Population
Libya has a small population residing in a large land area. Population density is about 50 persons per km² (130/sq. mi.) in the two northern regions of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, but falls to less than one person per km² (2.6/sq. mi.) elsewhere. Ninety percent of the people live in less than 10% of the area, primarily along the coast. About 88% of the population is urban, mostly concentrated in the four largest cities, Tripoli, Benghazi, Misrata and Bayda. Thirty percent of the population is estimated to be under the age of 15, but this proportion has decreased considerably during the past decades.
| Total population (x 1000) | Population aged 0–14 (%) | Population aged 15–64 (%) | Population aged 65+ (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 6 029 | 41.9 | 53.4 | 4.7 |
| 1955 | 6 126 | 43.0 | 52.7 | 4.3 |
| 1960 | 6 349 | 43.3 | 52.7 | 4.0 |
| 1965 | 6 623 | 43.4 | 53.0 | 3.6 |
| 1970 | 6 994 | 45.2 | 52.1 | 2.7 |
| 1975 | 7 066 | 46.5 | 51.3 | 2.2 |
| 1980 | 7 193 | 47.0 | 50.7 | 2.2 |
| 1985 | 7 750 | 47.3 | 50.5 | 2.3 |
| 1990 | 7 834 | 43.5 | 53.9 | 2.6 |
| 1995 | 7 975 | 38.3 | 58.8 | 2.9 |
| 2000 | 8 231 | 32.4 | 64.2 | 3.4 |
| 2005 | 8 970 | 30.6 | 65.6 | 3.8 |
| 2010 | 9 655 | 30.4 | 65.3 | 4.3 |
Read more about this topic: Demographics Of Libya
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—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“O for a man who is a man, and, as my neighbor says, has a bone in his back which you cannot pass your hand through! Our statistics are at fault: the population has been returned too large. How many men are there to a square thousand miles in this country? Hardly one.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)