugees |
| Median age | About 24 years |
| Life expectancy | About 75 years |
| Fertility rate | About 2.6 births per woman |
| Urban population | About 92% |
| Adult literacy | About 98% |
| Ethnic groups | Arab about 98% — Jordanians of the East Bank tribes and Jordanians of Palestinian origin, about half by most estimates, the census not asking; Circassians about 100,000 and Chechens, the Muslim exiles of the Caucasus of the 1870s, the King's guard; Armenians; the foreigners — Syrians, Egyptians, Palestinians of Gaza, Iraqis, Yemenis |
| Languages | Arabic by all, in the Jordanian dialect between the Bedouin and the urban; English by the educated, French and Circassian; the Domari of the Dom |
| Religion | Sunni Muslim about 97% — Islam the state religion by the Constitution, the King the custodian of the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem under the treaty of 1994; Christian about 2%, Greek Orthodox above all, with nine seats in parliament; the Druze and Baha'i few |
| Human Development Index | 0.754 (2023 data, 2025 report) — high; about 100th of 193 |
| The refugees | Some 2.4 million Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA, most of them citizens, in ten camps and the cities — the largest such population; about 1.3 million Syrians by the government's count and 530,000 registered with UNHCR, in Zaatari and Azraq and the towns of the north, the returns beginning after the fall of Assad in December 2024; Iraqis since 2003; among the highest refugee shares of any country |
| Sport | Football — the Nashama, finalists of the Asian Cup of 2024 and qualified for the World Cup of 2026 for the first time; taekwondo — Ahmad Abughaush's gold at Rio 2016, the country's first Olympic medal, and the silvers of 2021 and 2024; basketball; the King's Cup |
| Diaspora | About a million Jordanians abroad — in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates above all, the United States and Europe; the remittances a tenth of the economy |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the Constitution of 1952 in which the King holds the executive — appointing and dismissing the prime minister and the cabinet, dissolving parliament, commanding the army; the National Assembly of an elected House and an appointed Senate; the reforms of 2021–22 toward party governments by the 2030s |
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| King | Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, since 7 February 1999 — the fourth king; born 30 January 1962 in Amman to King Hussein and Princess Muna, the Englishwoman Antoinette Gardiner; Sandhurst and Oxford, the commander of the special forces; named crown prince two weeks before his father's death in place of his uncle Hassan; Queen Rania, born in Kuwait of a Palestinian family; the 41st generation from the Prophet by the Hashemite count |
| Crown Prince | Hussein bin Abdullah, since 2 July 2009 — born 28 June 1994; Georgetown and Sandhurst; married Rajwa Al Saif of Saudi Arabia on 1 June 2023, their daughter Iman born 2024; the regent in his father's absences |
| Prime Minister | Jafar Hassan (independent), since 15 September 2024 — the King's chief of staff since 2021, planning minister 2009–13, a diplomat with a doctorate from Geneva and degrees from Harvard and Boston, born 1968; the 44th prime minister; his cabinet reshuffled August 2025 |
| The 2024 election | Held 10 September 2024 for the 138 seats of the 20th House, the first under the law of 2022 with 41 seats for the national party lists: the Islamic Action Front, the Muslim Brotherhood's party, 31 seats, its largest share since the first election of 1989, on the anger of the Gaza war; the pro-government parties and the tribal independents the rest; turnout 32%; the IAF's complaint of "electoral harassment" by the security services; the King passing over the Front for the premiership |
| The Brotherhood | The Muslim Brotherhood, in the kingdom since 1945 and once the monarchy's ally, dissolved by the Court of Cassation in 2020 and banned outright on 23 April 2025 after the arrest of sixteen members over a plot with rockets and drones, its property seized; the Islamic Action Front searched but not banned, its deputies sitting; the cybercrime law of 2023 used against the protesters for Gaza |
| Parliament | The House of Representatives — 138 members elected for four years, 97 in the governorates and 41 from national lists, with 18 seats reserved for women, 9 for Christians and 3 for Circassians and Chechens; the Senate — 69 appointed by the King |
| The next election | Due by 2028 |
| The peace and the war | The treaty with Israel of 26 October 1994 at Wadi Araba, the second Arab peace after Egypt's — the custodianship of the Jerusalem holy places, the water and the gas; the treaty under strain since October 2023, the ambassador withdrawn, the protests at the embassy, the King's warnings against the expulsion of Palestinians to Jordan as a red line, the aid drops over Gaza, the field hospitals; the Israeli and Iranian missiles crossing Jordanian skies and shot down over Amman on 13 April 2024 and in the wars of 2025 and 2026 |
| Legal system | Civil law on the French and Ottoman models with sharia courts for Muslim personal status and church courts for the Christians; the Constitutional Court of 2012; the Court of Cassation; the State Security Court; the death penalty, resumed in 2014 and 2017 |
