Demographics ofTunisia
Population pyramid of Tunisia in 2020
Population	11,896,972 (2022 est.)[1]
Growth rate	0.69% (2022 est.)
Birth rate	14.62 births/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Death rate	6.36 deaths/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Life expectancy	76.82 years
• male	75.14 years
• female	78.6 years (2022 est.)
Fertility rate	1.8 children born/woman (2025)
Infant mortality rate	11.87 deaths/1,000 live births
Net migration rate	-1.33 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Age structure
0–14 years	25.28%
65 and over	8.86%
Sex ratio
Total	0.98 male(s)/female (2022 est.)
At birth	1.06 male(s)/female
Under 15	1.07 male(s)/female
65 and over	0.78 male(s)/female
Nationality
Nationality	Tunisian
Major ethnic	Arabs (98%)[2]
Minor ethnic	Berbers (1%),[3][4] Others (1%)
Language
Official	Arabic

All figures are fromNational Institute of Statistics^[5] and the United Nations Demographic Yearbooks,^[6] unless otherwise indicated.

Tunisia's population was estimated to be around 12.04 million in 2022.^[7] In the generally youthful African continent, Tunisia's population is among the most mature. This is because the government has supported a successfulfamily planning program that has reduced the population growth rate to just over 1% per annum, contributing to Tunisia's economic and social stability.^[8]

The population of Tunisia is made up ofArabs (98%),^[2]Berbers (1%),^[3][4] and others (1%). Around 98 percent of the population areMuslim.^[9] There is aJewish population on the southern island ofDjerba and inTunis. There also exists a smallautochthonous group ofChristian adherents.^[10]

Source: National Institute of Statistics^[11] and United Nations Statistics Division^[12]

^[13]

Period	Live births	Deaths	Natural increase
January—December 2023	133,322	72,531	+60,791
January—December 2024	120,983	67,914	+53,069
Difference	-12,339 (-9.25%)	-4,740 (-6.53%)	-7,722

Demographic of different governorates

Rang	Governorate	Population (1994)	Population (2004)	Population (2014)	Population (2024)	Variation 1994–2024 (%)
1	Tunis	887,803	983,861	1,056,247	1,075,306	+21.1%
2	Sfax	733,687	855,256	955,421	1,047,468	+42.8%
3	Nabeul	578,618	693,890	787,918	863,172	+49.2%
4	Sousse	433,709	544,413	674,818	762,281	+75.8%
5	Ben Arous	371,745	505,773	631,842	722,828	+94.4%
6	Ariana	290,634	422,246	576,088	668,552	+129.9%
7	Bizerte	483,086	524,128	568,219	607,388	+25.7%
8	Kairouan	532,709	546,209	570,436	600,803	+12.8%
9	Monastir	363,901	455,590	548,828	599,769	+64.8%
10	Médenine	386,185	432,503	479,520	537,255	+39.1%
11	Kasserine	386,908	412,278	439,243	492,741	+27.3%
12	Sidi Bouzid	377,143	395,506	429,912	489,991	+29.9%
13	Mahdia	335,744	377,853	410,812	449,985	+34.0%
14	Manouba	278,660	335,912	379,518	418,354	+50.1%
15	Gabès	311,713	342,630	374,300	410,847	+31.8%
16	Jendouba	404,783	416,608	401,477	404,352	-0.1%
17	Gafsa	307,513	323,709	337,331	388,776	+26.4%
18	Béja	303,853	304,501	303,032	311,417	+2.5%
19	Kef	272,352	258,790	243,156	237,686	-12.7%
20	Siliana	244,910	233,985	223,087	216,242	-11.7%
21	Zaghouan	143,036	160,963	176,945	201,065	+40.6%
22	Kébili	131,914	143,218	156,961	183,201	+38.9%
23	Tataouine	135,703	143,524	149,453	162,654	+19.9%
24	Tozeur	89,055	97,526	107,912	120,036	+34.8%
Source : Institut national de la statistique[14]

total population: 76.82 years. Country comparison to the world: 99th

male: 75.14 years

female: 78.6 years (2022 est.)

