Most Moroccans are of mixed Arab-Berber, Arab, Berber and Niger-Congo ethnic background. Arabs and Berbers make up about 99.1% of the Moroccan population.
Berbers are the indigenous people and still make up the bulk of the population (although largely Arabized). A sizeable portion of the population is identified as Haratin and Gnawa (or Gnaoua), black or mixed race. Morocco's Jewish minority (265,000 in 1948) has decreased significantly and numbers about 5,500.
Most of the 100,000 foreign residents are French or Spanish. Some of them are colonists' descendants, who primarily work for European multinational companies, others are married to Moroccans and preferred to settle in Morocco. Prior to independence, Morocco was home to half a million Europeans.
The largest concentration of Moroccan migrants outside Morocco is in France, which has reportedly over one million Moroccans of up to the third generation. The Netherlands hosts about 360,000 Moroccans and Belgium hosts about 300,000 Moroccans. There are also large Moroccan communities in Spain (about 700,000 Moroccans), Italy, Israel, Canada and the United States. Moroccan Jews are thought to constitute the second biggest Jewish ethnic subgroup in Israel.
Religion Main article: Religion in Morocco Hassan II MosqueThe population of Morocco is 98.7% Muslim, 1.1% Christian, and 0.2% Jewish. According to Jewish community leaders, there are an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Jews, approximately 2,500 of whom reside in Casablanca and are the remnants of a much larger community that has mostly emigrated. The most recent estimates put the size of the Rabat and Marrakech Jewish communities at about 100 members each. The remainder of the Jewish population is dispersed throughout the country. This population is mostly elderly, with a decreasing number of young persons.
The predominantly Roman Catholic and Protestant foreign-resident Christian community consists of approximately 5,000 practicing members, although some Protestant and Catholic clergy estimate the number to be as high as 25,000. Most foreign resident Christians reside in the Casablanca, Tangier, and Rabat urban areas. Various local Christian leaders estimate that there are 4,000 citizen Christians (mostly ethnically Berber) who regularly attend “house” churches and live predominantly in the south. Some local Christian leaders estimate that there may be as many as 8,000 Christian citizens throughout the country, but many reportedly do not meet regularly due to fear of government surveillance and social persecution.
There are an estimated 3,000 to 8,000 Shia Muslims, most of them foreign residents from Lebanon or Iraq, but also a few citizen converts. Followers of several Sufi Muslim orders across the Maghreb and West Africa undertake joint annual pilgrimages to the country. The Baha’i community, located in urban areas, numbers 350 to 400 persons.
Languages Main article: Languages of MoroccoMorocco's official languages are Arabic and Berber. The country's distinctive group of Moroccan Arabic dialects is referred to as Darija. Approximately 89.84% of the whole population can communicate to some degree in Moroccan Arabic. The Berber language is spoken in three dialects (Tarifit, Tashelhit and Central Atlas Tamazight). In 2008, Frédéric Deroche estimated that there were 12 million Berber speakers, making up about 40% of the population. The 2004 population census says that 28.07% of the population speak Berber.
French is widely used in governmental institutions, media, mid-size and large companies, international commerce with French speaking countries, and often in international diplomacy. French is taught as an obligatory language at all schools. In 2010, there were 10,366,000 French-speakers in Morocco, or about 32% of the population.
According to the 2004 census, 2.19 million Moroccans spoke a foreign language other than French. English, while far behind French in terms of number of speakers, is the first foreign language of choice, since French is obligatory, among educated youth and professionals. Spanish is spoken by a very small population in the north of the country, especially around the Spanish enclaves Melilla and Ceuta.
Genetics Main article: Moroccan genetics Distribution of Y haplotype E-M81 E1b1b1b in North Africa, West Asia and Europe.Recent studies make clear no significant genetic differences exist between Arabic and non-Arabic speaking populations, HLA DNA data suggest that most Moroccans are of a Berber origin and that Arabs who invaded North Africa and Spain in the 7th century did not substantially contribute to the gene pool. The Moorish refugees from Spain settled in the coast-towns. According to a 2000 article in European Journal of Human Genetics, Moroccans from North-Western Africa were genetically closer to Iberians than to West Africans and Middle Easterners
The different loci studied revealed close similarity between the Berbers and other North African groups, mainly with Moroccan Arabic-speakers, which is in accord with the hypothesis that the current Moroccan population has a strong Berber background.
Largest cities Largest cities in MoroccoCasablanca Fes Marrakech
Rank City Population Rank City Population view talk editSalé Tangier Agadir
1 Casablanca 3.356.337 11 Asfi 311.201 2 Rabat-Salé 1.884.917 12 Mohammedia 206.896 3 Fes 1.072.468 13 Beni Mellal 189.535 4 Marrakech 953.305 14 Khouribga 175.737 5 Tangier 793.776 15 El Jadida 170.956 6 Meknes 616.110 16 Taza 156.768 7 Agadir 600.177 17 Nador 152.341 8 Oujda 435.378 18 Settat 137.690 9 Kenitra 418.222 19 Berrechid 128.749 10 Tetouan 363.031 20 Larache 121.257 See List of cities in Morocco for others
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