Ethnic groups in Syria
Arabs represent the major ethnicity in Syria, in addition to the presence of several, much smaller ethnic groups. Ethnicity, religion and national/ideological identities. Ethnicity and religion are intertwined in Syria as in other countries in the region, but there are also nondenominational, supraethnic and suprareligious political identities, like Syrian nationalism. Counting the ethnic or religious groups. Since the 1960 census there has been no counting of Syrians by religion, and there has never been any official counting by ethnicity or language. In the 1943 and 1953 censuses the various denominations were counted separately, e.g. for  every Christian denomination. In 1960 Syrian Christians were counted as a whole but Muslims were still counted separately between Sunnis and Alawis. Syrians and "foreigners". Before the Syrian Civil War began in 2011, the Syrian population was estimated at 23 million permanent inhabitants, including between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 Iraqi refugees of various ethnicities and creeds, 580,000 Palestinian refugees, mostly Sunni Arabs, and an unknown number of Lebanese or Lebanese-Syrian dual citizens, mostly Shia Arabs and Christian Arabs of various subcreeds. Some Palestinian and Lebanese families have been living in Syria for generations. More than four million refugees, Syrians as  well as non-Syrians, have left the country during the course of the civil war. Ethnoreligious groups. Most Syrians speak Arabic, most are Sunni Muslims, but there are no accurate numbers or percentages of the various "majority" and "minority" groups. Sunni Arab Syrians could be anywhere between 70% and 79% as non-Arabic-speaking groups (mostly Kurds) are usually estimated at 4%, non-Sunni Muslim groups (mostly Alawites) at less than 10% and non Arabic and Arabic-speaking Christians are 10%, but these are only indicative percentages.