Demography of Sudan - Population Overview

Population Overview

The population of Sudan is a combination of indigenous inhabitants of Nile Valley, and descendants of migrants from the Arabian Peninsula. Due to the process of Arabisation common throughout the rest of the Arab World, today Arab culture predominates in Sudan. The ethnic groups of Sudan are Arabs 70%, others being Arabized ethnic groups of Nubians, Copts, and Beja. Others (Fur, Nuba, Fallata). Sudanese Arabs are by far the largest ethnic group in Sudan, they are almost entirely Muslims; while the majority speak Sudanese Arabic; some other Arab tribes speak different Arabic dialects like Awadia and Fadnia and Bani Arak tribes who speak Najdi Arabic; Bani Hassan, Al-Ashraf, Kinanah and Rashaida who speak Hejazi Arabic. In addition, Arabized Western province tribes like the Baggara and, most notably, the Darfurians, both who speak Chadian Arabic and are mostly Arabized are rarely included due to cultural, linguistic and genealogical variations with other Arab and Arabized tribes. Sudanese Arabs of Northern and Eastern parts descend primarily from migrants from the Arabian peninsula and some of the pre-existing indigenous populations of Sudan, most predominately the Nubian people who also share a common history with Egypt. Additionally, a few pre-Islamic Arabian tribes existed in Sudan from earlier migrations into the region from Western Arabia, although most Arabs in Sudan are dated from migrations after the 12th century. The vast majority of Arab tribes in Sudan migrated into the Sudan in the 12th century, intermarried with the indigenous African populations and introduced Islam.