| Governorates | 12 under governors appointed by the interior ministry; the municipalities and the Greater Amman Municipality with elected councils and appointed mayors; the decentralization councils of 2017 |
| The Palestinians | The West Bank held from 1948 to 1967 and claimed until the disengagement of 31 July 1988; the citizenship of most Palestinian refugees, and its withdrawal from some; the King's stand for the two-state solution and against the "alternative homeland" of the Israeli right; the Gaza question of 2025 and Amman's refusal |
| Defense | The Jordan Armed Forces, the Arab Army of the Legion — about 100,000, the best-trained of the Arab world by reputation; the King's special forces; the American aid and the 3,000 U.S. troops at Muwaffaq Salti; the intelligence service, the GID, the ally of the West |
| United Nations | Member since 14 December 1955; UNRWA's largest field; Security Council seats in 1965–66, 1982–83 and 2014–15; Prince Zeid the High Commissioner for Human Rights 2014–18 |
| Memberships | The Arab League, a founder in 1945; the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; the WTO since 2000; the free trade agreement with the United States of 2001, the first with an Arab state; the association with the EU; a major non-NATO ally since 1996 |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$55 billion (2025, IMF) |
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| GDP per capita | About US$4,700 (2025) |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$13,000 (2025) |
| GDP growth | About 2.5% a year (2023–25) — steady and slow; unemployment above 21%, and above 40% of the young; inflation about 2% |
| Economy by sector | Services about 66%, industry about 28%, agriculture about 5% |
| Currency | Jordanian dinar (JOD), pegged to the dollar |
| Phosphates and potash | The Jordan Phosphate Mines Company, among the largest exporters in the world from Eshidiya; the Arab Potash Company's pans on the Dead Sea, the eighth producer; the fertilizers of Aqaba — about a fifth of exports |
| Other exports | The garments of the qualified industrial zones sewn for the United States; pharmaceuticals, Hikma the multinational; vegetables and fruit of the Ghor to the Gulf; the ICT of Amman's startups; the medical tourism |
| Aid | The United States' US$1.45 billion a year under the memorandum of 2022–29, the largest per head of any country of size; the Gulf's; the EU's; the IMF programs of 2016 and 2024; the aid and the remittances holding the peg |
| Tourism | About 6 million visitors a year before the wars of the neighbors — Petra with a million, the Dead Sea, Wadi Rum, Jerash, Aqaba; about 14% of GDP; halved in 2024 by the Gaza war |
| Water | Among the poorest countries in water on earth, about 60 cubic meters a person a year, a twentieth of the scarcity line — the Disi aquifer pumped from the south since 2013, the Aqaba–Amman desalination and conveyance of US$5 billion under construction, the water of the 1994 treaty, the rationing of the taps |
| Public finances | Public debt about 90% of GDP; the deficit about 5%; the subsidies of bread and fuel, the reforms and the protests of 2018 that felled a government; the Economic Modernization Vision of 2022 |
| Income classification | Lower-middle income (World Bank) — reclassified downward in 2017 by the refugee count |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airport | Queen Alia International Airport, 30 km south of Amman, of 2013 — about 9 million passengers; King Hussein International at Aqaba; Marka in the city |
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| Airline | Royal Jordanian, founded 1963 as Alia — a member of oneworld, the carrier of the kingdom; the low-cost Jordan Aviation |
| Main port | Aqaba — the one port, the container terminal run by APM, the phosphate and potash berths, the ferries to Egypt at Nuweiba; the outlet of Iraq during the wars |
| Railways | The Hejaz Railway of 1908 from Damascus toward Medina, its Amman station and the tourist steam trains; the Aqaba railway of 1975 for the phosphates from the mines; no passenger network; the Amman–Zarqa line of the plans; the national railway to Aqaba planned with the Gulf |
| Roads | About 7,200 km (4,500 mi), nearly all paved; the Desert Highway from Amman to Aqaba, 335 km; the King's Highway of the Bible through Madaba, Karak and Petra; the Dead Sea Highway; the Amman Bus Rapid Transit of 2021 |
| The crossings | The King Hussein–Allenby Bridge to the West Bank, the Palestinians' door; the Sheikh Hussein and Wadi Araba crossings to Israel; Jaber–Nasib to Syria, reopened 2025; Karama to Iraq; Umari to Saudi Arabia |
History in dates
| c. 7250 BC | The Ain Ghazal statues — among the oldest human figures |
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| c. 1200 BC | Ammon, Moab and Edom — the kingdoms of the Bible |
| c. 312 BC | The Nabataeans at Petra |
| 106 | Rome's Arabia Petraea; the Decapolis |
| 636 | The Battle of Yarmouk, 20 August — the Arab conquest of Syria |
| c. 720 | The Umayyad desert castles — Quseir Amra |
| 1187 | Saladin's victory at Hattin; Karak falls, 1188 |
| 1516 | The Ottomans |
| 1908 | The Hejaz Railway reaches Medina |
| 1916 | The Arab Revolt, 10 June — Sharif Hussein; Aqaba taken, 6 July 1917 |
