, year 2021; Number of inhabitants in millions. Historically
Berber, over the centuries, Libya has been occupied by the
Egyptians,
Assyrians,
Phoenicians,
Greeks,
Romans,
Arabs,
Turks and
Italians. The Phoenicians had a big impact on Libya. Many of the coastal towns and cities of Libya were founded by the Phoenicians as trade outposts within the southern
Mediterranean coast in order to facilitate the Phoenician business activities in the area. Starting in the 8th century
BCE, Libya was under the rule of the Phoenician
Carthage. After the Romans defeated Carthage in the
Third Punic War, Libya became a Roman province under the name of Tripolitania until the 7th century CE when Libya was conquered by the
Arab Muslims as part of the
Arab conquest of North Africa, and Arab migrations to the region began since then. In the 11th century, major migrations of
Banu Hilal and
Banu Sulaym from the
Arabian Peninsula to
Libya began, with other nomadic tribes from
Eastern Arabia. Centuries after that, the
Ottoman Empire conquered Libya in 1551. It remained in control of its territory until 1911 when the country was conquered by Italy. In the 18th century Libya was used as the base for various pirates. The story of the
Awlad Sulayman, an Arab group from present-day Libya dominated northern Lake Chad in the 19th century. Since the Middle Ages, the populations of this region have shared close political, economic, and social ties maintained by the mobility specific to the nomadic way of life. These relationships, fluid due to the difficulties of surviving in this difficult environment, have always been structured in turn, through conflict and cooperation, both of which produced rapidly changing alliances. In the middle of the 18th century, the
Awlad Sulayman carved out a vast area of influence for themselves in Sirte and Fezzan by force of arms and by their alliances with neighboring peoples and the Libian administration. Defeated by the Ottoman administration in Tripoli at the end of the 1830s, the survivors of the
Awlad Sulayman took refuge in the Lake Chad basin where they reconstituted the conditions for their success in Libya; they controlled trans-Saharan trade and maintained their links with Libian society. Despite the limits imposed on their action by the French colonization of Chad and the Italian colonization of Libia; the
Awlad Sulayman retained regional influence during colonial times and appear to maintain it today. In the
Second World War Libya was one of the main battlegrounds of North Africa. During the war, the territory was under an Anglo-French military government until it was overrun by the
Axis powers, who, in turn, were defeated by the
Allies in 1943. In 1951, the country was granted independence by the United Nations, being governed by
King Idris. In 1969, a military coup led by
Muammar Gaddafi resulted in the overthrow of King Idris I. Gaddafi then established an anti-Western leadership. In 1970, Gaddafi ordered all British and American military bases closed. The Libyan population has increased rapidly after 1969. They were only 2 million in 1968, and 5 million in 2006. Many migrant workers came to Libya since 1969. Among the workers were construction workers and laborers from
Tunisia, teachers and laborers from
Egypt, teachers from
Palestine, and doctors and nurses from
Yugoslavia and
Bulgaria. 1,000,000 workers, mainly from other neighboring African countries like
Sudan,
Niger,
Chad and
Mali, migrated to Libya in the 1990s, after changes were made to Libya's
Pan-African policies. Gaddafi used money from the sale of oil to improve the living conditions of the population and to assist Palestinian
guerrillas in their fight against the Israelis. In 1979, Libya fought in
Uganda to assist the government of
Idi Amin in the Ugandan Civil War, and in 1981, fought in the
Libyan-Chadian War. Libya had occupied the
Aozou Strip; however, in 1990 the
International Court of Justice submitted the case and allowed the full recuperation of territory to Chad. In September 2008, Italy and Libya signed a memorandum by which Italy would pay $5 billion over the next 20 years to compensate Libya for its dominion over Libya for its reign of 30 years. Since 2011, the country is swept by
Libyan Civil War, which broke out between the Anti-Gaddafi rebels and the Pro-Gaddafi government in 2011, culminating in the death and overthrow of Gaddafi. Nevertheless, even today Libya still continues to generate problems within the area and beyond, greatly affecting its population and the
migrant route to Europe. Under Gaddhafi the country had oil income and a level of stability, allowing birthrates to fall to 2.56 by 2010. However, with instability, the government in Libya announced population of 7.7 million as of Oct 2022, indicating a substantial population boom and/or migration. Since migration is less likely, birthrates probably soared as women no longer afforded security of the old regime, about 10-15% higher than expected. ==Population==