Yemen
Name
| Official name | The Republic of Yemen (al-Jumhūriyya al-Yamaniyya) — the unification of 22 May 1990 (the North's Yemen Arab Republic and the South's People's Democratic Republic of Yemen); the constitution approved by the referendum of 16 May 1991 (amended 1994 and 2001; the National Dialogue's federal draft of 2015 never adopted); the UN's member since 1947 (the North's seat; the South's of 1967 merged), the Arab League's founding member (1945 — the Mutawakkilite Kingdom), the OIC's; the Houthis' Sanaa authorities using the same name and the 'Supreme Political Council' since 2016 (LAW 2) |
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| Former names | The Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (1918–1962; the Zaydi imams of the North), the Yemen Arab Republic (26 September 1962 – 1990; the North), the British Aden Colony (1937–1963; the port held by Britain from 19 January 1839) and the Aden Protectorate (the sultanates of the South), the Federation of South Arabia (1962–1967), the People's Republic of South Yemen (1967) and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (1970–1990; the Arab world's only Marxist state); the ancient Saba (Sheba), Maʿin, Qataban, Hadramawt, Ḥimyar; the 'Arabia Felix' (the 'happy Arabia') of the Romans |
| Demonym | Yemeni (Yamanī); the regional identities — the Zaydi highlanders of the north, the Shafi'i Sunnis of the south, the west and the east, the Hadramis (the merchants' diaspora of Southeast Asia, East Africa and the Gulf — the Hadrami of Hyderabad's Barkas by the usual line), the Adenis, the Tihamis, the Socotris (the Soqotri language), the Mahris; the 'southerners' of the 1967–1990 state's identity (LAW 2) |
| Meaning of the name | From the Arabic 'yamīn' ('the right hand' — the land on the right of the sun's rising for the observer facing the east from the Hejaz, so 'the south') or 'yumn' ('the felicity, the blessing' — the Romans' 'Arabia Felix') by the two usual readings (both stated); 'Sanaa' — 'the well-fortified' by the usual line; 'Aden' — the 'Eden' of the folk etymology; 'Hadramawt' — 'death has come' by the folk reading (the actual origin debated) |
| Motto | 'Allah, al-Waṭan, al-Thawra, al-Waḥda' ('God, the Nation, the Revolution, the Unity') — the national motto by the usual line; the Houthis' slogan (the sarkha of 2002 — its anti-American, anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish wording; the movement's 'resistance' reading and the critics' 'antisemitic' reading both stated, LAW 2); the 'Federal Yemen' of the 2014 National Dialogue |
Quick facts
| Capital | Sanaa — the constitutional capital (the Amanat al-Asimah; about 2,250 m) held by the Houthis since 21 September 2014; about 3–4 million by the estimates (both stated); the Old City (UNESCO 1986; in danger since 2015 — the about 6,000 tower houses of the 11th century and older, the Great Mosque of Sanaa of the 7th century with the 'Sanaa manuscripts' of the early Qurans found in 1972, the Bab al-Yaman gate, the Souq al-Milh), the Saleh Mosque (2008), the Dar al-Hajar rock palace of Wadi Dhahr; the airport's strikes (Israel's of May 2025 and the Saudi strikes of July 2026 — by the reports). Aden — the 'temporary capital' of the recognized government since 2015 (the Crater, the Tawahi, the Ma'ashiq presidential palace; about 1–1.1 million by the estimates) |
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| Largest cities | Sanaa (about 3–4 million), Aden (about 1–1.1 million), Taiz (about 0.6–1 million; the 'cultural capital', besieged by the Houthis since 2015 — the city split between the sides), Hodeidah (about 0.7 million; the Red Sea port held by the Houthis; the 2018 Stockholm Agreement), Ibb, Mukalla (the Hadramawt's port; the AQAP's 2015–16 rule), Dhamar, Marib (the government's gas and oil city; swollen by the displaced to about 2–3 million in the governorate by the estimates), Amran, Sayun, Zinjibar, Mocha (the coffee port taken by the Houthis in September 2026), Al Ghaydah, Hajjah, Saada (the Houthis' heartland); all counts the 2020s' estimates (no census since 2004 — both bases stated) |
| Official language | Arabic — the official language by the constitution (the Yemeni Arabic dialects — the Sanaani, the Ta'izzi-Adeni, the Hadrami, the Tihami); the Modern South Arabian languages of the east (the Mehri of al-Mahra, the Soqotri of Socotra — the pre-Arabic Semitic tongues, endangered); the Razihi of the far north; English in Aden's business and the schools; the ancient South Arabian script (the Musnad) of the inscriptions |
| Currency | Yemeni rial (YER) — the two rates since January 2020's split: about 533 rials to the U.S. dollar for the old notes (the Houthi areas) and about 1,576 for the new notes (the government areas) on 5 October 2026 by the ACAPS tracker (both rates stated; the new notes' slide above 2,800 in 2025 and the 2025–26 recovery with the Saudi deposits — by the reports); about 6 old-note or about 18 new-note rials to the Indian rupee; the two central banks (Aden's — the recognized; Sanaa's — the Houthis'); the Saudi deposits and the grants (about US$3 billion and more since 2018 by the counts — both stated); the inflation's surges of the government areas |
| Time zone | UTC+3 the year round (Arabia Standard Time; no daylight saving) — the same clock as Saudi Arabia, 2 hours 30 minutes behind India (IST); the weekend Friday and Saturday (the government's; Thursday–Friday in the past); the Islamic calendar's holidays |
| Calling code, internet and ISO codes | +967 (the operators Yemen Mobile, Sabafon, YOU — the old MTN, Y-Telecom; the networks split between the Houthi-held Sanaa's control and Aden's AdenNet; the internet cuts of the airstrikes); internet .ye (run from Sanaa — the Houthis' control of the domain, by the reports); ISO 3166 YE, YEM, 887; the vehicle code YAR; the IOC code YEM, FIFA code YEM; the aircraft registration 7O-; the plugs of Types A, D and G at 230 V and 50 Hz |
| Area | About 527,968 km² (203,850 sq mi) by the usual count — about 555,000 km² by another with the islands and the undemarcated Empty Quarter (both stated) — the 49th or 50th of the world, about 16% of India's area; the land borders with Saudi Arabia (about 1,307–1,458 km; the Treaty of Jeddah of 12 June 2000 settling the old Taif line's dispute) and Oman (about 288–294 km; the 1992 treaty); the coast about 1,906–2,500 km on the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea (both counts stated); the islands — Socotra, Kamaran, Perim (Mayyun), the Hanish group (the 1998 arbitration with Eritrea) |
| Population | About 40–41 million by the UN's 2025–26 estimates (both stated; about 34–36 million by other estimates of the war years — the count's uncertainty stated); the last census of 16 December 2004 — 19,685,161; the young population (the median age about 19); the governorates' estimates — Taiz, Ibb, Hodeidah, Sanaa city and Hajjah the most populous; about two-thirds of the people under the Houthis' control by the usual estimates (both the 'two-thirds' and the 'about 70%' lines stated); the internally displaced about 4.5–4.8 million by the UN's counts (both stated) and about 100,000 more displaced by the September 2026 fighting (by the reports) |
| Density | About 75–80 people per km² — the western highlands' and the Tihama's crowding (Ibb's about 500 per km², the 'green province'), against the empty east (the Hadramawt's interior, al-Mahra about 3 per km², the Rub' al Khali's fringe); about 70% rural in the villages of the terraced mountains |
| Religion | Islam — about 99% (the Sunnis of the Shafi'i school about 55–65% in the south, the west and the east; the Zaydi Shia (the 'Fivers') about 35–45% in the northern highlands — both shares stated; the small Ismaili communities of Haraz; the Salafi centers' growth — the Dammaj institute's 2014 expulsion); the Jews (the ancient Yemenite community — about 50,000 airlifted to Israel in 1949–50's Operation On Wings of Eagles; about one to a handful left by the 2020s by the reports), the Christians and the Bahá'ís (the Houthi courts' cases against the Bahá'ís — LAW 2), the Hindus of Aden's past |
| Government type | Unitary presidential republic by the 1991 constitution — in practice a divided state: the internationally recognized government of the Presidential Leadership Council (eight members formed on 7 April 2022; Chairman Rashad al-Alimi) with the Prime Minister's cabinet in Aden and the House of Representatives (elected 2003; the term long expired), backed by the Saudi-led coalition; the Houthis' de facto government in Sanaa (the Supreme Political Council since 28 July 2016 and its cabinet — the 'Government of Change and Construction' of 2024); the Southern Transitional Council's southern claims (2017 onward; LAW 2); Freedom House's 'Not Free' (about 9–11 of 100) |
| Head of state | The Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council Rashad al-Alimi (since 7 April 2022; born 1954 in Taiz; the former Interior Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister of the Saleh era, the adviser to Hadi) — the recognized head of state; the council's members (the vice-chairmen — the governors and the commanders of the Islah, the GPC, the Giants Brigades, the National Resistance of Tareq Saleh; the STC's Aidarous al-Zubaidi expelled on 7 January 2026); the general mobilization of 26 September 2026 and the operation to retake the Houthi-held territory announced on 4 October 2026; the Houthis' counterparts — the leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi (since 2004) and the Supreme Political Council's chairman Mahdi al-Mashat (since 2018) |
| Head of government | Prime Minister Shaya Mohsin al-Zindani (from 15 January 2026; the former Foreign Minister) — the cabinet appointed on 6 February 2026 (by the reports); the predecessors — Salem Saleh bin Braik (May 2025 – January 2026), Ahmad Awad bin Mubarak (February 2024 – May 2025), Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed (2018–2024); the government's offices in Aden and Riyadh; the Houthis' Prime Minister Muhammad Ahmed Miftah (from 30 August 2025; after Ahmed al-Rahawi and several ministers were killed by an Israeli strike on 28 August 2025) |
