Arab society remains young and in need of more jobs

THE 22 countries, including the unborn Palestine, that belong to the Arab League as “the Arab world” are home to a heterogeneous agglomeration of some 350m people. Maronites, Copts, Berbers, Kurds and Africans as well as Arabs and Muslims inhabit a miscellany of lands from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf and from the Saharan desert to the foothills of Anatolia. One common characteristic, however, is the youthfulness of Arab society: the majority of Arabs are under 25 years old. But a shortage of jobs for the young means that political instablity, in many Arabic countries, is likely to persist.

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