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Somalia
Population (2009 est.)9,832,017
Religious DemographicsSunni Muslim
Ethnic GroupsSomali 85%, Bantu and other non-Somali 15% (including Arabs 30,000)
LanguagesSomali (official), Arabic, Italian, English

The country has an area of 246,200 square miles and a population of 7 million; however, population figures are difficult to estimate since the last census dates from 1975 and the instability of the country makes precise data collection impossible. A large majority of citizens are Sunni Muslims of a Sufi tradition. There is a very small, extremely low-profile Christian community, and small numbers of followers of other religions. The number of adherents of strains of conservative Islam and the number of Islamic schools supported by religiously conservative sources continued to grow.

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