Mountains, coasts and islands
Yemen fills the south-western corner of the Arabian Peninsula, with coasts on the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. A hot, humid plain called the Tihama runs along the Red Sea coast. Behind it rise the western highlands, the highest mountains in Arabia, where monsoon rains water terraced fields around Sana'a, Ibb and Taiz. To the east the land dries out into plateau and desert, cut by the long valley of Hadramawt, and far out to sea lies the island of Socotra. Floods, cyclones and drought strike often, and the wells around Sana'a and Taiz are running dry.
An ancient land and its people
In ancient times the kingdoms of Saba and later Himyar grew rich on the incense trade, and some of Himyar's kings adopted Judaism. Yemen accepted Islam in the 7th century. For about a thousand years, on and off, Zaydi imams ruled the northern highlands, while other dynasties ruled the coast and the south. The Ottomans held parts of the country, and Britain took the port of Aden in 1839. The north became a republic in 1962 and the south an independent Marxist state in 1967; the two united in 1990.
Almost all Yemenis are Arabic-speaking Muslims, but they are divided by region, tribe and inherited rank. Society is organised by tribe, especially in the north. Families who trace their line to the Prophet Muhammad hold the highest standing, tribespeople come next, and families of craftsmen and service workers rank lower. Below them all are the Muhamasheen, "the marginalised", also called Akhdam: Black Yemenis who live in segregated settlements, sweep the streets and are kept apart by a taboo on marriage. They may be as many as one in ten Yemenis.
Some peoples speak South Arabian languages of their own rather than Arabic: the Mahra of the far east, the Hobyot near the Omani border and the islanders of Socotra. The Razihi of the north-western mountains speak a language that may descend from the language of the ancient kingdoms. The Hadramis of the east are known for trading families that settled across East Africa, India and Indonesia. A Jewish community lived here from ancient times; about 50,000 Jews left for Israel in 1949–50, and the last families were expelled in 2020–21.
Refugees and migrants
Yemen also receives people from across the narrow sea. About 200,000 Somalis live here, many since around 1990. Every year tens of thousands of Ethiopians, mostly Oromo and recently many Tigrayans, pass through on their way to Saudi Arabia; about 110,000 arrived in 2025. Many face detention and violence, and some are killed at the Saudi border.
A country at war
About 42 million people live in Yemen, by UN estimates, though there has been no census since 2004. It is a very young country, with half the people under 18. In 2014 the Houthis, a movement from the Zaydi north, seized the capital Sana'a, and in 2015 a coalition led by Saudi Arabia entered the war. Today the Houthis hold the north, where most people live, while a divided government based in Aden and a southern separatist movement control the south and east. Fighting flared again in September 2026, driving more than 200,000 people from their homes.
The war has wrecked the economy, which has shrunk by nearly half since 2015. Most families are now poor, public salaries in Houthi areas have gone unpaid for years, and hunger reached record levels in 2025. Cholera, malnutrition and failing clinics threaten lives, about 2 million children were out of school by 2021, and fewer than half of women can read. The Muhamasheen are often the last to receive help.
Faith
More than 99% of Yemenis are Muslims. A majority are Sunnis of the Shafi'i school, living mainly in the south, east and along the coast. Around a third or more are Zaydis, a branch of Shia Islam rooted in the northern highlands, whose revival the Houthis lead. Ismaili Muslims live in the Haraz mountains, and there are small numbers of Baha'is and Hindus.
The church and freedom of belief
Only a few thousand Christians live in Yemen, most of them migrants and refugees. Yemeni believers meet in secret, and Yemen ranks third on the Open Doors list of countries where Christians face the most persecution. By law, leaving Islam can be punished by death and sharing another faith with Muslims is banned, and both sides in the war apply these laws. The Houthis have jailed Baha'is and hold Yemen's last known Jew, and extremist groups treat converts as apostates, people who have abandoned Islam. Churches in Aden have been closed or attacked since 2015. For most converts, though, the heaviest pressure comes from their own families and tribes.