| Legislature | The House of Representatives (Majlis al-Nuwwab; 301 seats; elected on 27 April 2003 — the General People's Congress 238; no election since by the war; the members split between the recognized government's sessions at Sayun (April 2019 — Speaker Sultan al-Barakani) and the Houthis' rump sessions in Sanaa (the Houthis' 'by-elections' of 2019 — LAW 2)); the Shura Council (111 members; appointed); the Presidential Leadership Council's decrees in the war's absence of the elections |
| National Day | 22 May — the Unity Day (Eid al-Wahda; the 1990 unification; the 36th of 2026 — the southerners' boycott and the STC's rival commemorations, LAW 2); 26 September — the Revolution Day (1962; the North's republic — the Houthis' rule's tensions with the date, both stated); 14 October — the Revolution Day (1963; the South's armed struggle against Britain from the Radfan mountains); 30 November — the Independence Day (1967; the British withdrawal from Aden); the Houthis' 21 September 'revolution' anniversary (the 2014 takeover of Sanaa — LAW 2); the Islamic holidays |
| Driving side and HDI | Right (the roads of about 71,000 km by the counts, about 9–12% paved — both stated; the mountain roads of the Sanaa–Hodeidah and the Taiz routes; the war's cut roads and the 2024–25 reopenings of Taiz's crossings); Human Development Index about 0.42–0.47 by the 2024 and the 2025 reports (both stated), 'low', about 184th–186th of 193 — the Arab world's lowest; the life expectancy about 63–66 years (both stated); the GDP a head about US$400–600 by the relays (both stated) |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | The flag of 22 May 1990 — three equal horizontal bands of red, white and black, the Pan-Arab colors of the Arab Liberation flag of Egypt's 1952 revolution, the North's and the South's flags joined without their star and triangle; the red the martyrs' blood and the unity, the white the bright future, the black the dark past by the usual reading; the proportion 2:3; the flag used by both the recognized government and the Houthis (the STC's former South Yemen flag with the blue triangle and the red star the southern separatists' symbol — LAW 2)Flag of Yemen |
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| Coat of arms | The national emblem — the golden eagle (the Eagle of Saladin's family) with the scroll in its talons bearing the state's name in Arabic, the shield on its breast showing the coffee plant (the Mocha coffee — the country's old fame) and the Marib Dam's ruins over the blue water lines (the ancient Sabaean dam's symbol), the two national flags at its sides; the emblem of 1990 from the North's |
| National anthem | 'United Republic' (al-Jumhūriyya al-Muttaḥida) — the words by Abdullah Abdulwahab Noman ('al-Fudhul'), the music by Ayoob Tarish Absi; the South's anthem of 1979 adopted for the unified state in 1990 (no lyrics quoted) |
| National motto | 'God, the Nation, the Revolution, the Unity' — the motto by the usual line; the Houthis' 'sarkha' slogan of the north's public life since 2002 (LAW 2); the southern separatists' 'the South is coming back' slogans (LAW 2) |
| National colors | Red, white and black — the flag's; the national teams' red and white (the football's 'al-Yemen'); the green of the Zaydi and the Islamic banners; the South's former sky-blue triangle and the red star (the STC's) |
| National animal | The Arabian leopard (critically endangered — fewer than about 100–200 left across Arabia by the counts, both stated; the national animal by the usual line), the Nubian ibex of the mountains, the hamadryas baboon, the Arabian wolf, the Socotra cormorant and the Socotra sunbird (the island's endemic birds), the Socotra's chameleons and the land crabs, the dugong and the whale shark of the Red Sea, the green turtles of the Ras Sharma |
| National flower and tree | The coffee tree (Coffea arabica — the coffee's first cultivation by the Sufis of the 15th century and the Mocha port's world trade of the 16th–18th centuries by the usual line; the national symbol on the emblem), the dragon's blood tree of Socotra (Dracaena cinnabari — the 'umbrella' tree of the red resin; endemic), the frankincense (Boswellia) of the Hadramawt and Socotra, the myrrh, the qat shrub (Catha edulis — the stimulant leaf of the afternoon chew; about a third or more of the irrigation water by the counts, both stated) |
| National dish | Saltah (the national dish by the usual line — the meat stew with the fenugreek froth (hulba), served bubbling in the stone pot with the flatbread), the mandi (the slow-cooked rice and the meat of the Hadramawt's underground oven — the Arab world's favorite), the haneeth, the fahsa, the aseed, the bint al-sahn (the honey cake), the Yemeni honey (the Sidr honey of Wadi Do'an — among the world's most prized), the qishr (the coffee husk drink), the Adeni tea |
| National sport | None by law — the football (the national team at the AFC Asian Cup of 2019 — the first; the U-17's Asian titles' runs; the WAFF titles), the athletics, the boxing, the chess, the horse racing; the traditional bara'a (the men's dagger dance of the tribes with the jambiya), the falconry |
| Heritage listings | Five World Heritage properties by UNESCO's list — the Old Walled City of Shibam (1982; the 'Manhattan of the desert' — the mud-brick tower houses of the 16th century), the Old City of Sanaa (1986), the Historic Town of Zabid (1993), the Socotra Archipelago (2008; natural), the Landmarks of the Ancient Kingdom of Saba, Marib (2023) — the four cultural ones on the in-danger list (Zabid since 2000, Sanaa and Shibam since 2015, Marib since 2023); the intangible — the Song of Sanaa (al-Ghina al-San'ani; 2003/2008) |
| Symbol status | The flag, the emblem and the anthem by the 1990 unification agreements and the constitution (Articles 7–9 by the usual numbering); the Unity Day and the revolutions' days by the law of the holidays; no national animal, flower, dish or sport by law — the leopard, the coffee, the saltah and the football by custom; the same symbols used by both rival governments (LAW 2) |
Geography
| Location | The southwest of the Arabian Peninsula between about 12° and 19° N (with Socotra to about 12°10′ N) and 42° and 54°30′ E — on the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait (about 29–32 km wide; the passage of about 10–12% of the world's seaborne trade before the 2023–26 attacks by the usual line), the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea; Saudi Arabia to the north, Oman to the east; Djibouti and Eritrea across the strait; Aden about 3,000 km west of Mumbai by sea |
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| Regions | 22 governorates (muhafazat) plus the capital city (Amanat al-Asimah) — Abyan, Aden, al-Bayda, al-Dhale, Hadramawt, Hajjah, Hodeidah, Ibb, al-Jawf, Lahij, al-Mahra, al-Mahwit, Marib, Raymah, Saada, Sanaa, Shabwa, Socotra, Taiz, Amran, Dhamar and the capital — divided by the war's control lines (the Houthis' north and west; the government's, the Islah's, the Giants Brigades' and the STC's south, east and the Marib); the natural regions — the Tihama (the hot Red Sea plain), the western highlands (the terraced mountains — the Haraz, the Ibb's green), the eastern plateau and the Hadramawt's wadis, the Rub' al Khali's southern fringe, the Mahra's coast, the Socotra archipelago |
| Highest point | Jabal an-Nabi Shuʿayb — about 3,666 m (3,666–3,760 m by the surveys, both stated), west of Sanaa in the Haraz-Hadur range — the highest point of the Arabian Peninsula; the Jabal Sabir above Taiz (about 3,006 m), the Jabal Haraz, the Jabal Bura (the cloud forest), the Socotra's Hajhir mountains (about 1,503 m) |
| Lowest point | The Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea at sea level (0 m) — the Tihama's coastal plain (about 30–60 km wide), the Aden's volcanic peninsula (the Crater), the Mukalla's coast; the wadis' beds falling from the plateau (the Wadi Hadramawt about 700–1,000 m) |
| Longest river | None permanent — the wadis (the seasonal rivers): the Wadi Hadramawt (about 160 km of the main wadi and its system of about 600 km by the counts, both stated; the Wadi Masila to the sea), the Wadi Surdud, the Wadi Mawr and the Wadi Zabid of the Tihama (the spate irrigation), the Wadi Dhana (the Marib dam's valley), the Wadi Bana, the Wadi Tuban (Lahij); the groundwater's exhaustion (the Sanaa basin's aquifer falling by several meters a year by the studies — the qat's irrigation; both the drawdown's estimates stated) |
| Largest lake | None natural of size — the Marib Dam's reservoir (the new dam of 1986 — the gift of Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Zayed; the ancient Sabaean dam of about the 8th century BCE, its final breach of about 570 CE — the Qur'an's 'Sayl al-Arim' flood), the small dams and the cisterns (the Tawila tanks of Aden; the 1st century's by the usual line), the crater lakes of the volcanic fields |
| Largest island | Socotra — about 3,665–3,796 km² by the counts (both stated; the archipelago of four islands — Socotra, Abd al-Kuri, Samhah, Darsah — about 380 km off the Horn of Africa; the 'Galápagos of the Indian Ocean' — about a third of its plants endemic; the UAE's and the STC's presence of 2018–2025 and the Saudi role — LAW 2), Kamaran (Red Sea; the Saudi strikes of July 2026 by the reports), Perim (Mayyun; the Bab al-Mandab's island — taken by the Houthis in September 2026), the Hanish group (Zuqar and the Hanish al-Kabir — taken by the Houthis in September 2026, by the reports) |
