Lebanon
Name
| Official name | Lebanese Republic — al-Jumhūrīyah al-Lubnānīyah (الجمهورية اللبنانية); République libanaise |
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| Former names | Phoenicia; the Ottoman Mutasarrifate of Mount Lebanon (1861–1918); the State of Greater Lebanon under the French mandate (1920–1943) |
| Demonym | Lebanese |
| Meaning of the name | Lubnān — from the Semitic root lbn, "white," for the snow of the mountain; in the Bible and the Gilgamesh epic, among the oldest country names in use |
| Motto | None official — "Kulluna lil-watan," all of us for the nation, the anthem's first words |
Quick facts
| Capital | Beirut — Bayrūt — the capital since 1920 and the seat of the Ottoman vilayet before; about 2.4 million with the suburbs |
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| Largest cities | Beirut; Tripoli, about 500,000; Sidon — Saida; Tyre — Sour; Zahlé; Jounieh; Byblos — Jbeil; Baalbek; Nabatieh |
| Official language | Arabic — in the Lebanese dialect; French the second language by the Constitution's protection and the schools, English the third; Armenian in the Armenian quarters; the trilingual "hi, kifak, ça va" |
| Currency | Lebanese pound — ISO code LBP, L£; 89,500 to the U.S. dollar since February 2024, from 1,507.5 before 2019; the dollar in use |
| Time zone | Eastern European Time, UTC+2; summer time UTC+3 |
| Calling code | +961 |
| Internet domain | .lb |
| ISO 3166 codes | LB · LBN · 422 |
| Vehicle registration code | RL |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 220 V, 50 Hz; plug types C, D and G — the state's power a few hours a day, the generators the rest |
| Independence | 22 November 1943, from the French mandate — the release of President Bechara El Khoury and Prime Minister Riad Al Solh from Rashaya; the last French troops out 31 December 1946 |
| National days | 22 November, Independence Day; 1 August, Army Day; 6 May, Martyrs' Day, for the nationalists hanged in 1916; 14 February, the Hariri commemoration; the Christian feasts of both calendars and the Muslim feasts all holidays — the most in the region |
| Constitution | 23 May 1926 — the Constitution of the mandate, amended by the Taif Agreement of 22 October 1989 in 1990 to share power evenly between Christians and Muslims; the unwritten National Pact of 1943 dividing the presidency, the premiership and the speakership among the Maronites, the Sunnis and the Shia; the parliament's term extended by itself in 2013, 2014 and 2026 |
| Population | No census since 1932; about 5.8 million (UN, 2025 est.) — including some 1.5 million Syrians and 200,000 Palestinian refugees; the citizens about 4 million |
| Area | 10,452 km² (4,036 sq mi) — land 10,230 km², water 170 km²; the Shebaa Farms and the Israeli-held strip of the south disputed |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | Two horizontal red bands around a white band twice their width, with a green cedar of Lebanon at the center — the blood shed for the country, the purity of the snow and the peace, and the cedar of the Bible, "the righteous shall flourish like the cedar in Lebanon"; drawn by the deputies of 1943 and adopted 7 December 1943.Flag of Lebanon |
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| Coat of arms | A red shield with a white bend bearing the cedar — the flag's device turned on the diagonal; adopted 1943 |
| National anthem | "Kulluna lil-Watan" ("All of Us, for the Nation") — words by Rashid Nakhle, music by Wadia Sabra; adopted 12 July 1927 |
| National colors | Red, white and green |
| National tree | The cedar of Lebanon — Cedrus libani, the tree of the flag, the temple of Solomon and the ships of the Phoenicians; a few groves left, the Cedars of God at Bsharri a World Heritage site; the emblem of every Lebanese institution |
| National bird | None designated — the hoopoe and the eagle of the Beqaa's migrations widely cited |
| National animal | None designated — the striped hyena of the hills the only wild survivor of note; the phoenix of the myth, reborn from every war, the nation's own emblem |
| National dish | The mezze — tabbouleh, hummus, fattoush, kibbeh, the flatbread and the arak — the cuisine of the Levant carried to the world by the diaspora; the manoushe of the morning; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag and anthem are fixed by the Constitution and law; the cedar by the flag; the bird, animal and dishes widely cited, none designated |
Geography
