Demographics
Some 98% of modern native Tunisians are from a sociological, historical and genealogical standpoint mainly of Arab and Berber descent, but the overwhelming majority simply identify themselves today as Arabs. Tunisian Arabic, like other Maghrebi dialects, has a vocabulary mostly Arabic, with significant Berber substrates. However, there is also a small (1% at most) population located in the Dahar mountains and on the island of Djerba in the south-east and in the Khroumire mountainous region in the north-west and Altrough the Borders still dominate the pure Berber languages, often called Shelha. recent studies make clear no significant genetic differences exist between the majority of Arabic speaking population and Berber speaking minority, highlighting that in common with most of the Arab World, Arabization was mainly via acculturation of non-Arab indigenous populations over time.
The small European population (1%) consists mostly of French and Italians. There is also a long-established Jewish community in the country, the history of the Jews in Tunisia going back some 2,000 years. In 1948 the Jewish population was an estimated 105,000, but by 2003 only about 1,500 remained.The Jewish population fled after rioting against Jews and being forced to leave after the State of Israel declared reindependence.
The first people known to history in what is now Tunisia were the Berbers. Numerous civilizations and peoples have invaded, migrated to, and been assimilated into the population over the millennia, with influences of population via conquest from Phoenicians/Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Alans, Arabs, Spaniards, Ottoman Turks and Janissaries, and French. There was a continuing inflow of nomadic Arab tribes from Arabia.
Additionally, after the Reconquista and expulsion of non-Christians and Moriscos from Spain, many Spanish Moors and Jews also arrived. According to Matthew Carr, "As many as eighty thousand Moriscos settled in Tunisia, most of them in and around the capital, Tunis, which still contains a quarter known as Zuqaq al-Andalus, or Andalusia Alley." In addition, from the late 19th century to after World War II, Tunisia was home to large populations of French and Italians (255,000 Europeans in 1956), although nearly all of them, along with the Jewish population, left after Tunisia became independent.
Read more about this topic: Tunisia