The Arab World (Arabic: العالم العربي) (al-`alam al-`arabi) stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Persian Gulf in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to Central Africa and the Indian Ocean in the south. It consists of 23 countries with a combined population of some 325 million people spanning two continents.
Language, politics, and religion:
The Arabic language forms a unifying feature of the Arab World. Though different areas use local dialects of Arabic, all share in the use of the standard classical language (see diglossia). This contrasts with the situation in the wider Islamic world, where Arabic retains its cultural prestige primarily as the language of religion and of theological scholarship, but the populace generally do not speak Arabic languages. The linguistic and political denotation inherent in the term "Arab" is generally dominant over genealogical considerations. Thus, individuals with little or no direct ancestry from the Arabian peninsula (e.g., black Africans, Berbers) could be considered Arabs by virtue of their mother tongue (see Who is an Arab?).
The Arab League, a political organization intended to encompass the Arab World, defines as Arab,“ a person whose language is Arabic, who lives in an Arabic speaking country, who is in sympathy with the aspirations of the Arabic speaking peoples. ”
The flag of the Arab LeagueThe Arab League's main goal is to unify politically the Arab populations so defined. Its permanent headquarters are located in Cairo. However, it was moved temporarily to Tunis during the 1980s, after Egypt was expelled due to the Camp David Accords (1978).
The majority of people in the Arab World adhere to Islam and the religion has official status in most countries. Shariah law exists partially in the legal system in some countries, especially in the Arabian peninsula, while others are secular. The majority of the Arab countries adhere to Sunni Islam. Iraq, however, is a Shia majority country (65%), while Lebanon, Yemen, Kuwait, and Bahrain have large Shia minorities. In Saudi Arabia, the eastern province Al-Hasa region has Shia minority and the southern province city Najran has Ismalia Shiite minority too. Ibadi Islam is practised in Oman and Ibadis make up 75% population of the country.
There are sizable numbers of Christians, living primarily in Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, Jordan, Sudan and Syria. Formerly, there were significant minorities of Arab Jews throughout the Arab World; however, the establishment of the state of Israel prompted their subsequent mass emigration and expulsion within a few decades. Today tiny communities of Jews remain, ranging anywhere from ten in Bahrain to 7,000 in Morocco and more than 1,000 in Tunisia. Overall, Arabs make up less than one quarter of the world's 1.4 billion Muslims, a group sometimes referred to as the Islamic world.
Some Arab countries have substantial reserves of petroleum. The Gulf is particularly well-furnished: four Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar, are among the top ten oil or gas exporters worldwide. In addition, Algeria, Libya, Iraq, Bahrain, Morocco (Western Sahara) and Sudan all have smaller but significant reserves. Where present, these have had significant effects on regional politics, often enabling rentier states, leading to economic disparities between oil-rich and oil-poor countries, and, particularly in the more sparsely populated states of the Gulf and Libya, triggering extensive labor immigration.
According to UNESCO, the average rate of adult literacy (ages 15 and older) in this region is 66%, and this is one of the lowest rates in the world. In Mauritania, Morocco, and Yemen, the rate is lower than the average, at barely over 50 %. On the other hand, Kuwait and Palestine record a high adult literacy rate of over 90%. The average rate of adult literacy shows steady improvement, and the absolute number of adult illiterates fell from 64 million to around 58 million between 1990 and 2000-2004. Overall, the gender disparity in adult literacy is high in this region, and of the illiteracy rate, women account for two-thirds, with only 69 literate women for every 100 literate men. The average GPI (Gender Parity Index) for adult literacy is 0.72, and gender disparity can be observed in Egypt, Morocco, and Yemen. Above all, the GPI of Yemen is only 0.46 in a 53% adult literacy rate.
Literacy rate is higher among the youth than adults. Youth literacy rate (ages 15-24) in the Arab region increased from 63.9 to 76.3 % from 1990 to 2002. The average rate of GCC States was 94 %, followed by the Maghreb at 83.2% and the Mashriq at 73.6 %. However, more than one third of youth remain illiterate in the Arab LDCs (Comoros, Djibouti, Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen)[3]PDF.In 2004, the regional average of youth literacy is 89.9% for male and 80.1 % for female.
The average population growth rate in Arab countries is 2.3%.The United Nations have published an Arab human development report in 2002, 2003 and 2004. These reports, written by Arabic researchers, address some sensitive issues in the development of the Arab countries: women empowerment, availability of education and information.
Arab Countries Guide 
the Persian Gulf in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to Central Africa and the Indian Ocean in the south. It consists of 23 countries with a combined population of some 325 million people spanning two continents.