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Arabian Peninsula

Yemen

Middle East, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Red Sea, between Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Muslim population99.1%of the population

Population32.7 millionpeople (current)

CapitalSana'aUTC+3

Currency1,355 = $1Yemeni rials (YER) (2023)

Country basics

Yemen is a republic at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, on the Red and Arabian seas.

Yemen is a republic with Sana'a as its declared capital and Aden serving as a temporary seat, and Arabic is its official language. The rial is the currency, and crude oil, gas and agriculture were its main sources of export income.

Official name

Republic of Yemen

Region

Asia · Western Asia

Government

Unitary semi-presidential republic under a provisional government

Time zonesCheck the offset for your own city

UTC+03:00

Driving side

Right

Phone code

+967

Currency

Yemeni rial (YER, ﷼)

Member of

Arab League; UN

Website

https://www.yemen.gov.ye

Faith and language

Religions

Muslim 99.1% (official; virtually all are citizens, an estimated 65% are Sunni and 35% are Shia), other 0.9% (includes Jewish, Baha'i, Hindu, and Christian; many are refugees or temporary foreign residents)

Languages

Arabic

People and cities

Population

32.7 million (current)

Median ageHalf the population is younger than this

20.5 years (2025)

Living in cities

39.8% (2023)

Largest cities

Sanaa (capital) 3.292 million · Aden 1.080 million · Taiz 941,000 · Ibb 772,000

Money and cost of living

Exchange rateYearly average; check today’s rate before you budget

1,355 Yemeni rials (YER) per US dollar (2023)

Income per personGDP per person, adjusted for local prices (2021 dollars)

$200 (2024)

InflationHow much prices rose over the year

29.1% (2022)

Unemployment

17.1% (2024)

Health and daily life

Life expectancy

68.2 years (2024)

Doctors

0.1 per 1,000 people (2023)

Safe drinking water

61.8% of people (2022)

Electricity

76% of people (2022)

Internet users

14% of people (2020)

Land and climate

Climate

Mostly desert; hot and humid along west coast; temperate in western mountains affected by seasonal monsoon; extraordinarily hot, dry, harsh desert in east

SizeAlmost four times the size of Alabama; slightly larger than twice the size of Wyoming

527,968 sq km

Natural hazards

Sandstorms and dust storms in summer volcanism: limited volcanic activity; Jebel at Tair (Jabal al-Tair, Jebel Teir, Jabal al-Tayr, Jazirat at-Tair) (244 m), which forms an island in the Red Sea, became active in 2007; other historically active volcanoes include Harra of Arhab, Harras of Dhamar, Harra es-Sawad, and Jebel Zubair, although many of these have not erupted in over a century

National holiday

Unification Day, 22 May (1990)