| 1921 | The Emirate of Transjordan, 11 April — Abdullah I |
| 1946 | Independence, 25 May |
| 1948 | The war; the West Bank held; the refugees |
| 1950 | The West Bank annexed, 24 April |
| 1951 | Abdullah I assassinated at al-Aqsa, 20 July |
| 1952 | Hussein king, 11 August; the Constitution |
| 1967 | The Six-Day War — the West Bank lost, 5–10 June |
| 1970 | Black September — the war with the PLO |
| 1988 | The disengagement from the West Bank, 31 July |
| 1989 | The bread riots; the first election in 22 years, 8 November |
| 1994 | Peace with Israel, 26 October |
| 1999 | Hussein dies, 7 February — Abdullah II |
| 2005 | The Amman hotel bombings, 9 November — 60 dead |
| 2011 | The Arab Spring protests; the amendments |
| 2016 | The Karak attack, 18 December |
| 2021 | The affair of Prince Hamzah, April |
| 2023 | The Crown Prince's wedding, 1 June; the Gaza war, October |
| 2024 | The missiles shot down over Amman, 13 April; the election, 10 September; Jafar Hassan, 15 September |
| 2025 | The Brotherhood banned, 23 April |
| 2026 | The skies crossed again in the Iran war, February |
Records & firsts
| The lowest land on earth | The Dead Sea shore, 430 m below |
|---|---|
| Petra | A New Seven Wonder of the World, 2007 |
| Among the poorest in water | About 60 cubic meters a head a year |
| Among the highest refugee shares | Palestinians, Syrians, Iraqis |
| The oldest human statues, nearly | Ain Ghazal, 7250 BC |
| The second Arab peace with Israel | 1994 |
| The first Arab free-trade agreement with the United States | 2001 |
| The lowest nature reserve on earth | Mujib |
| The Arabian oryx returned | Shaumari, 1978 — the first such return |
| Wadi Rum as Mars | The Martian, Dune and the rest |
| A house descended from the Prophet | The Hashemites, 41 generations |
| Mansaf | On UNESCO's list, 2022 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Jordan?
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan — al-Mamlaka al-Urdunniyya al-Hāshimiyya — the name since 1949, when the Kingdom of Transjordan, independent from the British mandate on 25 May 1946, had taken the West Bank; the Emirate of Transjordan of 1921 before that. The Hashemites are the house of Hussein, Sharif of Mecca, who launched the Arab Revolt of 1916 and whose sons Britain made kings in Amman and Baghdad; they trace their line to the Prophet's great-grandfather Hashim. The Jordan is the river of the Bible along its western edge.
What is the capital of Jordan?
Amman, on seven hills, then nineteen, in the north of the country — the Rabbath Ammon of the Ammonites and the Philadelphia of the Roman Decapolis, whose theater and citadel stand in its center, a village of Circassians when Emir Abdullah made it his capital in 1921; about 4.5 million people in the governorate, some two-fifths of the country, swollen by every war of the region. Zarqa, the industrial city beside it, and Irbid in the north are the other cities of size; Aqaba the one port and resort; Salt the old town of the Ottomans.
How big is Jordan, and how many people live there?
About 89,342 km² (34,495 sq mi) — a little smaller than Indiana, about the size of Portugal — a wedge of desert between Israel and the West Bank, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, with 26 km of coast on the Gulf of Aqaba, three-quarters of it the eastern desert where almost no one lives. The census of 2015 counted 9,531,712 people, a third of them foreigners; the Department of Statistics estimates about 11.6 million for 2025, a population doubled since 2000 by the births and the refugees of Iraq and Syria, with about half of Palestinian origin.
What are the highest and lowest points of Jordan?
Jabal Umm ad Dami, 1,854 m (6,083 ft), in the far south near the Saudi border by Wadi Rum, the desert of Lawrence and the film crews; and the shore of the Dead Sea, 430 m (1,411 ft) below sea level, the lowest point on the land surface of the earth, shared with Israel and the West Bank and shrinking a meter a year. The Jordan River runs down the rift between them, and the Yarmouk from Syria; the plateau of the west, at 700 to 1,200 m, holds the cities and the rain.
What currency does Jordan use?
The Jordanian dinar (ISO code JOD, JD), of 1,000 fils and 100 piastres, issued by the Central Bank of Jordan since 1964 — pegged to the U.S. dollar at 0.709 since 1995, one dinar buying 1.41 dollars, among the most valuable units in the world. Clocks keep Jordan Time, UTC+3, all year since the kingdom stayed on summer time for good in October 2022; the working week runs Sunday to Thursday.
Who governs Jordan?
King Abdullah II, the fourth king of the Hashemite line in Amman, sovereign since the death of his father Hussein on 7 February 1999, holding under the Constitution of 1952 the power to appoint and dismiss the prime minister and the cabinet and to dissolve parliament; Crown Prince Hussein, his son, is the heir. Jafar Hassan, the King's chief of staff, has been prime minister since 15 September 2024, appointed after the election of 10 September 2024 in which the Islamic Action Front, the Muslim Brotherhood's party, won 31 of the 138 seats, its largest share since 1989, on a turnout of 32 percent; the Brotherhood itself was banned in April 2025. The next election is due by 2028.
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