| Climate | Desert (BWh) on the coasts and the east and highland's temperate climate (Cwb — the mild summers and the cool winters, the frosts above 2,500 m) by the Köppen map; the Tihama's and Aden's heat (about 30–40 °C in the summer with the high humidity), Sanaa's about 25 °C summers and the near-freezing winter nights; the monsoon rains of the western highlands (about 500–1,000 mm a year in Ibb — the wettest part of Arabia by the usual line) and the deserts' about 50–100 mm; the cyclones of the Arabian Sea (Chapala and Megh of 2015, Mekunu of 2018 on Socotra and al-Mahra) |
| Natural hazards | The flash floods of the wadis (the Tarim and the Hadramawt's of 2008; the 2024 floods of Hodeidah, Hajjah and Marib — about 100 dead by the reports), the cyclones of the Arabian Sea (2015, 2018), the droughts, the desert locust swarms (2019–2020), the earthquakes (the Dhamar earthquake of 13 December 1982 — about 2,800 dead by the counts) and the volcanic islands (the Zubair group's eruptions of 2011–13); the water scarcity (among the world's most water-stressed by the usual line); the cholera's epidemics (2016–2019 — the world's largest recorded outbreak by the WHO's line, about 2.5 million suspected cases) |
| Nearby countries | Saudi Arabia (the north; the 2000 Jeddah border treaty — the coalition's leader since March 2015; the Houthis' cross-border attacks and the 2026 'siege for siege' on the Saudi ports and the oil facilities — by the reports), Oman (the east; the mediator of the Muscat talks — the U.S.–Houthi truce of 6 May 2025), the sea neighbors — Eritrea (the 1998 Hanish award), Djibouti (about 20–30 km across the Bab al-Mandab; the refugees of 2015 and of September 2026 — about 1,400 in a day by the reports), Somalia (the piracy's and the migrants' routes across the Gulf of Aden) |
| Minerals and resources | Oil (the reserves about 3 billion barrels; the output of about 450,000 barrels a day at the 2001–02 peak by the counts, falling to near zero for the export since the Houthis' drone attacks on the Dhabba and the Nushayma terminals of October–November 2022 — by the reports), the liquefied natural gas (Yemen LNG at Balhaf — about 6.7 million metric tons a year of capacity; idle since 2015), the gold, the zinc and the lead, the rock salt (Salif), the marble, the granite; the coffee, the honey, the fisheries (the Arabian Sea's tuna and the sardines); the groundwater's depletion |
| Protected areas | Few formal protected areas by the counts (about 4–6% of the land by the claims — both stated): the Socotra Archipelago's zoning plan (the UNESCO site; the national park and the nature sanctuaries of 2000), the Bura'a mountain forest (the Tihama escarpment's protected area), the Hawf forest of al-Mahra (the monsoon's cloud forest), the Utmah area, the Kamaran island's mangroves; the war's damage to the conservation |
| Extreme points | North: the Saudi border near al-Jawf's desert (about 19° N by the 2000 treaty's line); South: Socotra's southern shore (about 12°18′ N) or the mainland's Ras Bab al-Mandab and Aden (about 12°40′ N — both stated); West: the Kamaran and the Zuqar islands of the Red Sea (about 42°35′ E) or the Tihama's coast (about 42°40′ E); East: the Oman border at Hawf in al-Mahra (about 53°08′ E) or Socotra's eastern cape (about 54°30′ E — both stated) |
| Land and water | About 527,968 km² (555,000 by the other count — both stated) — the deserts and the semi-deserts about two-thirds, the mountains and the plateau about a fifth, the arable land about 2–3% (the terraced fields of the highlands — the sorghum, the coffee, the qat; the Tihama's spate-irrigated fields), the forests under 1%; no permanent rivers or lakes; the water use above the renewable supply by about 50–100% by the counts (both stated — the aquifers' mining) |
| Islands and coasts | About 1,906–2,500 km of coast by the counts (both stated) — the Red Sea's Tihama coast (Hodeidah, Mocha, the Khawkhah — all taken by the Houthis by September 2026), the Bab al-Mandab, the Gulf of Aden (Aden, Abyan, Shabwa — the Balhaf LNG), the Arabian Sea (Mukalla, al-Mahra's Nishtun); about 200 islands — Socotra, Kamaran, Perim, the Hanish group, the Zubair volcanic group; the Bab al-Mandab's shipping (the Houthi attacks of November 2023 onward — the Galaxy Leader's seizure of 19 November 2023, the ships sunk — the Rubymar (2024), the Tutor (2024), the Magic Seas and the Eternity C (July 2025); the attacks of July–August 2026 on the Saudi-linked tankers — by the reports) |
| The country | The ancient land of the queen of Sheba in five pictures — Shibam's mud-brick skyscrapers in the Wadi Hadramawt, Sanaa's gingerbread tower houses with the qamariya windows, the Haraz's terraced mountains and the villages on the peaks (al-Hajjarah), Socotra's dragon's blood trees on the Diksam plateau, the Marib's Sabaean temples (the Awwam and the Bar'an — the Throne of Bilqis); the jambiya at the men's belts and the afternoon qat chews |
People
| Population | About 40–41 million by the UN's 2025–26 estimates (both stated; about 34–36 million by some war-era estimates — the uncertainty stated); the censuses — 19,685,161 (2004), 14,587,807 (1994; the unified state's first); the governorates — Taiz (about 3–4 million), Ibb, Hodeidah, Sanaa city, Hajjah, Dhamar, Marib (swollen by the displaced) the largest by the estimates; about two-thirds under the Houthis' control by the usual estimates (both shares stated) |
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| Growth rate | About 2.2–2.6% a year by the UN's estimates (both stated) — among the region's fastest despite the war's deaths, the famine and the epidemics; the doubling since the 2004 census by the estimates |
| Fertility rate | About 3.5–3.8 children per woman by the UN's estimates of 2023–25 (both stated) — down from about 9 in the 1980s (among the world's highest then); the early marriages (no minimum marriage age by the law — the 2009 bill's failure; LAW 2 on the custom's and the rights groups' lines) |
| Life expectancy | About 63–66 years at birth by the estimates (both stated; the war's fall from about 67 of 2014); the child mortality among the world's highest (about 60 per 1,000 under five by the UN's line); the malnutrition — about 2–2.5 million children acutely malnourished by the UN's counts (both stated); the cholera (about 2.5 million suspected cases of 2016–2021), the measles, the polio's variant outbreaks of the Houthi north (the vaccination bans' disputes — LAW 2) |
| Age structure | 0–14 years about 38–40%, 15–64 about 57–59%, 65 and over about 3% by the estimates (both stated) — the median age about 19–20; the youth's unemployment and the recruitment of the child soldiers by the parties (the UN's verified cases — the Houthis' the largest share by the UN's counts and the others' — both stated, LAW 2) |
| Urbanization | About 38–40% urban by the UN's line (both stated) — Sanaa, Aden, Taiz, Hodeidah, Ibb, Mukalla, Marib; the displaced camps of Marib (about 200 sites by the counts) and the urban fringe; the villages of the mountains (about 130,000 settlements by the 2004 census's count) |
| Ethnic groups | Arabs about 92–99% by the estimates (both stated) — the tribal confederations of the north (the Hashid and the Bakil), the southern tribes, the Hadramis; the Muhamasheen (the 'marginalized' — the Akhdam; about 0.5–3.5 million by the estimates, both stated — the discrimination's legacy), the Afro-Yemenis and the Somali, the Ethiopian and the Eritrean migrants and the refugees (about 300,000 by the UNHCR's counts; the migrants' route to Saudi Arabia — the border killings' reports of 2023, LAW 2), the South Asians of Aden's past (the Indians and the Pakistanis), the Mahris and the Soqotris |
| Languages | Arabic (the official language; the Yemeni dialects — the Sanaani, the Ta'izzi-Adeni, the Hadrami, the Tihami, the Yafi'i); the Modern South Arabian languages — the Mehri (about 100,000–200,000 speakers in al-Mahra and Oman's Dhofar), the Soqotri (about 50,000–70,000), the Hobyot, the Bathari (endangered); the Razihi; English (Aden's colonial legacy); the Somali and the Amharic of the migrants |
| Religion | Muslim about 99% — the Shafi'i Sunnis about 55–65% and the Zaydi Shia about 35–45% (both shares stated; the Zaydi imamate of 897–1962 — the Houthis' revivalist movement), the Ismailis (the Haraz's Dawoodi Bohra and Sulaymani shrines — the Indian Bohras' pilgrimages to Haraz by the usual line), the Salafis; the Jews (a handful left by the reports; the last community's departure to Israel and the 2016 airlift), the Bahá'ís (the Houthis' trials and the death sentence of 2018 — the 2020 releases; LAW 2), the Christians of the migrants |
| Health | The health system's collapse in the war — about half of the health facilities fully functional by the WHO's counts (both stated); the cholera (2016–2021 — about 2.5 million suspected cases, about 4,000 deaths by the WHO's counts), the dengue, the diphtheria, the measles, the polio; the hospitals' strikes (both the coalition's and the Houthis' attacks documented by the UN's panel — LAW 2); the doctors' unpaid salaries of the north since 2016; the WHO's and the UNICEF's programs; the World Food Program's halt in the Houthi areas (29 January 2026 — by the reports) |
| Education | Free and compulsory schooling (grades 1–9) by the law; the literacy about 54–70% by the estimates (the women's far lower — both stated); about 2.7–4.5 million children out of school by the UNICEF's counts (both stated); the teachers unpaid in the north since 2016; the curricula's changes by the Houthis (the 'sectarian' line of the critics and the 'national' line of the Houthis — LAW 2); the universities — Sanaa University (1970), the University of Aden (1975), Hadramawt University (1993), Taiz University, Ibb University |
| Migrants and diaspora | The Yemenis abroad about 2–3 million by the counts (both stated) — Saudi Arabia (about 1.5–2 million — the workers' remittances; the 1990 expulsion of about 800,000 after Yemen's Gulf War stance), the UAE, the United States (Michigan's Dearborn and Hamtramck — about 100,000–200,000), the United Kingdom (Sheffield, Cardiff — the oldest Muslim community of Britain by the usual line), the Hadrami diaspora of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, East Africa and India (Hyderabad's Barkas — the Chaush); the remittances about US$4–4.5 billion a year by the World Bank's counts (both stated); the refugees in Djibouti, Somalia and Egypt |
