Who are Tunisians?

It is believed that Tunisia is an Arab country, and accordingly, Arabs live here. But is it really? Who are Tunisians? How many of them? Read the answers in our article that may be unexpected.

Last news about DNA Tunisians

In the past 2019, a new study of DNA residents of North Africa was published, the authors of the work – Amin Abdel and Tract Benghassin. They investigated DNA residents of the neighboring Algeria, which are as close as possible to Tunisians. This study only confirmed all that we wrote in this article.

The only difference between Algerians – a more rarely found marker J1, which shows that Algerians are genetically even further from the Arabs than Tunisians.

Population of Tunisia

The last census of the population was held in April and May 2014 by the National Institute of Statistics.

In total, the country counted 11 007 326 people. Of course, it is not worth the exact figure to trust blindly, since any statistical study of this scale has an error – up to 1%.

Men – 5 484 698 people. Women – 5 522 628 people.

Urban population – 7 437 671 people. Population in the countryside – 3,545,083 people.

As of 2020, it is assumed that about 11.8 million people live in Tunisia.

The growth of the population in the country is now about 1% per year. In Tunisia, there is a family planning program, many Tunisians immigrates to Western European countries, primarily in France, Italy and Germany.

Who think tunisians?

They call themselves "Tavens", that is, "Tunisians". Tunisians themselves consider themselves part of the Arab world, but prefer to emphasize their identity.

Tunisians speak their Arabic dialect, which is called Daja. Although the official language of the country is classic Arabic (MSA). We talked about this in the article "What language in Tunisia".

Tunisian culture original. Tunisian cuisine is very different from Arabic, even from the kitchens of the neighboring countries of Maghreb. Tunisian architecture style has become a sample for other countries in the region. A variety of styles of Tunisian ceramics amazes. Tunisian music – a unique combination of musical styles of many nations. Tunisians have obvious reasons to consider themselves a unique nation in the Arab world.

From a genetic point of view

The information is further based on the latest genetic study of residents of North Africa. These studies have been published in the American journal of physical anthropology in 2016.

Despite the cultural proximity to the Arabs, from a genetic point of view, modern tunisians are Arabs only by 20%. By 60% they are Berbers – North African Indigenous Residents.

The remaining 20% ​​of the genes of Tunisians is a variety of industries of the genes of all peoples, once won and lived in Tunisia: Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Spaniards, Turks and Slavs, Yanychar, French. Read the details in our article "The History of Tunisia".

It happened that our blood flows in the veins of Tunisians.

ours in Tunisia

The first our settlers in the port of Bizert appeared in 1920, these were the remnants of the Army of Wrangel, who fled from the Crimea. The overwhelming majority of these people do not live here, but proceeded further to Europe.

Some remained, founding a small our diaspora. The Orthodox Church is still standing in Bizerte. Of course, these people could not make a significant contribution to the Genofund of Tunisians, there were too few.

In 1942, the Commander of the African Corps of the Army of Nazi Germany, Erwin Rommel asked Hitler to send him Soviet prisoners of war for utility work and the construction of fortifications. Hitler did not refuse, and 50,000 Soviet prisoners of war arrived in Tunisia.

Most of these people died of diseases, but some were able to escape or were simply left by retreating Germans. Part of the our prisoners remained and assimilated. How much exactly, now it is impossible to install, no one considered these prisoners of war.

Western Europeans

At the time of the French Protectorate and before the announcement of independence in 1956, up to 250,000 Europeans lived in Tunisia, mostly French. Almost all of them left the country immediately after 1956.

Now the number of Europeans is growing every year. But these are not citizens of Tunisia, but people overlooking the residence, and again mostly the French. They have become fashionable to buy real estate in resort towns and hold old age on warm resorts. Not many French to pensions can afford this, otherwise Tunisia has already turned into "French Nursing House".

The number of Europeans is definitely not counted, approximately 100-300 thousand people. It is not surprising, because although Tunisia and Islamic country are produced here and openly without restrictions sell wine and strong alcoholic beverages, and in supermarkets there are even pork delicacies departments. Read our article "Alcohol in Tunisia", photo of pork bacon (if you do not believe) can be viewed in the article "Prices in Supermarkets of Tunisia".

Jewish Tunisian diaspora

Until 1948, the Jewish diaspora consisted of up to 105,000 people. Jews live mainly on Djerba. After the formation of the state of Israel, almost all the Jews left there. Now the community has about 900 people who live around the synagogue of El Mushroom.

Tunisian Berber

Berberov has about 100,000 people. We are talking about people who recognize themselves with pure berbers and do not consider themselves Arabs. They live in the south of the country – in Matmatat, Shannini, Duire, and on Djerbe – in Guelllala, Azzuly, Agima.

Most modern Berbers are no longer talking on Berber, do not honor old traditions. From a cultural point of view, these are not clean Berbers, but simple tunisians.

Another interesting thing about Tunisians

– Some cultural features of the Tunisian people surprise ours, some even shock. Read our two interesting articles. "What are the Tunisians of ours" and "what shock the tunisians of ours";

– In Tunisia, interesting and varied holidays – Islamic and secular. Recall at least "Evacuation Day" or "Day of Martyrs". Read the details in our review "National Holidays of Tunisia";

– is expensive to live tunisians or not? How much do they have food? Read in our articles "How much products cost in Tunisia" and "Fruits in Tunisia – Prices and Season".

Have a good holiday in Tunisia, and read our interesting pages about this country (List of links below).