Maronites
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 3,198,600 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Lebanon
|
from 416,000-860,000 to 1,062,000 |
 Argentina
|
10,000-750,000 |
 Brazil
|
550,000 |
 United States
|
200,000-215,000 |
 Mexico
|
160,000 |
 Australia
|
160,000 |
 Canada
|
80,000-85,000 |
 Syria
|
40,000-50,000 |
 France
|
52,000 |
 Venezuela
|
25,000 |
 Israel
|
11,000 |
 Cyprus
|
4,800-10,500 |
 Germany
|
5,400 |
 United Kingdom
|
5,300 |
 Egypt
|
5,000 |
 Belgium
|
3,400 |
 Italy
|
2,500 |
 Sweden
|
2,470 |
 Switzerland
|
2,000 |
 Jordan
|
1,000 |
 Spain
|
700 |
 Netherlands
|
700 |
| Religions | |
| Christianity (Maronite Catholic) | |
| Languages | |
| Vernacular: Lebanese Arabic, Cypriot Maronite Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew (in Israel), Greek (in Cyprus) |
|
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Antiochian Greek Christians, Assyrians, Mizrahi Jews, Maltese | |
The Maronites are a Christian group who adhere to the Maronite Church and mainly hail from Mount Lebanon (mainly in the area of modern Lebanon) and the surrounding regions in the Levant. They derive their name from the Syriac Christian Saint Maron, whose followers migrated to the area of Mount Lebanon from their previous location of residence around the area of Antioch (an ancient Greek city within present day Hatay Province, Turkey), establishing the nucleus of the Maronite Church. Some Maronites argue that they are of Mardaite ancestry, but most historians reject such claims. Maronites were able to maintain an independent status in Mount Lebanon and its coastline after the Islamic conquest, keeping their Christian religion, and even the distinctive Aramaic language as late as the 19th century.
The Ottoman Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate and later the Republic of Lebanon were created under the auspice of European powers with the Maronites as their main ethnoreligious component. Mass emigration to the Americas at the outset of the 20th century, famine mainly resulting from Turkish blockades and confiscations during World War I that killed an estimated third to half of the population, the Lebanese Civil War between 1975-1990 and the low fertility rate greatly decreased their numbers in the Levant. Maronites today form more than one quarter of the total population in the Republic of Lebanon. With only two exceptions, all Lebanese presidents have been Maronites as part of a tradition that persists as part of the Lebanese Confessionalist system, by which the Prime Minister has historically been a Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of the National Assembly has historically been a Shia Muslim.
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Wikipedia