| Social indicators | The UN's 21–22 million in need in 2026 (21 million by the UN coordinator's line and 22 million by the response plan's — both stated) — among the world's largest crises; about 17–19 million food insecure by the IPC's counts (both stated) and the famine-risk pockets of Hajjah, Hodeidah and Taiz; the poverty about 75–80% by the UN's estimates; the Global Gender Gap Index's bottom ranks (153rd of 153 of 2020 by the WEF's line); the detentions of the UN and the NGO staff by the Houthis (dozens since 2024 — the 'espionage' charges and the UN's 'arbitrary detention' line both stated, LAW 2) |
| Cities and provinces | 22 governorates and the capital city (Amanat al-Asimah) — the governorates' about 333 districts by the counts; the parallel administrations (the Houthis' governors and the government's for the same governorates); the 2014 National Dialogue's six-region federal plan (Azal, Saba, al-Janad, Tihama, Aden, Hadramawt — the Houthis' and the southerners' rejections, never implemented); the Hadramawt's and al-Mahra's autonomy demands (LAW 2) |
| Names and customs | The names with the lineage ('bin' / 'ibn'), the tribal names (al-Ahmar of the Hashid, al-Houthi of the Saada's sayyids); the qat chews of the afternoons (the 'maqil' sessions — about 70–90% of the men chewing by the surveys, both stated), the jambiya (the curved dagger at the belt — the rhinoceros-horn handles' trade's ban), the bara'a dances, the weddings' days of the celebrations, the Sanaa tower houses' mafraj (the top room), the coffee ceremony (the qishr), the honey's prestige, the tribal mediation (the 'urf') |
| Media and sport culture | The divided media — the Houthis' Saba and al-Masirah TV, the government's Saba (Aden) and Yemen TV, the Islah's Suhail TV, the STC's Aden Independent Channel, the Saudi-funded channels; the press freedom among the world's worst (RSF's about 154th–168th — the journalists killed and the Houthis' death sentences of four journalists in 2020, released in 2023's swap; both the parties' lines stated, LAW 2); the football (the national team's 2019 Asian Cup; the league suspended by the war), the poetry's tradition (the zamil — the tribal chant) |
Government
| System | The unitary presidential republic of the 1991 constitution (the President elected for seven years; the House of Representatives; the Shura Council) — divided since the Houthi takeover of Sanaa (21 September 2014) and the Saudi-led intervention (26 March 2015): the internationally recognized government (the Presidential Leadership Council of 7 April 2022 — the eight-member collective presidency under Rashad al-Alimi; the cabinet in Aden; the UN Security Council Resolution 2216 of 2015's recognition) and the Houthis' de facto authorities in Sanaa (the Supreme Political Council of 2016 — recognized by Iran by the usual line); the STC's southern administration of 2017–2026 (its January 2026 setback — LAW 2); the 'legitimate government' and the 'de facto authority' lines both stated (LAW 2) |
|---|---|
| Head of state | Chairman Rashad al-Alimi of the Presidential Leadership Council (since 7 April 2022; the recognized head of state — Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi's transfer of the powers at the Riyadh consultations; Hadi the President of 2012–2022) — the council's January 2026 changes (the STC's Aidarous al-Zubaidi expelled on 7 January 2026; the government's claim of the full control of the former STC areas on 10 January — by the reports); the general mobilization of 26 September 2026 (the amnesty offer to the defecting Houthi fighters) and the operation to retake the north (4 October 2026); the Houthis' leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi (born 1979; the movement's head since his brother Hussein's death in 2004) and the Supreme Political Council's Mahdi al-Mashat (since April 2018, after Saleh al-Sammad's killing by a coalition strike) |
| Head of government | Prime Minister Shaya al-Zindani (from 15 January 2026; the cabinet of 6 February 2026 — by the reports), with the government's ministries in Aden; the Central Bank of Aden's Governor; the predecessors — Salem Saleh bin Braik (3 May 2025 – 15 January 2026), Ahmad Awad bin Mubarak (2024–2025), Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed (2018–2024); the Houthis' Prime Minister Muhammad Ahmed Miftah (from 30 August 2025; the acting head after the Israeli strike of 28 August 2025 that killed Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi and about nine ministers — by the reports) |
| Legislature | The House of Representatives (301 seats; elected on 27 April 2003 — the General People's Congress 238, the Islah 46, the Yemeni Socialist Party 8, the others; the term extended by the agreements and the war) — the recognized government's sessions at Sayun (April 2019; Speaker Sultan al-Barakani) and the Houthis' Sanaa sessions with the members who stayed (the Houthis' 2019 'by-elections' for the vacant seats — LAW 2); the Shura Council (111 members; appointed); the House's role eclipsed by the war's decrees |
| Parties | The General People's Congress (GPC; 1982 — Ali Abdullah Saleh's party; split since 2017 between the Sanaa wing allied with the Houthis and the government's wing), the Islah (the Yemeni Congregation for Reform; 1990 — the Muslim Brotherhood's and the tribal Islamists' party), the Yemeni Socialist Party (1978; the South's former ruling party), the Nasserist Unionist Party; the Houthis' Ansar Allah (the movement of the 1990s' 'Believing Youth' — the armed group and the political authority in Sanaa; the U.S. 'Foreign Terrorist Organization' designation of March 2025 and the UN's 'arms embargo' listing — both the designation and the Houthis' 'resistance' line stated, LAW 2), the Southern Transitional Council (STC; 11 May 2017 — the UAE-backed separatists; its dissolution's announcement of 9 January 2026 disputed by its leaders, by the reports — LAW 2) |
| Judiciary | The Supreme Court (the recognized government's in Aden; the Houthis' in Sanaa — the parallel judiciaries), the courts of the appeal and the first instance, the Specialized Criminal Courts (the Houthis' trials of the 'collaborators' — the 19 death sentences of 17 May 2026 by the reports; the executions of 2021 and 2024; both the Houthis' 'justice' and the rights groups' 'unfair trials' lines stated, LAW 2); the Islamic law (the Sharia the source of all legislation by the constitution's Article 3); the tribal customary law (the 'urf') in the countryside |
| Administrative divisions | 22 governorates and the capital city (about 333 districts) — the control map of October 2026 by the reports: the Houthis — Sanaa, Saada, Amran, Hajjah, Dhamar, Ibb, al-Mahwit, Raymah, Hodeidah, most of al-Bayda and al-Jawf and parts of Taiz and Marib, and since September 2026 the whole Red Sea coast (Mocha, Dhubab, the Khawkhah; Hays taken and retaken — both stated) with Perim and the Hanish islands; the government and its allies — Aden, Lahij, Abyan, Shabwa, Hadramawt, al-Mahra, Socotra, Marib city, the most of Taiz city, al-Dhale (the STC's former areas brought under the government's control in January 2026 by the reports — LAW 2) |
| Constitution and rights | The constitution of 1991 (the Sharia the main source; the multiparty system; the presidential terms) — suspended in practice by the war; the rights' record — the UN Panel of Experts' and the Group of Eminent Experts' (2017–2021) findings of the possible war crimes by all parties (the coalition's airstrikes on the civilians — the Dahyan school bus of 9 August 2018, the funeral hall of 8 October 2016; the Houthis' shelling, the landmines, the sieges of Taiz, the child soldiers; the UAE-linked secret prisons of the south by the reports) — both the parties' denials and the findings stated (LAW 2); the women's restrictions (the Houthis' male guardian rules — the 'mahram'); the Bahá'ís' and the journalists' trials; Freedom House's 'Not Free' (about 9–11 of 100) |
| Military | The divided forces — the government's army and the allied forces (the National Army of the Defense Ministry; the Giants Brigades of the south; Tareq Saleh's National Resistance of the west coast — pushed back by the Houthis' September 2026 offensive; the Hadrami and the Shabwani Elite forces; the Islah-aligned units of Marib and Taiz), the STC's Security Belt (absorbed or dispersed after January 2026 by the reports); the Houthis' forces (about 350,000 fighters of 2024 by the UN's estimate; the ballistic missiles, the drones and the uncrewed boats of the Iranian design — both the Iranian supply's findings and Iran's denials stated, LAW 2); the Saudi-led coalition's air campaign (March 2015 onward — the 32–64 strikes a day of September 2026 by the reports); the U.S. advisers (about 100-plus, intelligence only — by the reports) |
| Foreign relations | Saudi Arabia (the coalition's leader since 26 March 2015 — 'Operation Decisive Storm'; the 2022 truce's talks with the Houthis and its collapse; the July 2026 'siege for siege' attacks on the Saudi ports, the refineries and the tankers and the Saudi strikes on Sanaa airport, Hodeidah and Kamaran — by the reports), the UAE (the coalition's southern partner; the STC's backer; its 2019 drawdown and the role's end after the December 2025 – January 2026 crisis by the reports — LAW 2), Iran (the Houthis' 'Axis of Resistance' ally — the 2026 Iran war's Houthi attacks on Israel from 28 March 2026), the United States (the Operation Rough Rider strikes of 15 March – 6 May 2025 and the Oman-mediated truce of 6 May 2025), Israel (the strikes on Hodeidah, Sanaa and the Houthi leaders of 2024–2025), Oman (the mediator), the UN (the special envoy Hans Grundberg since 2021; the Stockholm Agreement of 2018; the detainee deal of 14 May 2026 — 1,680 detainees by the reports), India (the evacuation of 'Operation Rahat', April 2015 — about 4,600 Indians and about 960 foreigners) |