Source:UN World Population Prospects^[17]

The majority of the population of Tunisia is made up ofArabs (98% of the population).^[2] The first people known to history in what is now Tunisia were theBerbers, who currently make up 1% of the population, and were ultimately conquered by the Arabs in the 7th century.^[3] There was a continuing inflow of nomadicArab tribes to theMaghreb from theArabian Peninsula since the 7th century with a major wave in the 11th century.^[18]

Whilst the Ottoman influence has been particularly significant in forming theTurco-Tunisian community, other peoples have also migrated to Tunisia during different periods of time, including Sub-Saharan Africans,Greeks,Romans,Phoenicians (Punics),Jews, and French settlers. The Tunisian, by 1870 the distinction between the Arabic-speaking mass and the Turkish elite had blurred.^[19] There is also a small Berber (1% at most)^[4] population located in the Dahar mountains and on the island ofDjerba in the south-east and in theKhroumire mountainous region in the north-west.

From the late 19th century to after World War II, Tunisia was home to large populations ofFrench andItalians (255,000Europeans in 1956),^[20] although nearly all of them, along with the Jewish population, left after Tunisia became independent. Thehistory of the Jews in Tunisia goes back some 2,000 years. In 1948 the Jewish population was an estimated 105,000, but by 2013 only about 900 remained.^[21]

After theReconquista and expulsion of non-Christians andMoriscos from Spain, many SpanishMuslims and Jews also arrived. According to Matthew Carr, "As many as eighty thousand Moriscos settled in Tunisia, most of them in and around the capital, Tunis, which still contains a quarter known as Zuqaq al-Andalus, or Andalusia Alley."^[22]

Tunisians mainly carryhaplogroup J1 (34.2%) andhaplogroup E (55%).^[24][25][26]

"In fact, the Tunisian genetic distances to European samples are smaller than those to North African groups. (...) This could be explained by the history of the Tunisian population, reflecting the influence of the ancient Punic settlers ofCarthage followed, among others, by Roman, Byzantine, Arab and French occupations, according to historical records. Notwithstanding, other explanations cannot be discarded, such as the relative heterogeneity within current Tunisian populations, and/or the limited sub-Saharan genetic influence in this region as compared with other North African areas, without excluding the possibility of thegenetic drift, whose effect might be particularly amplified on the X chromosome.",^[27][28]

However, other research has suggested instead that Tunisians exhibit a mostly indigenous North African ancestral component similar to other Northwest African populations; characterized by a high amount of native Northwest African genes, but with higher Middle Eastern input than in Algeria or Morocco.^[29]

Listed here are thehuman Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups in Tunisia.^[30]

According to statistics from the Tunisian Office for Foreign Nationals. (OTE), the Tunisian diaspora consists of approximately 2.54 million people, with 49% of them residing in France. France has historically hosted a large portion of the Tunisian emigrants, due to historical ties and labor agreements between the two countries.

Detailed article :Tunisian diaspora

^[31]

Country	Total	Percentage
Europe	1,942,000	76.4 %
France	1,338,000	52.7 %
Italy	370,000[32]	14.6 %
Germany	188,000	7.4 %
North Africa andMiddle East	365,000	14.4 %
Qatar	132,000	5.2 %
Americas	142,000	5.6 %
Canada	35,000[33]	1.4 %
Subsaharan Africa	75,000	3.0 %
Australia andAsia	13,973	0.6 %
Total	2,540,000	100 %

Main countries of origin of international migrants in Tunisia^[34]

Country of origin	2020
Algeria	11,060
Libya	9,688
France	9,151
Morocco	6,146
Italy	2,345
Germany	1,537
Syria	1,382
Egypt	1,206
Mali	1,058
Total	60,415

• Modern Standard Arabic (official, one of the languages of commerce and education)
• Tunisian Arabic (local dialect of Arabic, everyday use)^[35]
• French (commerce and education)
• Berber (minority language spoken by <1% of the population)^[36]

Muslim (official; Sunni) 99%, other (includes Christian, Jewish, Shia Muslim, and Baha'i) <1%

• Demographics of Tunisia

• Pages using the Chart extension
• Source attribution
• All articles with bare URLs for citations
• Articles with bare URLs for citations from August 2025
• CS1 maint: archived copy as title
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from July 2024