| Location | The eastern Mediterranean — the Levant, between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south; Cyprus 200 km across the water |
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| Land borders | 484 km (301 mi) — Syria 403, undemarcated in parts; Israel 81, the Blue Line drawn by the UN in 2000, with the Shebaa Farms and the villages held |
| Coastline | 225 km (140 mi) — the whole western edge |
| Highest point | Qurnat as Sawda, 3,088 m (10,131 ft), in Mount Lebanon — the highest in the Levant |
| Lowest point | The Mediterranean Sea, 0 m |
| Mean elevation | 1,250 m (4,101 ft) |
| Rivers | The Litani, 140 km, the longest, wholly Lebanese, from the Beqaa through the Qaraoun dam to the sea north of Tyre; the Orontes — the Asi — north to Syria; the Nahr Ibrahim, the Adonis of the myth, red each spring; the Nahr el-Kalb with the inscriptions of every conqueror from Ramesses to the French; the Beirut River |
| Terrain | Four strips from west to east — the coastal plain of the cities; the Mount Lebanon range, 160 km long, the mountain of the Maronites and the Druze with its gorges, the Qadisha valley and the ski slopes of the Cedars; the Beqaa valley, 120 km long at 900 m, the granary and the vineyards; the Anti-Lebanon along the Syrian border with Mount Hermon at its south |
| Climate | Mediterranean — hot dry summers, mild wet winters with 900 mm on the coast; the snow of the mountains from December to April, "ski in the morning, swim in the afternoon"; the Beqaa drier and colder |
| Natural hazards | Earthquakes — the Dead Sea fault through the Beqaa, Beirut destroyed in 551 and the quake of 1759; the wildfires of the dry summers; the dust storms; the floods of Beirut's winter; the explosion of 4 August 2020, among the largest non-nuclear blasts in history |
| Natural resources | Limestone; the water of the mountains, the most in the Arab east; the gas sought offshore — Block 9 drilled dry in 2023, the maritime line with Israel settled in October 2022; the cedars, the vines and the olives |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 64%; forest about 13% |
| Nature reserves | The Shouf Cedar reserve, the largest, a biosphere reserve with a quarter of the cedars; Horsh Ehden; the Tannourine cedars; the Palm Islands off Tripoli; Tyre Coast; the Jabal Moussa |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 6 — Anjar, the Umayyad city; Baalbek, the temples of the largest stones; Byblos, the port of 7,000 years and the alphabet; Tyre (all 1984); the Ouadi Qadisha and the Forest of the Cedars of God (1998); the Rachid Karami International Fair of Tripoli by Oscar Niemeyer (2023), on the danger list; the zajal poetry and the Al-Man'ouché flatbread on the intangible list |
| Administrative divisions | 9 governorates — Beirut, Mount Lebanon, North, Akkar, Baalbek-Hermel, Beqaa, South, Nabatieh and Keserwan-Jbeil, the last of 2017 — of 26 districts and about 1,000 municipalities |
People
| Population | About 5.8 million (2025 est.) — no census since 1932 |
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| Population density | About 550 per km² (1,430 per sq mi) — among the densest countries, the coast crowded |
| Population growth | About −0.5% a year for the citizens — the emigration of the crisis, some 200,000 gone since 2019; the refugees the other count |
| Median age | About 34 years |
| Life expectancy | About 78 years |
| Fertility rate | About 2 births per woman |
| Urban population | About 89% |
| Adult literacy | About 95% |
| Ethnic groups | Arab about 95%, in the state's count — the Maronites and many Christians calling themselves Phoenician or Lebanese rather than Arab; Armenian about 4%, the survivors of 1915 and their descendants in Bourj Hammoud; Kurds, Assyrians, Turkmen; the Palestinians of the twelve camps and the Syrians of every town |
| Languages | Arabic by all; French by about 40%, English by about 30%, the schools and the universities in both; Armenian by the Armenians; the Lebanese speak three in a sentence |
| Religion | 18 sects recognized by the state, each with its courts and its share — Muslim about 68%: Shia about 32%, of the south, the Beqaa and the Dahiyeh; Sunni about 31%, of Beirut, Tripoli and Sidon; Druze about 5%, of the Shouf; Christian about 32%: Maronite about 22%, the largest, of Mount Lebanon; Greek Orthodox about 8%; Greek Catholic about 5%; Armenian Apostolic; the shares by estimate, no census; the confessional register of every citizen |
