It's the end of Lebanon as we know it

Study

What is the number of the Lebanese population? What is the number of actual residents and emigrants? How are they distributed by confession? These questions raise discussions and controversies, especially given the contradicting figures and the lack of official statistics. The confusion exacerbated by the fact that Lebanon's system is based on a confessional power-sharing formula. A new controversy has emerged about fast population growth in some confessions and zero or declining growth in others.

The Monthly* studied the Lebanese age-sex pyramids based on the number of registered citizens by confession. It also drew a picture of what Lebanon would look like in the next few decades if it is divided into cantons, knowing that some confessions would not be able to maintain a strong presence in the country.

Confessional Distribution in 1860

In 1860 (Lebanon was at the time a Mutasarifia, a state under the Ottoman Empire, of 3,500 square kilometers), the number of residents reached 217,675, distributed by confession as shown in Table 1.