Libya
Kingdom of Libya | |
|---|---|
 Flag
.svg) Coat of arms
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| Motto: إلى الأبد في الازدهار "Forever In Prosperity" | |
| Anthem: "Libya, Libya, Libya" | |
.svg) | |
| Capital | Tripoli |
| Official languages | Arabic |
| Recognised national languages | |
| Ethnic groups | 97% Arab-Berber 3% Others |
| Religion | 99.7% Islam 0.3% Others |
| Demonym(s) | Libyan |
| Government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy |
• Monarch | Mohammed |
| Abdur Rahim al-Ghani | |
| Legislature | National Council |
| Senate | |
| House of Representatives | |
| Independence from Italy | |
• Independence declared | 10 February 1947 |
• Kingdom established | 24 December 1951 |
| Area | |
• | 1,759,541 km2 (679,363 sq mi) (16th) |
| Population | |
• 2023 estimate | 7,054,493 (104th) |
• Density | 3.74/km2 (9.7/sq mi) (218th) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2023 estimate |
• Total | $555.585 billion (46th) |
• Per capita | $78,756 (11th) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2023 estimate |
• Total | $387.875 billion (39th) |
• Per capita | $54,982 (17th) |
| Gini |  35.6medium |
| HDI |  0.889very high (32nd) |
| Currency | Libyan dinar (LYD) |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +218 |
| ISO 3166 code | LY |
| Internet TLD | .ly |
Libya, officially the Kingdom of Libya, is a country in North Africa. Bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, it is also bordered by Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, Niger to the southwest, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west and northwest respectively. A constitutional monarchy, Libya is historically made up of three regions, namely Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica. Geographically, with an area of 679,363 square miles, it is the fourth-largest country on the African continent and the sixteenth-largest in the world. It also has the tenth-largest proven oil reserves in the world, from which the country has derived most of its wealth. Its capital and largest city Tripoli is located in the western half of the country and is home to roughly three million of the country's seven million population.
Having been inhabited by the Berbers since the late Bronze Age, parts of Libya have come under the control of various foreign powers, namely the Phoenicians, the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and later Italy. In 1951, popular calls for decolonisation resulted in Libya gaining independence as a constitutional monarchy under King Idris of the Senussi Order. Since then, driven by its vast oil reserves and other emerging economic sectors including tourism and banking, Libya underwent a rapid transformation from a somewhat impoverished country to one of the wealthiest in the world with its GDP per capita being the highest in Africa and the eleventh-highest in the world while its human development index, although only the world's thirty-second-highest, is also the highest in Africa.
As a constitutional monarchy, the king is the head of state while an elected prime minister serves as the country's head of government and is chosen through a general election held every four years in which citizens head to the polls to elect members of the country's House of Representatives that together with the Senate makes up Libya's National Council, the country's bicameral legislative body. Unlike most of its neighbours, Libya enjoys a high degree of political and economic stability as well as similarly high levels of political, economic, and social freedoms. Although a vast majority of its population identifies as Muslim, Libya is officially a secular nation with freedom of religion being constitutionally guaranteed.
On the international stage, Libya is a member of various global organisations, namely the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation, the Non-Aligned Movement, the African Union, the Arab League, the OIC, and OPEC. A member of the G20, Libya is the organisation's one of only two African member states alongside South Africa. Moreover, in the decades following its independence from its former colonial overlords, Libya continues to enjoy warm relations with Italy, with whom it shares close economic and military ties. Consequently, it is also one of the few major non-NATO allies alongside its neighbours Egypt and Tunisia.