| Human Development Index | 0.752 (2023 data, 2025 report) — high; about 102nd of 193 — down from 0.76 before the crisis |
| The refugees | About 1.5 million Syrians since 2011 by the government's count, 750,000 registered with UNHCR — the highest refugee share of any country on earth, a quarter of the people; the returns since the fall of Assad in December 2024, about 300,000; about 200,000 Palestinians in the twelve camps since 1948, without citizenship or most professions; the poverty of both and of the Lebanese, four in five below the line by the UN's count of 2021 |
| Sport | Basketball, the Lebanese league and the Asian Cup silver of 2022; football; the ski of the Cedars and Faraya; the rugby league of the diaspora; the Lebanese of the Olympics in weightlifting and shooting, the medals of 1952, 1972 and 1980 |
| Diaspora | Some 12 to 14 million of Lebanese descent abroad — in Brazil, 7 million by the claims, Argentina, the United States, Canada, Australia, France, the Gulf and West Africa; Carlos Slim, Shakira, Carlos Ghosn, Ralph Nader; the remittances a third of the economy; the nation larger abroad than at home |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary confessional parliamentary republic under the Constitution of 1926 as amended at Taif — the president, a Maronite, elected by parliament for six years; the prime minister, a Sunni, named by the president after consulting the deputies; the Speaker, a Shia; the parliament of 128 split evenly between Christians and Muslims and among the sects; the consensus of the sects the rule and the paralysis of the state its price |
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| President | Joseph Aoun (independent), since 9 January 2025 — the 14th; the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces 2017–25, born 10 January 1964 at Sin el Fil; elected in the second round of the 13th session with 99 of the 128 votes after twenty-nine months of vacancy since Michel Aoun's term ended in October 2022, the fourth army chief in a row to hold the office; "a new era," the state's monopoly on arms, his inaugural word |
| Prime Minister | Nawaf Salam (independent), since 8 February 2025 — the president of the International Court of Justice 2024–25 and the ambassador to the UN 2007–17, born 15 December 1953 in Beirut of the Sunni house of Salam that gave the state two prime ministers; named 13 January 2025 with 84 votes over the caretaker Najib Mikati and Hezbollah's wish; the government of 24 ministers, the first full one since 2022, given confidence on 26 February 2025 |
| Speaker | Nabih Berri (Amal Movement), Speaker of Parliament since 20 October 1992 — the longest-serving in the world, the Shia leader of the militia of the war and the ally of Hezbollah, born 1938 in Sierra Leone; the man through whom every deal passes |
| The war of 2026 | The war of the United States and Israel with Iran from 28 February 2026 spilling into Lebanon — the Israeli strikes on the Dahiyeh and the south, Hezbollah's rockets after the year of restraint since the ceasefire of 27 November 2024, the displacement of the south again; the parliament's session under the airstrikes over Beirut's suburbs in March 2026 extending its own mandate by two years under the "force majeure" of the war, the election of 10 May 2026 set by the decree of 2 February postponed to 2028 — the Lebanese Forces of Samir Geagea objecting, "an attempt to cling to power," and proposing six months |
| The arms of Hezbollah | The cabinet's decision of 7 August 2025 to task the army with a plan for the state's monopoly on arms by the end of 2025 — Hezbollah's refusal, "we will not hand them over," its ministers walking out; the army's plan of September 2025 in phases; the American and Israeli demand and the Israeli strikes continuing through the ceasefire, some 300 dead in the year after it by the UN's count; the party weakened by the war of 2024, the pagers of 17 September, the killing of Hassan Nasrallah on 27 September 2024 and of his successor, and the fall of Assad, its road to Iran |
| Parliament | The Chamber of Deputies — Majlis al-Nuwwab — 128 members, 64 Christian and 64 Muslim, allotted by sect and district, elected 15 May 2022 for four years by the proportional law of 2017 with 15 seats for the reformists of 2019; the term extended to 2028; the vacancy of the presidency of 2022–25 the chamber's failure through twelve sessions |
| The next election | Postponed from 10 May 2026 to 2028 by the extension of March 2026; the presidential election by parliament due in 2031 |
