Sudan is a country in Africa. It has a population of 37 million people. With a land area of 1,861,068 km2 (712,300 sq mi), it is the third-largest country on that continent after Algeria and Libya. The capital is Khartoum.
Sudan Location; Where is Sudan?
Sudan is in east Africa, next to Egypt and Eritrea. Sudan is officially called the Republic of the Sudan. Sudan’s amazing landscape and rich history has attracted many tourists. Sudan is known for its pyramids, mountains, deserts an more.
Sudan borders Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Chad. Sudan is at the center of the African continent. The capital city is Khartoum.
Sudan’s Population: How many people live in Sudan?
The population of Sudan is 39,430,000. The main ethnic groups are Arab and African. The official languages are Arabic and English.
It encompasses a region where a variety of ethnic groups live in a mostly arid environment, with several areas experiencing drought-like conditions throughout much of the year. The largest city and capital is Khartoum. The River Nile flows through the country and eventually terminates in the Mediterranean Sea.
Sudan’s people, language and heritage are diverse.
With more than 400 distinct ethnic groups and over 60 different languages. This diversity is reflected in the country’s name, which means “Land of the Blacks”, as it was once called by Arab travelers in reference to the dark-skinned people that lived there.
Sudan’s ethnic groups are largely divided into four major categories: Nilo-Saharan (which includes Arabic-speaking groups such as the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa), Cushitic (which includes the Beja), Nilotic (which includes the Nuba and Shilluk) and Sudanic (which includes the Fur, Massalit, Zaghawa and others). A large number of Sudan’s tribes can also be classified as Arab or African; many have mixed ancestry.
Although, Sudan has many ethnic groups (including many non-Arab Africans), only 4 have more than 1 million people. The rest are much smaller groups. The largest is the Nubian which make up about 60% of the population. The other large groups are: Dinka, Arabic, Fur and Zaghawa.
The Dinka peoples make up more than half of that number alone, but the Nubians and Beja together account for almost as many people as all of northern Sudan’s Arabs, despite being much smaller groups.
Even though Arabization has been a cultural policy in Sudan since independence from Anglo-Egyptian occupation in 1956, many African traditions remain within Arabized populations throughout Sudan. These traditions combined with Arab influences have created a very unique culture which cannot be generalized as purely Arab or purely African.
