Background information MENA region
The Middle East and North Africa are usually referred to as the MENA region, which is an acronym for the two geographic locations. This region connects three continents and consists of at least 22 countries (see map). Turkey, Afghanistan or Pakistan are typically not included due to their geographical position. However, they share common religious and social grounds with the MENA region so their admittance is still up for debate.
In 2019, the MENA region embodied 456,707,404 million people with an average life expectancy of 74.1 years. The vast majority of these people live in middle-income countries with an average GDP of 3.701 trillion US dollars in 2019. Consistent with global trends, the MENA region is also experiencing immense population growth. Estimates state that in 2050, more than half of the countries within the MENA region will double in population size. Additionally, a shift from younger to older populations is visible. This can be explained by the improvement of adequate public health measures and increase of sanitary practices.
Language and religion
The MENA region is linguistically one of the most diverse regions. Over 60 languages are being spoken throughout this region. The main language is Arabic. Three other often spoken languages are Persion or Fasi, Hewbew and Turkish. The majority of people (93%) in this region practice the Islam. The second largest religion is Christianity: 4% of the population. Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, traditional religions and people who do not identify themselves with a religion make up the other 3% of the population.
Conflict and migration
Part of the conflict in the MENA region is related to religion. Islamic history described Prophet Mohammed as the final prophet who was sent to reveal the word of Allah. Prophet Mohammed died in 632 A.D., since then there has been conflict about who had to take over for him. This created two branches of Islam: Sunni and Shiite. Both have a different interpretation of the Quran, which results in conflicts on which interpretation should be dominant. However rather than religion, most conflicts tend to arise from power, politics, land, resources and rights issues. One of the most well known conflicts is the Arab Spring. This was a series of anti-government protests starting in 2010 in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. The protests spread to many other countries in the MENA region (7). The demonstrations had a violent response from the side of the authorities, which resulted in different civil wars in Syria, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. These wars have already killed over 600,000 people and are still a problem nowadays. This leads to a high level of migration, namely around 54 million people in 2015. 53% of these people remain in the MENA region, from which 30% is feeling to Saudi Arabia. Therefore, huge parts of the MENA region are still considered as violent and thereby unsafe environments regarding its inhabitants.