| The crisis of 2019 | The uprising of 17 October 2019 against the political class — the banks closed, the deposits frozen, the pound's fall from 1,507 to 89,500, the default of March 2020, the first in the country's history, the economy shrunk by 40%, the poverty of 80%; "one of the three most severe crises since the mid-19th century," the World Bank wrote; the Beirut port explosion of 4 August 2020 — 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate stored six years, 218 dead, 7,000 injured, 300,000 homeless, the inquiry blocked by the politicians it named and revived in 2025 |
| The civil war | 13 April 1975 to 13 October 1990 — the militias of the sects, the Palestinians, the Syrians in from 1976 and out only in 2005, the Israelis in 1978 and 1982, Sabra and Shatila of 16–18 September 1982, the Marine barracks of 23 October 1983 with 241 Americans dead, the 17,000 disappeared; about 120,000 killed by the accepted count; the Taif Agreement of 22 October 1989; the amnesty of 1991 and the warlords in parliament since |
| Legal system | Civil law on the French model with the 18 sects' religious courts for marriage, divorce and inheritance — no civil marriage in the country; the Constitutional Council; the Court of Cassation; the Special Tribunal for Lebanon of 2009–23, which convicted Hezbollah members in absentia of Hariri's murder |
| Governorates | 9 under governors named by the cabinet; the municipal elections of May 2025, the first in nine years |
| Defense | The Lebanese Armed Forces of about 80,000, the one institution of all the sects, armed by the United States; Hezbollah's arsenal beside it, once the largest of any non-state force, cut down by the war of 2024; UNIFIL of 10,000 in the south since 1978, its mandate ended by the Security Council in August 2025 for withdrawal by 2027 |
| Syria and Israel | Syria's army in the country from 1976 to 26 April 2005, driven out by the Cedar Revolution after the assassination of Rafic Hariri on 14 February 2005; the fall of Assad on 8 December 2024 and the new Syria's border talks; Israel's occupation of the south from 1982 to 25 May 2000, the war of July 2006, the war of 2023–24 with some 4,000 Lebanese dead, the five positions held after the ceasefire; no peace and no recognition |
| United Nations | A founding member, 24 October 1945 — Charles Malik among the drafters of the Universal Declaration; UNIFIL and UNRWA; the Security Council seats of 1953 and 2010–11 |
| Memberships | The Arab League, a founder in 1945; the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie; the Non-Aligned Movement; the WTO as an observer; the association with the EU |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$25 billion (2025, IMF) — from about US$55 billion in 2018, the economy halved by the collapse |
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| GDP per capita | About US$4,500 (2025) — from US$8,000 in 2018 |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$12,000 (2025) |
| GDP growth | A contraction of about 7% in 2024 in the war and the first growth in 2025 — the recovery halted again by 2026; inflation from 200% in 2023 to about 15%; the dollarized economy |
| Economy by sector | Services about 75% — the banks that failed, the trade, the tourism; industry about 20%; agriculture about 5% |
| Currency | Lebanese pound (LBP), at 89,500; the dollar in fact |
| Remittances | About US$6 to 7 billion a year from the diaspora — about a third of GDP, the highest share of any Arab country and the country's lifeline; the dollars in cash, the "fresh dollars," the real currency |
| The banks | The banking system that held US$170 billion of deposits in 2019, lent to the state and the central bank in the "regulated Ponzi" of the World Bank's phrase, and froze them all — the depositors paid pennies on the dollar, the losses of US$70 billion unassigned; Riad Salamé, the central bank governor of thirty years, arrested in September 2024; the bank resolution law of 2025 and the IMF's conditions; the deal of 2022 unratified |
| Trade and tourism | The Gulf's visitors and money, back in 2025 after the Saudi thaw; the summer of the diaspora; the wine of the Beqaa, the jewelry, the pharmaceuticals; the port of Beirut, rebuilt in part; the Syrian trade reopened |
| Reconstruction | The damage of the war of 2024 about US$11 billion by the World Bank's count, the south, the Beqaa and the Dahiyeh; the donors' conditions on the arms and the reforms; the war of 2026 adding to it |