| Police and security | The divided police and the intelligence services — the Houthis' Security and Intelligence Service (the 2019 merger; the detentions of the UN and the NGO staff — the 'spy cell' charges and the UN's condemnations, LAW 2), the government's police in Aden (the car bombings and the assassinations — the 21 January 2026 bombing near Aden by the reports), the Hadrami and the Shabwani forces; al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP; 2009 — the Mukalla's rule of April 2015 – April 2016; the attacks in Abyan and Shabwa), the ISIS's Yemen branch; the landmines (the Houthis' about 1 million by some estimates — the Saudi Masam project's clearance of about 500,000 by its counts, both stated) |
| Elections | The last presidential election — 21 February 2012 (Hadi the single candidate; about 99.8% — the GCC initiative's transition after Saleh's 33 years); the last parliamentary — 27 April 2003; the presidential of 2006 (Saleh's about 77%); the 2014 National Dialogue's draft constitution's referendum never held; no elections since by the war (both the government's 'after the war' and the critics' 'legitimacy lost' lines stated, LAW 2) |
| The politics of 2024–26 in dates | Jan 2024 the U.S.–UK strikes on the Houthis begin; Feb 2024 bin Mubarak Prime Minister; Mar 2025 the U.S. FTO designation and Operation Rough Rider (15 March); 3 May 2025 bin Braik Prime Minister; 6 May 2025 the U.S.–Houthi truce; 28 Aug 2025 Israel kills the Houthi Prime Minister al-Rahawi; 30 Aug 2025 Miftah the Houthi Prime Minister; Dec 2025 the STC's takeover of Hadramawt and al-Mahra and the Saudi strikes; 2 Jan 2026 the government's Hadramawt operation; 7 Jan 2026 al-Zubaidi expelled; 9 Jan 2026 the STC's dissolution announced (disputed); 15 Jan 2026 al-Zindani Prime Minister; 29 Jan 2026 the WFP's halt in the Houthi areas; 6 Feb 2026 the new cabinet; 28 Mar 2026 the Houthis join the Iran war against Israel; 14 May 2026 the 1,680-detainee deal; 20 Jul 2026 the 'siege for siege' on Saudi Arabia; 3 Sep 2026 the Houthi offensive; 11 Sep 2026 Perim and the Hanish islands taken; 26 Sep 2026 the general mobilization; 4 Oct 2026 al-Alimi's operation to retake the north (by the reports where single-sourced) |
| Current issues | The war's new phase (the Houthis' Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandab's control since September 2026; the government's counteroffensive announced on 4 October 2026 — the casualty counts of the first days stated by each side and by the reports; about 100,000 newly displaced), the Red Sea shipping's danger (the Saudi-linked tankers' attacks; the 13-nation maritime coalition announced by Saudi Arabia on 30 July 2026 — by the reports), the humanitarian collapse (the UN's 21–22 million in need; the WFP's halt in the north; the funding cuts), the economy's split (the two rials; the salaries unpaid), the south's question after the STC's setback (LAW 2), the detentions of the UN staff, the peace process (the UN roadmap of December 2023 frozen) |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$15–21 billion by the World Bank's and the IMF's relayed lines of 2023–25 (both stated) — about US$400–600 a head (both stated); the economy about half of its 2014 size in real terms by the World Bank's line; the Arab world's poorest; the oil exports' halt since October 2022 (the Houthis' drone attacks on the government's terminals) and the Red Sea war's costs |
|---|---|
| GDP (PPP) | About US$50–75 billion by purchasing power by the relayed estimates (both stated; the IMF's data gaps of the war) — about US$1,500–2,000 a head; among the world's lowest 10–15 by the PPP counts |
| Growth and inflation | The contractions of the war years (about −28% in 2015 by the World Bank's line; the 2023–25 declines after the oil export's halt — about −1% to −2% a year by the relays, both stated); the inflation of the government areas (about 20–35% a year in 2023–25 by the counts — the new rial's slide) and the lower prices of the Houthi areas' old notes (the controls and the cash shortages — both stated); the Saudi deposits and the grants (the 2025–26 support) and the remittances the lifelines |
| Monetary policy and the rial | The two central banks — the Central Bank of Yemen in Aden (the recognized one since September 2016; Governor Ahmed Ghaleb al-Maabqi by the reports) and the Houthis' Central Bank in Sanaa; the two rials (the old pre-2017 notes and the coins of the north — about 533 to the dollar; the new notes of the south — about 1,576 on 5 October 2026 by the ACAPS tracker, both stated); the banks' war of 2024 (Aden's orders to move the banks' headquarters, the Houthis' threats, the Saudi-brokered de-escalation of July 2024 — by the reports); the hawala money transfer networks |
| Public finances | The government's revenue's collapse with the oil's halt (the oil once about 60–70% of the revenue by the counts — both stated); the Saudi grants and the deposits (about US$1 billion and more of 2023–26 by the reports — the salaries and the fuel); the Houthis' revenue from the Hodeidah port's customs, the taxes, the zakat and the fuel's sales; the public salaries unpaid in the north since 2016 (about 1.2 million civil servants affected by the counts); the external debt about US$7 billion by the relays (both stated) |
| Structure and labor | Agriculture about 15–20% of GDP and about half of the employment (the qat, the sorghum, the millet, the coffee, the fruit), the services and the trade about 50–60%, the industry about 10–20% (the oil's share collapsed) — both shares by the estimates stated; the unemployment about 15–35% by the estimates (both stated); the informal work the large majority; the remittances about US$4–4.5 billion a year (about 20% of GDP by the World Bank's line) |
| Trade | The exports about US$0.3–1 billion a year by the war's estimates (both stated; the crude oil until 2022, the fish, the coffee, the honey, the scrap); the imports about US$8–10 billion (the food — about 90% of the staple grains imported, the fuel, the medicines); the partners — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, China, India (the rice, the sugar, the pharmaceuticals; Yemen among India's Gulf-region buyers), Oman, Turkey; the Hodeidah port's UN-inspected imports (the UNVIM of 2016) and the Israeli and the U.S. strikes on Hodeidah and Ras Isa (2024–2025) |
| Agriculture | The terraced highlands' farming — the qat (the most profitable crop; about a third or more of the irrigation water by the counts, both stated), the sorghum and the millet, the wheat (about 5–10% of the needs), the coffee (the Yemeni Arabica — the Mocha's heritage; the specialty boom of the 2010s — the Port of Mokha brand), the fruits (the mangoes of the Tihama, the grapes of Sanaa, the pomegranates of Saada), the honey (the Sidr honey of the Hadramawt's Wadi Do'an), the livestock (the sheep, the goats, the camels), the fisheries (the Arabian Sea's — the Mukalla's) |
| Industry | The oil and the gas (the Marib–Jawf and the Masila basins; the Safer company of Marib; the Aden refinery of 1954 — the British Petroleum's; the Balhaf LNG of TotalEnergies' consortium — idle since 2015), the cement (Amran, Bajil), the food processing (the Hayel Saeed Anam group — the largest private conglomerate), the fishing processing, the salt (Salif), the construction; the war's destruction of the factories and the power plants |
| Tourism | Almost none since the war — the about 1 million visitors of 2010 by the counts (both stated) and the Western governments' 'do not travel' advisories; Socotra's small tourism (the charter flights from Abu Dhabi of 2021–2025 — the visitors of the dragon's blood trees by the reports), the Old Sanaa, Shibam, Zabid and the Marib's Sabaean temples in danger; the kidnappings of the foreigners of the 1990s–2000s and the 2007 Marib attack on the Spanish tourists |
| Energy | The electricity's collapse — the national grid's output down by about two-thirds since 2014 by the counts (both stated); the solar boom of the households (about half of the homes in the north using the solar panels by the surveys); the diesel generators, the fuel imports' crises (the Hodeidah's fuel ships' delays); Aden's summer blackouts and the Saudi fuel grants; the oil fields of Marib, Shabwa and Hadramawt (the output for the local use) |
| Banks and markets | The banks split between Sanaa's headquarters and Aden's control (the 2024 standoff); the Yemen Kuwait Bank, the Tadhamon Bank, the Yemen Commercial Bank, the Al-Kuraimi Islamic Microfinance Bank (the largest by the branches), the International Bank of Yemen; the hawala and the money exchangers (the main transfer system); no stock exchange; the U.S. sanctions on the Houthi-linked banks and the exchangers (2024–2026 by the reports) |
| Infrastructure projects | The reconstruction's plans frozen by the war — the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY; 2018 — the Aden's power stations, the roads, the hospitals, the desalination), the World Bank's and the UN's emergency projects (the cash transfers, the water, the electricity), the UAE's Socotra and the Aden projects (until 2025–26), the Aden's port and the airport's repairs, the Hodeidah's cranes (the UN's 2023 delivery); the Marib's displaced camps' services |
| Poverty and inequality | The poverty about 75–80% by the UN's estimates (both stated); the food insecurity of about 17–19 million (the IPC's counts — both stated) with the pockets of the famine's risk; the UN's 21–22 million in need of the aid in 2026 (both stated) and the funding cuts (the 2025 plan 28% funded at US$688 million by the reports); the World Food Program's halt in the Houthi areas (29 January 2026); the Muhamasheen's and the displaced's extreme poverty |
