Libya had a population of about 4,206,000 in 1990, the
smallest among the five countries of North Africa.
Most of the people live in the temperate climate
of the Mediterranean coast, and about 60 percent
make their homes in towns with populations above
5,000. About two thirds of Libya's people live
in Tripolitania, one third in Cyrenaica, and a
small fraction in Fezzan. Away from the towns
and agricultural areas of the Mediterranean coast,
most Libyans live in small, widely separated nomadic
groups.
The vast majority of the people speak Arabic,
the national language. Pastoral groups in the
south, such as the nomadic Tuareg, use dialects
of the Berber language. Many Libyans also speak
Italian, English, or French as a second language.
Libya's population consists of a large number
of foreign-born people. They include Europeans
and people from other Arab countries, who work
as technicians and laborers in the nation's oil
industry.
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