| Public finances | Public debt about 180% of GDP before the default, restructured in name only; the budget of 2025 the first passed on time in years; the state's salaries worth a tenth of their old value; the electricity company's losses the old hole |
| Income classification | Lower-middle income (World Bank) since 2022 — from upper-middle before the collapse |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airport | Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport — the only one, about 7 million passengers in the good years, closed and reopened by the wars; the Qlayaat airfield of the north proposed as the second |
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| Airline | Middle East Airlines — MEA, founded 1945, the flag carrier that flew through every war and the only airline landing in Beirut in October 2024 |
| Main ports | Beirut, the port of 1887 and of the explosion of 2020, its grain silos fallen in 2022 and the terminal working again; Tripoli, the second, grown since; Sidon; Tyre; the Jounieh marina |
| Railways | None in service — the Beirut–Damascus rack railway of 1895 over the mountain and the coastal line to Tripoli and the Orient Express connection, all dead by the 1970s, the stations and the engines rusting; the revival proposed for a century |
| Roads | About 22,000 km (13,700 mi), most paved and many broken; the coastal highway from Tripoli to Tyre, the Beirut–Damascus road over the Dahr al-Baidar pass; the service taxis and the buses of no timetable; the traffic of Beirut |
| The mountain | The Jeita grotto, the caverns of the Nahr el-Kalb; the ski of the Cedars, Faraya and Laklouk; the Qadisha valley of the monasteries; the road to Baalbek over the Beqaa |
History in dates
| c. 5000 BC | Byblos settled — among the oldest continuously inhabited cities |
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| c. 1200 BC | The Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon; the alphabet, c. 1050 BC; Carthage founded, 814 BC |
| 64 BC | Pompey — Roman Phoenicia; the temples of Baalbek |
| 551 | The earthquake and tsunami of Beirut |
| c. 7th century | The Maronites settle Mount Lebanon |
| 1516 | The Ottoman conquest |
| 1590 | Fakhr al-Din II, the Druze emir of Mount Lebanon |
| 1860 | The massacres of the Maronites; the Mutasarrifate, 1861 |
| 1915–1918 | The famine of Mount Lebanon — a third of the people dead |
| 1920 | Greater Lebanon, 1 September — the French mandate |
| 1926 | The Constitution, 23 May |
| 1943 | Independence, 22 November; the National Pact |
| 1948 | The Palestinian refugees |
| 1958 | The crisis; the U.S. Marines land |
| 1975 | The civil war begins, 13 April |
| 1976 | The Syrian army enters |
| 1982 | The Israeli invasion, 6 June; Sabra and Shatila, 16–18 September |
| 1983 | The Marine and French barracks bombed, 23 October |
| 1989 | The Taif Agreement, 22 October |
| 1990 | The war ends, 13 October |
| 1992 | Berri Speaker; Hariri prime minister |
| 2000 | Israel withdraws from the south, 25 May |
| 2005 | Hariri assassinated, 14 February; the Cedar Revolution; the Syrians leave, 26 April |
| 2006 | The July war, 12 July – 14 August |
| 2019 | The uprising, 17 October; the collapse |
| 2020 | The default, 7 March; the port explosion, 4 August |
| 2022 | The election, 15 May; the presidency vacant, 31 October |
| 2023 | Hezbollah joins the war, 8 October |
| 2024 | The pagers, 17 September; Nasrallah killed, 27 September; the ceasefire, 27 November |
| 2025 | Joseph Aoun president, 9 January; Salam prime minister, 8 February; the arms decision, 7 August |
| 2026 | The war spills in, from 28 February; the election postponed to 2028, March |
Records & firsts
| The alphabet | The Phoenician letters of about 1050 BC, the ancestor of most |
|---|---|
| Among the oldest cities | Byblos, 7,000 years |
| The largest cut stones | The trilithon of Baalbek, 800 tons each |
| The highest refugee share on earth | A quarter of the people |
| A nation larger abroad | Some 12 to 14 million of descent |
| The longest-serving speaker | Berri, since 1992 |
| No census since 1932 | The sects uncounted by design |
| Among the worst crises since 1850 | The World Bank's finding, 2021 |
| A currency down 98% | From 1,507 to 89,500 |
| Among the largest non-nuclear explosions | Beirut, 4 August 2020 |
| Eighteen sects in one state | The confessional republic |
| The cedar of the Bible | On the flag |
| Ski and swim in a day | The Cedars and the coast |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Lebanon?