| Economic history in brief | The incense and the spice trade of the ancient kingdoms (Saba, Qataban, Hadramawt — the frankincense route); the Marib Dam's agriculture; the Mocha coffee's monopoly of the 16th–18th centuries; Aden's British port (1839–1967 — among the world's busiest bunkering ports of the 1950s by the usual line); the North's and the South's separate economies (the Soviet-style South); the oil's discovery (1984 in Marib; 1993's Masila) and the unified economy's oil dependence; the 1990 expulsion of the workers from Saudi Arabia; the 1994 civil war; the 2011 uprising and the 2014 fuel subsidy's cut (the Houthis' rallying cause); the war's collapse (2015 onward) and the split currencies (2019–20) |
Transport
| Roads | About 71,000 km of roads by the counts (about 9–12% paved — both stated) — the Sanaa–Hodeidah road (the Chinese-built of the 1960s through the Manakhah pass), the Sanaa–Taiz–Aden road, the Aden–Mukalla coastal road, the Marib roads; the war's cut roads and the detours (the Taiz's siege — the Houthis' reopening of some crossings in June 2024 by the reports), the landmines; the cars about 1–1.5 million by the counts |
|---|---|
| Rail | None — no railway in Yemen (the Aden's short colonial tramway of the early 20th century aside by the usual line; the GCC railway's plans never reached Yemen) |
| City transit | No public metro or tram — the minibuses ('dabbab') and the shared taxis of Sanaa, Aden and Taiz, the motorcycles' taxis; the fuel shortages' queues of the war years; the war's damage to the urban roads |
| Air | Aden International Airport (the recognized government's main gateway; the 30 December 2020 attack on the arriving cabinet — about 25 dead), Sanaa International Airport (the Houthis'; closed to the commercial flights in 2016–2022 except the UN's; the Israeli strikes of May 2025 and the Saudi strikes of July 2026 by the reports), Sayun, Mukalla's Riyan, Socotra, Marib; Yemenia (Yemen Airways; 1961 — the national carrier's few aircraft, the Israeli strike's destruction of its planes at Sanaa in May 2025 by the reports) |
| Ports and waterways | Aden (the recognized government's main port; the container terminal), Hodeidah (the Houthis' main port — about 70% of the imports of the north; the Stockholm Agreement of December 2018; the Israeli and the U.S. strikes of 2024–2025), Salif and Ras Isa (the Houthis' fuel port), Mukalla, Nishtun, Mocha (taken by the Houthis in September 2026); the Bab al-Mandab strait (the Houthis' attacks of November 2023 onward and of July–August 2026 — the shipping's diversion around the Cape of Good Hope, the Suez Canal's revenue loss); the FSO Safer oil tanker's salvage (the UN's transfer of about 1.1 million barrels in August 2023 — the averted spill) |
| Energy and utilities | The Public Electricity Corporation's split networks (the Houthis' Sanaa and the government's Aden — the Marib gas power station's lines cut since 2015), the solar's household systems, the water — the Sanaa basin's aquifer's depletion and the trucked water, the Aden's desalination; the telecoms — the Houthis' TeleYemen and Yemen Mobile, the government's AdenNet (2018), the submarine cables' landings at Hodeidah, Aden and Mukalla (the 2024 Red Sea cables' cuts by the reports) |
| Border crossings and bridges | To Saudi Arabia — al-Wadiah (the main crossing; the pilgrims' and the trucks' route), Alab and al-Tuwal (closed by the war); to Oman — the Shahin and the Sarfait crossings of al-Mahra (the main supply route to the government's east); the internal front lines' crossings (the Taiz's, the al-Dhale's, the Marib's — the civilians' long detours); the Bab al-Mandab's ferries to Djibouti (the refugees' route — about 1,400 in a day in September 2026 by the reports) |
History in dates
| c. 1,000,000 BCE – 1200 BCE | The early humans' stone tools of the coastal plains and the Hadramawt (the 'southern route' out of Africa across the Bab al-Mandab by the archaeologists' line — both the southern and the northern routes' readings stated); the Neolithic herders, the Bronze Age's villages of the highlands (the Sabir culture of the coast, about 2000 BCE), the early irrigation and the terraces |
|---|---|
| 1200 BCE – 275 CE | The South Arabian kingdoms of the incense trade — Saba (Sheba; the Marib's capital — the Great Dam of about the 8th century BCE, the Awwam and the Bar'an temples, the mukarribs' inscriptions in the Musnad script; the Queen of Sheba's legend of the Bible and the Qur'an), Ma'in, Qataban (Timna), Hadramawt (Shabwa), Awsan; the Romans' 'Arabia Felix' and Aelius Gallus's failed expedition (26–25 BCE); the Himyarites' rise (from about 110 BCE; the capital Zafar) |
| 275 – 630 | The Himyarite Kingdom's unification of Yemen (about 275 CE — Shammar Yuhar'ish), the monotheism's spread (the Judaism's adoption by the kings of the 4th–6th centuries — Dhu Nuwas's persecution of the Christians of Najran of 523 by the sources — both the Christian and the other readings stated, LAW 2); the Aksumite (Ethiopian) conquest (about 525) and Abraha's rule (the 'Year of the Elephant' expedition against Mecca of about 570 by the tradition), the Marib Dam's final breach (about 570), the Sasanian Persian conquest (about 570–575) |
| 630 – 897 | The Islam's arrival (about 628–630; the Persian governor Badhan's conversion, the Prophet's envoys — Ali and Mu'adh ibn Jabal; the Great Mosque of Sanaa's founding in the Prophet's lifetime by the tradition); the Umayyad and the Abbasid governors; the Ziyadids of Zabid (819–1018; Zabid the Islamic learning's center); the Yu'firids of Sanaa |
| 897 – 1174 | The Zaydi imamate's founding by al-Hadi ila'l-Haqq Yahya at Saada (897 — the imamate's line to 1962); the Ismaili Sulayhid dynasty (1047–1138 — Queen Arwa al-Sulayhi's rule from Jibla, 1067–1138; among the few Muslim queens to rule in her own name by the usual line), the Najahids of Zabid, the Zurayids of Aden |
| 1174 – 1538 | The Ayyubid conquest (1174; Saladin's brother Turan-Shah), the Rasulid dynasty (1229–1454 — the golden age of Taiz and Zabid; the science, the agriculture, the Indian Ocean trade with India and China; the Ashrafiya mosque of Taiz), the Tahirids (1454–1517); the Portuguese attacks on Aden (1513) and the Mamluks' brief rule |
| 1538 – 1635 | The first Ottoman rule (Aden 1538, Sanaa 1547 — the Yemen Eyalet); the coffee's rise (the Sufi drink of the 15th century; Mocha the world's coffee port of the 16th–18th centuries); the Zaydi imam al-Qasim's revolt (1597) and his son al-Mu'ayyad's expulsion of the Ottomans (1635) |
| 1635 – 1839 | The Qasimid Zaydi state's rule over most of Yemen (1635–1872; the 'Zaydi state' at its height under al-Mutawakkil Isma'il, 1644–1676 — the Hadramawt reached); the coffee monopoly's decline (the Dutch and the French plantations of Java and the Caribbean from the 1720s); the Wahhabi raids of the early 19th century; the sultanates of the south (Lahij, the Hadramawt's Qu'aiti and Kathiri) |
| 1839 – 1918 | The British capture of Aden (19 January 1839 — the East India Company's coaling station; ruled from Bombay to 1937 — the Indian rupee Aden's currency to 1951 by the usual line), the Suez Canal's opening (1869) and Aden's boom; the second Ottoman rule of the North (1872–1918) and the 1904 Anglo-Ottoman border (the 'violet line' — the North–South division's origin); Imam Yahya's revolt and the Treaty of Daan (1911); the Ottomans' withdrawal (1918) — the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Imam Yahya |
| 1918 – 1962 | The Mutawakkilite Kingdom (Imam Yahya, 1918–1948 — the isolation; the war with Saudi Arabia of 1934 and the Treaty of Taif — the Asir, the Najran and the Jizan lost), Yahya's assassination in the 1948 coup and Imam Ahmad's rule (1948–1962; the capital at Taiz); the British Aden Colony (1937) and the Aden Protectorate (the about 20–25 sultanates and the emirates by the counts); the Jews' exodus (Operation On Wings of Eagles, 1949–50 — about 49,000 to Israel); the Federation of South Arabia (1962) |
| 1962 – 1970 | The 26 September 1962 revolution (Abdullah al-Sallal's officers overthrow Imam al-Badr — the Yemen Arab Republic) and the North Yemen Civil War (1962–1970; Egypt's about 70,000 troops for the republicans, Saudi Arabia and Jordan for the royalists — the 'Egypt's Vietnam' by the usual line); the Siege of Sanaa (1967–68); the South's revolt against Britain (14 October 1963 from the Radfan), the Aden Emergency (1963–1967) and the British withdrawal (30 November 1967 — the People's Republic of South Yemen); the 1970 reconciliation in the North |
| 1970 – 1990 | The South's People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (1970; the Arab world's only Marxist state — the Soviet ally; the 13 January 1986 civil war in Aden, about 4,000–10,000 dead by the counts, both stated); the North's coups (Ibrahim al-Hamdi's assassination of 1977, al-Ghashmi's of 1978) and Ali Abdullah Saleh's presidency (17 July 1978); the border wars of 1972 and 1979; the oil's discovery in Marib (1984); the unification talks |
| 1990 – 1993 | The unification (22 May 1990 — Saleh the President, Ali Salim al-Beidh the Vice President; the two armies never merged); Yemen's Gulf War stance at the UN Security Council (the vote against the force resolution of November 1990) and Saudi Arabia's expulsion of about 800,000 Yemeni workers (1990); the constitution's referendum (16 May 1991); the first multiparty elections (27 April 1993 — the GPC first, the Islah second, the Yemeni Socialist Party third); al-Beidh's withdrawal to Aden and the Document of Pledge and Accord (Amman, February 1994) |
| 1994 – 1999 | The civil war of May–July 1994 (the South's secession attempt — the Democratic Republic of Yemen of 21 May 1994; Aden taken on 7 July 1994 — the 'southern grievance's' origin, both the 'unity's defense' and the 'occupation of the South' lines stated, LAW 2); the 1994 constitutional amendments (the presidency's powers); the Hanish islands' clash with Eritrea (December 1995) and the 1998 arbitration's award to Yemen; the first direct presidential election (23 September 1999 — Saleh about 96%) |
