The History



A widely-known language, Arabic has proven itself around the globe. It is one of the most spoken languages in the world. Alongside Hebrew, Aramaic, and Phoenician, it belongs to a family called the Central Semitic language family. It is widely believed that Arabic came from the Arabian Peninsula’s deserts. It started then and continued until now untouched.


Unlike English, the language made almost no changes to its syntactic system. Instead, it added more vocabulary items to suit the day and age. The Middle East and North Africa region, otherwise known as the MENA region, is where most Arabic is spoken. This is because they are all Arabic-speaking countries.


Do they all speak the same? Not when they are speaking in colloquial Arabic. There are two types of Arabic: Formal /Fosha/ and informal /A’miah/. The informal one differs from on country to the next. It even differs from one area to the next in the same country. These differences are highlighted within the different tribes. This is how a foreigner is immediately recognized. Imagine a New-Yorker coming to Texas and trying to fit in, kind of situation.


Arabic Speaking Countries



It is not difficult to find out how many people speak Arabic if we look at an Arabic speaking countries map. Below we have a list for you. We cannot determine the top three Arabic speaking countries.
But we can place a list by population, GDP, or number of speakers per dialect.


Here is a list according to GDP:

CountryGDP (billions of USD)
Saudi Country Arabia686.73
United Arab Emirates382.57
Egypt235.36
Iraq192.06
Algeria167.55
Qatar166.92
Kuwait120.12
Sudan117.48
Morocco109.70
Oman70.78
Lebanon53.57
Jordan40.06
Tunisia39.95
Libya38.10
Bahrain35.43
Yemen31.26
Syria15.18
Palestine14.49
Mauritania5.02


According to population:

CountryPopulation
Egypt97,553,151
Algeria41,318,142
Sudan40,533,330
Iraq38,274,618
Morocco35,739,580
Saudi Arabia32,938,213
Yemen28,250,420
Syria18,269,8680
Tunisia11,532,127
Jordan9,702,353
United Arab Emirates9,400,145
Libya6,374,616
Lebanon6,082,357
Palestine4,920,724
Oman4,636,262
Mauritania4,420,184
Kuwait4,136,528
Qatar2,639,211
Bahrain1,492,584

There are a number of countries that recognize Arabic as a major language. This could be because it is an accepted official language alongside the other official language. The reason is that there are Arab communities in these countries. In both cases, the Arabic language is not the main official language and is usually for a minority.


Take a look at these countries here.

CountryGDP (billions USD)Population
Chad9.8714,899,994
Comoros1.06813,912
Djibouti1.84956,985
Eritrea5.815,068,831
Israel353.268,321,570
Somalia2.3714,742,523
South Sudan2.9412,575,714



Are there non-Arabic speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa region? The answer is yes. Turkey, Iran, and Occupied Palestinian Territories do not speak any Arabic. But they do have Arabic-speaking people living there of course.

It is always good to learn Arabic as this is an important language due to its large number of speakers. Arab countries in Arabic are another option to take on. The proper pronunciation of these countries may take time but will be an asset for your Arabic learning journey.

Here is an Arabic speaking countries map which will help you see things more clearly.





If you liked this article and would like to start learning Arabic, why not head over to our website and download the Kaleela Arabic learning app and learn to speak Arabic today? With the Kaleela Arabic learning app you can start learning Arabic on your own, at your own pace, whenever and wherever you want. It really is the best way to learn Arabic! Try it now and find out why.

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