The Lebanese Republic — al-Jumhūrīyah al-Lubnānīyah in Arabic, République libanaise in French — independent from France on 22 November 1943, when the mandate powers freed the government they had jailed; the State of Greater Lebanon that France carved from Syria on 1 September 1920 before it. The name is among the oldest on earth, the Lebanon of the Bible and of the Semitic root for "white," for the snows of Mount Lebanon; the Phoenicians of its coast gave the world the alphabet.
What is the capital of Lebanon?
Beirut — Bayrūt — on a headland of the Mediterranean between the sea and the mountain, a Phoenician port, a Roman law school, the "Paris of the Middle East" of the 1960s and the battleground of the civil war; about 2.4 million people in the city and its suburbs, half the country, from the Christian east to the Shia southern suburbs of the Dahiyeh; its port and a third of the city wrecked by the explosion of 4 August 2020. Tripoli in the north, the Sunni city of the Mamluks, is the second; Sidon and Tyre the Phoenician ports of the south; Zahlé and Baalbek the towns of the Beqaa; Jounieh and Byblos the Christian coast.
How big is Lebanon, and how many people live there?
About 10,452 km² (4,036 sq mi) — a little smaller than Connecticut, half the size of Wales — a strip 225 km long and 50 km wide on the eastern Mediterranean between Syria and Israel, two mountain ranges with the Beqaa valley between them. No census has been taken since 1932, when the French counted the sects to share the state among them, and none is politically possible; the UN estimates about 5.8 million people for 2025, among them some 1.5 million Syrian refugees and 200,000 Palestinians, with a diaspora of Lebanese descent abroad two or three times the country.
What are the highest and lowest points of Lebanon?
Qurnat as Sawda, 3,088 m (10,131 ft), in the Mount Lebanon range above Tripoli, the highest point of the Levant, above the last stands of the cedars of the flag; and the Mediterranean. The Anti-Lebanon along the Syrian border rises to Mount Hermon at 2,814 m on the country's side; the Litani, 140 km, the longest river, waters the Beqaa and turns to the sea above Tyre; the Beqaa itself, the granary of the Romans, runs between the ranges at 900 m.
What currency does Lebanon use?
The Lebanese pound — the lira — (ISO code LBP, L£), pegged at 1,507.5 to the U.S. dollar from 1997 until the collapse of 2019 and fixed at 89,500 since February 2024 after losing 98 percent of its value; the U.S. dollar the currency of most trade now, the "lollar" the name for the deposits frozen in the banks since 2019. Clocks keep Eastern European Time, UTC+2, with summer time; Lebanon drives on the right.
Who governs Lebanon?
President Joseph Aoun, the army commander elected by parliament on 9 January 2025 after twenty-nine months without a head of state, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, the president of the International Court of Justice, who formed a government on 8 February 2025 — by the confessional pact, the president a Maronite Christian and the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, with Nabih Berri, the Shia Speaker since 1992, as the third. Their government moved in August 2025 to bring Hezbollah's arms under the state, was to face the voters on 10 May 2026, and did not: the war that spilled into Lebanon from the American and Israeli war with Iran of February 2026, with Israeli strikes on Beirut's suburbs and Hezbollah's rockets, led parliament in March 2026 to extend its own term by two years, to 2028, over the objection of the Lebanese Forces.
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