| 2000 – 2004 | The USS Cole bombing in Aden (12 October 2000 — al-Qaeda; 17 U.S. sailors killed); the Saudi border treaty (12 June 2000); the constitutional amendments of 2001 (the seven-year presidential term); the Limburg tanker attack (6 October 2002); the parliamentary election of 27 April 2003; the first Saada war (June–September 2004) and Hussein al-Houthi's killing (10 September 2004) — the movement's leadership passing to Abdul-Malik al-Houthi |
| 2005 – 2010 | The Saada wars' second to sixth rounds (2005–2010 — the Houthis' growth in the north; the 'Operation Scorched Earth' of 2009 and the Saudi border fighting of November 2009 – February 2010); Saleh's reelection (20 September 2006; about 77%); the Southern Movement (al-Hirak; 2007 — the retired southern officers' protests); the AQAP's founding (January 2009) and the 'underwear bomber' (25 December 2009); the U.S. drone strikes' start in Yemen (2002; the al-Majalah strike of December 2009 — LAW 2 on the counts) |
| 2011 – 2014 | The Yemeni revolution (from January 2011 — the 'Change Square' sit-ins; Tawakkol Karman's Nobel Peace Prize of 7 October 2011 — the first Arab woman laureate); the Friday of Dignity massacre (18 March 2011; about 50 killed); Saleh's injury in the presidential mosque's bombing (3 June 2011) and the GCC initiative (23 November 2011); Hadi's election (21 February 2012); the National Dialogue Conference (March 2013 – January 2014; the federal plan of six regions); the fuel subsidy's cut (July 2014) and the Houthi takeover of Sanaa (21 September 2014) |
| 2015 | Hadi's resignation under the Houthi house arrest (22 January) and his flight to Aden (February); the Houthi advance on Aden (March); the Saudi-led coalition's intervention ('Operation Decisive Storm', 26 March 2015); India's Operation Rahat (April); the UN Security Council Resolution 2216 (14 April); the Aden's recapture by the coalition and the southern forces (July 2015); the AQAP's Mukalla rule (April 2015 – April 2016); the cholera's and the famine's warnings |
| 2016 – 2017 | The Kuwait talks' failure (April–August 2016); the Houthis' Supreme Political Council (28 July 2016); the central bank's move to Aden (September 2016); the funeral hall strike in Sanaa (8 October 2016; about 140 dead by the counts); the cholera epidemic's start (October 2016); the STC's founding (11 May 2017); the Saudi blockade's tightening after the Riyadh missile (November 2017); Saleh's break with the Houthis and his killing (4 December 2017) |
| 2018 – 2019 | The STC's clashes in Aden (January 2018); the Hodeidah offensive (June 2018 onward) and the Stockholm Agreement (13 December 2018 — the Hodeidah ceasefire, the prisoner exchange's framework, the Taiz understanding); the Dahyan school bus strike (9 August 2018); the journalist Jamal Khashoggi's killing's pressure on the coalition (October 2018); the STC's seizure of Aden (August 2019) and the Riyadh Agreement (5 November 2019); the Abqaiq attack (14 September 2019 — the Houthis' claim and the U.S. and Saudi attribution to Iran, both stated, LAW 2) |
| 2020 – 2022 | The split currencies (January 2020); the Aden airport attack on the new cabinet (30 December 2020); the Houthis' Marib offensive (2021–22 — the displaced's city); the Houthis' attacks on Abu Dhabi (17 January 2022); the UN-brokered truce (2 April 2022 — the longest lull of the war, expired on 2 October 2022 but broadly holding by the usual line); the Presidential Leadership Council (7 April 2022 — Hadi's handover); the Houthi drone attacks on the oil terminals (October–November 2022 — the exports' halt) |
| 2023 – 2024 | The Saudi–Iranian détente (10 March 2023) and the Saudi–Houthi talks in Sanaa (April 2023); the prisoner swap of about 900 (April 2023); the FSO Safer's oil transfer (August 2023); the Houthis' Red Sea attacks after the Gaza war's start (the Galaxy Leader's seizure of 19 November 2023); the UN roadmap's commitments (23 December 2023); the U.S.–UK strikes (from 12 January 2024; Operation Poseidon Archer); the Israeli strikes on Hodeidah (July 2024 onward); the banks' war (2024); the Houthis' detentions of the UN staff (June 2024 onward) |
| 2025 (January – August) | The U.S. 'Foreign Terrorist Organization' designation of the Houthis (March 2025); Operation Rough Rider (15 March – 6 May 2025 — about 1,000-plus U.S. strikes by the counts; the Ras Isa fuel port strike of 17 April 2025 — about 74–80 killed by the counts, both stated); the Oman-mediated U.S.–Houthi truce (6 May 2025 — the attacks on the U.S. ships ended, the attacks on Israel continued); bin Braik the Prime Minister (3 May); the Israeli strikes on Sanaa airport and the Yemenia planes (May 2025); the Magic Seas and the Eternity C sunk (July 2025); the Israeli strike killing the Houthi Prime Minister al-Rahawi and the ministers (28 August 2025) |
| 2025 (September – December) | Miftah the Houthi Prime Minister (30 August); the Israeli strikes of 10 September 2025 (46 killed by the reports); the Houthi chief of staff Muhammad al-Ghamari's death announced (October 2025 — by the reports); the Gaza ceasefire and the Houthis' pause of the attacks (October 2025); the UN staff's detentions and the Houthi raids on the UN offices (2025); the STC's takeover of Hadramawt and al-Mahra (December 2025 — the claim of eight southern governorates) and the Saudi strikes on the STC's positions and the weapons' shipments (late December 2025 — by the reports; both the STC's and the government's lines stated, LAW 2) |
| 2026 (January – June) | The government's Hadramawt operation with the Saudi air support (2 January 2026); Aidarous al-Zubaidi expelled from the Presidential Leadership Council (7 January); the STC's dissolution announced by its secretary-general (9 January; disputed by others — LAW 2); the government's claim of the full control of the former STC areas (10 January); Shaya al-Zindani the Prime Minister (15 January); the car bombing near Aden (21 January); the WFP's halt in the Houthi areas and the UN equipment's seizure (29 January); the new cabinet (6 February); the southern protests' clashes at Ataq (11 February) and Aden's Ma'ashiq (19 February); the Houthis' attacks on Israel in the 2026 Iran war (from 28 March); the 1,680-detainee deal (14 May); the Houthi court's 19 death sentences (17 May); the Red Sea 'ban' on the Israeli shipping (June) — by the reports where single-sourced |
| 2026 (July – October) | The Saudi strikes on Sanaa airport and the Houthis' missile attack on Abha airport (13 July); the 'siege for siege' naval blockade of Saudi Arabia (20 July); the attacks on the Saudi-linked tankers (22–24 July), the Jazan refinery and Yanbu (25 July) and the Abqaiq facility (27 July); the Saudi strikes on Hodeidah and Kamaran (24 July); the 13-nation maritime coalition (30 July); the Houthi offensive on Taiz's coast (3 September — Mocha and Dhubab taken; Hays taken and lost); the Perim (Mayyun) and the Hanish islands taken (11 September — the Bab al-Mandab's control); about 100,000 displaced and about 1,400 refugees to Djibouti in a day (by the reports); the general mobilization (26 September 2026); al-Alimi's operation to retake the Houthi-held territory (4 October 2026) — the casualty claims of the first days stated by the reports |
| The rulers in brief | The Sabaean mukarribs and the Himyarite kings; the Zaydi imams (897–1962 — the last, Muhammad al-Badr); the Rasulid sultans (1229–1454); the North's presidents — Abdullah al-Sallal (1962–67), Abdul Rahman al-Iryani (1967–74), Ibrahim al-Hamdi (1974–77), Ahmad al-Ghashmi (1977–78), Ali Abdullah Saleh (1978–1990; the unified state's to 2012 — 33 years in all; killed in 2017); the South's leaders — Qahtan al-Shaabi, Salim Rubai Ali, Abdul Fattah Ismail, Ali Nasir Muhammad, Ali Salim al-Beidh; Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi (2012–2022); Rashad al-Alimi (2022–); the Houthis' Abdul-Malik al-Houthi (2004–) |
| The war in brief | The Houthis' takeover of Sanaa (September 2014), the Saudi-led intervention (March 2015), the Aden's battles (2015, 2019), the Hodeidah offensive (2018), the Marib offensive (2021–22), the truce (2022), the Red Sea war (2023–2026), the U.S. and the Israeli strikes (2024–2025), the south's crisis (December 2025 – January 2026), the Houthis' Red Sea coast offensive (September 2026) and the government's counteroffensive (October 2026); the death toll of about 150,000 direct and about 377,000 including the indirect deaths to 2021 by the UNDP's estimate (both stated, LAW 2) |
| The humanitarian crisis in brief | Among the world's largest humanitarian crises by the UN's line since 2015 — the famine warnings (2016–2019, 2022), the cholera's largest outbreak (2016–2021), the 4.5–4.8 million internally displaced, the 21–22 million in need (2026; both stated), the aid's funding cuts and the WFP's halt in the north (2026), the detentions of the aid staff (2024–2026) |
Records
| The ancient records | The Marib Dam (about the 8th century BCE — among the ancient world's great engineering works; its breach of about 570 CE); the Queen of Sheba's kingdom (the legend of the Bible's and the Qur'an's — the Ethiopian Kebra Nagast's claim too, both stated); the frankincense and the myrrh trade (the 'Incense Road' to the Mediterranean); the Musnad script's inscriptions (the 10,000-plus by the counts); the Himyarite Kingdom's Jewish kings (the 4th–6th centuries) |
|---|---|
| The architectural records | Shibam (the 'Manhattan of the desert' — the about 500 mud-brick tower houses of 5–11 stories of the 16th century; the world's oldest skyscraper city by the usual line), the Old City of Sanaa's about 6,000 tower houses (the 11th century and older), the Dar al-Hajar rock palace (the 1920s–30s on the 18th-century base), the Haraz's peak villages (al-Hajjarah), the Tarim's about 360 mosques (the 'city of the mosques' — the al-Mihdhar's 50 m mud minaret of 1914) |
| The natural records | Jabal an-Nabi Shuʿayb (about 3,666–3,760 m, both stated — the Arabian Peninsula's highest); Socotra — about a third of its plant species found nowhere else (the dragon's blood tree, the desert rose, the cucumber tree); the Bab al-Mandab ('the Gate of Lamentation' — about 29–32 km wide); the Ibb's 'green province' — the wettest of Arabia by the usual line |
