2023 Facts & Figures: MIDDLE EAST

YEAR that oil was discovered in the Middle East, in Iran. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (which later became British Petroleum, or BP) was established in 1909. Nineteen years later, an American company found oil in Saudi Arabia, transforming U.S. relations with the region.

^{Sources: Idaho State University, National Geographic}

Cat domestication is thought to have occurred first in the Middle East. Archaeologists have discovered evidence of people in Türkiye (Turkey) keeping cats as pets as far back as 6000 B.C.

^{Source: Idaho State University}

The tiny nation of Lebanon, with a population of 6.8 million people, is home to more than 1.7 million refugees. That includes more than 1.5 million Syrians who’ve fled the civil war in their country, 200,000 Palestinians, and another 17,000 from Iraq, Ethiopia, and other places.

^{Source: UNHCR}

POPULATION of Cairo, the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Middle East. It’s very crowded: Some neighborhoods have a population density of 300,000 people per square mile (more than 10 times the density of New York City). Cairo is situated near the Sahara, and it’s not uncommon for sandstorms to blanket the city in sand.

^{Sources: World Population Review, topfacts.org}

PERCENTAGE of Yemen’s population that lives in poverty. Yemen has long been one of the poorest nations in the region, but an eight-year-long civil war and the Covid-19 pandemic have devastated the country.

^{Source: Norwegian Refugee Council}