Syria - Statistics & Facts

Beginning in 2011, Syria was embroiled in a civil war that claimed approximately 600,000 lives, injured millions more, displaced around seven million people internally, and caused almost seven million more to emigrate. Following a drop in intensity through a ceasefire in 2020, a brief period of fighting in late-2024 saw the war take a significant turn, with opposition forces taking control of major cities, overthrowing the 53-year dictatorial Assad regime, and possibly ushering in a new era of peace and stability for Syria.

The Syrian Civil War

The Arab Spring was a series of pro-democracy protests that spread from Tunisia across the Arab World in 2011, toppling governments in some countries while facing brutal suppression in others. At this time in Syria, the Assad regime had been in power for four decades, with Hafez al-Assad from 1971 until his death in 2000, where his son Bashar then took control. Violent anti-government protests began in March 2011 but government forces brutally ended them within a few months; however, several opposition militias formed in response and their insurgencies escalated into a full-scale civil war by mid-2012. Rebel organizations have included the army defector-led Free Syrian Army; Sunni jihadists such as al-Nusra and the Islamic State (ISIS); and Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast; among many others. These groups regularly clashed, splintered, or changed goals during the conflict, but all fought against the government. Russia and Iran were the largest supporters of the Assad regime, while NATO and Arabian Gulf states were more supportive of opposition groups (with notable exceptions, such as the U.S. and ISIS, or Turkey and the SDF).

Initially, rebel groups took control of large parts of the country, particularly in the north and east, seizing some of the government’s largest military bases, while the government held control in more populous western areas. Rebel forces took key cities such as Homs and Raqqa, government forces largely withstood offensives against Damascus, the battle for Aleppo became a focal point of the war, and many other cities and towns changed hands regularly. Throughout the war, both the government and rebels were accused of committing war crimes, although the Assad regime was accused of the most severe crimes, including widespread use of illegal chemical weapons against civilian populations. Much of Syria’s infrastructure and housing was also destroyed, including many historic sites in cities such as Aleppo. In 2014, ISIS emerged as a key player in the war, seizing control of large territories in the east from both the government and rebels. Foreign governments also became more militarily involved in the conflict with both airstrikes and ground operations: the U.S. and Iraq supported Kurdish forces against ISIS; Turkey supported the Free Syrian Army against the government, while also fighting the Kurds; although Russian, Iranian, and Hezbollah interventions arguably had the largest impact. The government’s successful counteroffensive in Aleppo in 2016 is seen as the war’s turning point, bringing an end to four-years of heavy fighting and bombardment in the city.

Thereafter, the government retook much of its lost territory, various ceasefires were implemented from 2017 onwards, and by late-2020, the government controlled around two-thirds of the country. At this time, most rebel territory was controlled by the Kurds, who had driven ISIS underground with support from U.S. and Iraqi forces. However, the U.S. controversially withdrew to allow Turkey to escalate its conflict with the Kurds, causing them to strike a deal with the government and allow a Russian peacekeeping force to move in. The ceasefires mostly held from 2020-2024, with few battles or territorial changes. Then, in late 2024, as other conflicts weakened foreign support of the Assad regime, rebel groups reorganized and launched a united offensive from all sides to displace the government. Within just 12 days, rebels took most major cities in Syria, with Damascus falling on December 8, as Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow. The offensive was coordinated by the Sunni group Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by Abu Mohammad al-Julani, who has pledged a peaceful transfer of power and the inclusion of all religious and ethnic groups in the new democratic Syrian government (as opposed to the minority Alawite-rule of the Assad regime). As of mid-December, Israel, Turkey, and the U.S. continue to engage with various forces in Syria, although the civil aspect of the conflict is largely assumed to have ended and the Syrian Revolution concluded.

Demographics

Official census data and objective statistics for Syria have not been published since before the war, therefore most post-2011 economic or demographic statistics are estimates. Based on UN estimates from 2024, Syria’s population stood at 23 million people when the war began, fell to a low of 19 million in 2016, but then returned to pre-war levels in 2023. While some 600,000 people were killed and almost seven million people fled Syria in the war’s early years, the decrease in population was just four million as natural population growth remained relatively high during this time. Throughout the 2010s, fertility rates stayed on their pre-war trajectory and are not expected to fall below replacement level until the mid-21st century.

However, the war did have a significant impact on mortality metrics. Life expectancy fell from 74 years in 2010 to 63 years in 2014 (for men, the drop was from 72 to 57 years), and under-5 mortality rates doubled in this time. These changes in mortality were not only due to the violence of the war, but also its impact on healthcare services, public health programs (vaccines), food and water instability, homelessness, and rising poverty rates, among others. It was estimated that over 90 percent of the population lived below the poverty line during the Assad regime’s final years, and in 2018, the World Bank estimated that the conflict had destroyed one third of all housing and half of all healthcare and education facilities in Syria.

In mid-2024, the largest number of Syrian refugees were in neighboring countries, especially Turkey with over three million people, and there were also sizeable populations in Europe. With the removal of Assad, as well as rising instability in places like Lebanon, many refugees are now returning to Syria. Some Western governments are also freezing asylum applications and looking at options to repatriate refugees, although the logistics and legality of such proposals remain unclear.

Economy

When Bashar al-Assad took office in 2000, he pledged to modernize and grow the Syrian economy and increase foreign investment, which he did with some success, although neoliberal policies, corruption, and cronyism caused economic inequality to grow. The Syrian economy was largely built on its primary industry, particularly agricultural products and oil, although most was consumed by the domestic market as production was small compared to other countries in the region. The war then decimated the economy, with property damage and supply chain issues causing many businesses to go bankrupt and people to lose their jobs. The displacement and refugee crises also saw a huge share of the workforce, particularly younger workers, move abroad, further weakening the domestic economy. Remittances from foreign workers became increasingly important in the Assad regime’s final years, with some 70 percent of Syrian families depending on foreign assistance to make ends meet, although Syria had the largest relative remittance fees in late-2023 making this a large source of income for the Assad regime. Syria experienced hyperinflation and had one of the highest inflation rates in the world during the global inflation crisis of the 2020s.

International sanctions have also devastated Syria’s economy and excluded it from global markets. Recent estimates show that Syria operated on a large trading deficit in recent years, however, this does not include drug exports. During the war, the Syrian government became the world’s largest producer of captagon, an illicit drug mostly consumed in the Middle East, with annual exports valued at over five billion U.S. dollars in the early 2020s. As the conflict abated, Russia began expanding its economic influence in the region, and China brought Syria into its Belt and Road Initiative in 2022; yet, it remains to be seen how the new Syrian government positions itself geopolitically in the coming years, and which countries will invest or become its strongest trading partners.