| The coffee's records | The coffee's first cultivation and the drink's spread by the Sufis of the 15th century (the Arabica's domestication in Yemen by the usual line); Mocha (al-Makha) the world's coffee port of the 16th–18th centuries — the 'mocha' name of the coffee and the chocolate drink; the Yemeni coffee's specialty prices of the 2020s (among the world's priciest by the auctions — by the reports) |
| The humanitarian records | The world's largest cholera outbreak of the recorded history (2016–2021 — about 2.5 million suspected cases by the WHO's line); among the world's largest humanitarian crises by the UN's line (2015–2026); the UNDP's estimate of about 377,000 deaths (direct and indirect) to 2021 (LAW 2); the FSO Safer's averted oil spill (2023 — the UN's salvage of about 1.1 million barrels); the largest prisoner swaps of the war (about 1,000 in 2020; about 900 in 2023; 1,680 agreed in May 2026 — by the reports) |
| The Red Sea records | The Houthis' attacks on more than 100 merchant ships from November 2023 to 2025 by the counts (both stated) — the Galaxy Leader's seizure (the crew held about 14 months), the sinkings of the Rubymar (the first ship sunk, March 2024), the Tutor, the Magic Seas and the Eternity C (2025); the Suez Canal's traffic down by about half to two-thirds in 2024 by the counts; the 2026 'siege for siege' on the Saudi-linked tankers; the Bab al-Mandab's islands taken (September 2026 — by the reports) |
| The firsts of the state | Tawakkol Karman — the first Arab woman Nobel Peace Prize laureate (2011) and the youngest Nobel Peace laureate at the time (32) by the usual line; Queen Arwa al-Sulayhi (1067–1138) — among the first women to rule in their own name in the Islamic world; the Arab world's only Marxist state (the South, 1967/1970–1990); the Arabian Peninsula's first republic (the North's 1962 by the usual line) |
| The people's records | The fastest-growing populations of the Middle East (about 2.2–2.6% a year; both stated); the Hadrami diaspora of the Indian Ocean (Hyderabad's Chaush of Barkas, the Indonesian and the Singaporean Arab families); the Yemenite Jews' airlift (1949–50; about 49,000); the Yemeni-Americans of Dearborn and Hamtramck (Hamtramck's all-Muslim council of 2021 and its Yemeni-American mayor by the reports) |
| The letters and the arts | The Song of Sanaa (UNESCO 2003/2008 — the al-Ghina al-San'ani; the oud and the copper tray), the zamil chants, the humayni poetry; the poets Abdullah al-Baradouni (the blind poet of the 20th century), Muhammad Mahmud al-Zubayri (the 'father of the free Yemenis'); the novelists Ali al-Muqri, Mohammed Abdul-Wali (the 'They Die Strangers', 1971); the films 'A New Day in Old Sanaa' (2005) and 'The Mulberry House' (2013); the 10 Days Before the Wedding (2018 — Aden's cinema's return by the usual line) |
| The sporting records | The national football team's first AFC Asian Cup (2019 — the UAE); the U-17's Asian triumphs (the AFC U-17 runner-up of 2002 and the qualifying wins of the war years); the youth titles of 2021 (the WAFF U-15's by the reports) — the street celebrations amid the war; the Arab Games' and the Asian Games' medals of the boxing and the taekwondo; the national team's home games abroad since 2015 (the war) |
| The economic records | The Arab world's poorest economy by the GDP a head (about US$400–600; both stated); the economy about half of its 2014 size; the two rials of the divided state (533 and 1,576 to the dollar on 5 October 2026 by the ACAPS tracker); the oil exports' halt since 2022; the remittances about 20% of GDP; the qat's share of the household spending (about 10–30% by the surveys, both stated) |
| The wildlife's records | The Socotra archipelago's endemic species (about 37% of the plants, about 90% of the reptiles, about 95% of the land snails by the UNESCO's line); the Arabian leopard's last refuges (Hawf, the western highlands); the Red Sea's coral reefs of the Kamaran and the Farasan's edge; the whale sharks of the Gulf of Aden; the hamadryas baboons of the highlands |
| The disasters' marks | The Marib Dam's breach (about 570 CE); the famine of 1943 and the droughts; the Dhamar earthquake (13 December 1982; about 2,800 dead); the 1994 civil war; the cyclones of 2015 and 2018; the cholera (2016–2021); the 2024 floods; the September 2026 displacement (about 100,000 — by the reports) |
| The small and the strange | The two rials and the two central banks of one country; the two prime ministers, the two 'governments' and the one flag (both stated, LAW 2); the jambiya at the men's belts; the qat's afternoon (about two-thirds or more of the men by the surveys — both stated); Shibam's mud 'skyscrapers'; Socotra's alien-looking trees; Aden's Indian rupee years (to 1951) |
| The census and the counts | The censuses — the North's of 1975 and 1986, the South's of 1973 and 1988, the unified state's of 1994 (14,587,807) and 2004 (19,685,161); no census since 2004; the UN's estimates of about 40–41 million (2025–26; both stated); the war's death toll's estimates (LAW 2); the displaced's 4.5–4.8 million (both stated) |
| The last and the next | The government's counteroffensive announced on 4 October 2026 and the Houthis' Red Sea coast (the Bab al-Mandab's islands); the UN roadmap's revival or not; the south's political future after the STC's January 2026 setback (LAW 2); the Red Sea shipping's security (the Saudi-led maritime coalition of July 2026 — by the reports); the WFP's return to the north; the next census and the elections — none scheduled |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Yemen?
The Republic of Yemen (al-Jumhūriyya al-Yamaniyya) — the state of the unification of 22 May 1990 of the Yemen Arab Republic (the North; 1962–1990) and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (the South; 1967–1990); the constitution of 1991 (amended 1994, 2001); the demonym Yemeni; the UN's member (the North's of 30 September 1947 continued), the Arab League's (a founding member of 1945), the OIC's; the state divided since 2014–15 between the internationally recognized government (the Presidential Leadership Council; Aden) and the Houthis' authorities in Sanaa (recognized by few states — both the 'legitimate government' and the 'de facto authority' lines stated, LAW 2).
What is the capital of Yemen?
Sanaa (Ṣanʿāʾ) — the constitutional capital at about 2,250 m in the highlands, held by the Houthis since 21 September 2014; the Old City of Sanaa (UNESCO 1986; on the in-danger list since 2015 — the tower houses of the rammed earth and the burnt brick, the Great Mosque of the 7th century); about 3–4 million people by the estimates (both stated); Aden — the 'temporary capital' of the internationally recognized government since 2015 (the port on the Gulf of Aden; about 1–1.1 million by the estimates), the seat of the Presidential Leadership Council and the Central Bank's Aden branch; Taiz, Hodeidah and Mukalla the other main cities.
How big is Yemen, and how many people live there?
About 527,968 km² (203,850 sq mi; about 555,000 km² by another count with the islands and the undemarcated desert — both stated) — about 16% of India's area, about the size of Maharashtra plus Gujarat and Rajasthan's third; about 40–41 million people by the UN's 2025–26 estimates (both stated; no census since 2004 — 19,685,161); about 4.5–4.8 million internally displaced by the UN's counts (both stated); the UN's 21–22 million people in need of the aid in 2026 (both counts stated) — among the world's largest humanitarian crises.
What are the highest and lowest points of Yemen?
Jabal an-Nabi Shuʿayb (the Prophet Shuʿayb's Mountain; the Haraz range west of Sanaa) — about 3,666 m (3,666–3,760 m by the surveys, both stated), the Arabian Peninsula's highest point; the highlands of about 2,000–3,000 m (Sanaa about 2,250 m, Ibb, Dhamar, the Haraz terraces); the lowest point the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea at sea level (0 m) — the Tihama coastal plain along the Red Sea and the Hadramawt's wadis falling to the coast.
What currency does Yemen use?
The Yemeni rial (YER; 100 fils) — split in two since January 2020 when the Houthis' Sanaa central bank banned the government's new banknotes: about 533 rials to the U.S. dollar for the old notes of the Houthi areas and about 1,576 for the new notes of the government areas on 5 October 2026 by the ACAPS tracker (both rates stated; the new notes above 2,800 at the 2025 lows by the reports); about 6 old-note or 18 new-note rials to the Indian rupee; the two rival central banks — Aden's (since 2016; the internationally recognized) and Sanaa's (the Houthis'); the teachers' pay of about 60,000 rials a month by the tracker's benchmark.
Who governs Yemen?
Two rival authorities: the internationally recognized government — the Presidential Leadership Council (formed 7 April 2022 when President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi handed his powers to it) under Chairman Rashad al-Alimi (born 1954; the former interior minister), with Prime Minister Shaya al-Zindani (from 15 January 2026; the cabinet of 6 February 2026), backed by the Saudi-led coalition; the Southern Transitional Council's chairman Aidarous al-Zubaidi expelled from the council on 7 January 2026 after the STC's December 2025 takeover in the south (both the government's 'rebellion' and the STC's 'southern self-rule' lines stated, LAW 2); and the Houthis (Ansar Allah) in Sanaa and the north — the leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the Supreme Political Council's chairman Mahdi al-Mashat and Prime Minister Muhammad Ahmed Miftah (from 30 August 2025, after Ahmed al-Rahawi's killing by an Israeli strike); al-Alimi's operation to retake the Houthi-held territory announced on 4 October 2026.
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