Demographics of Morocco

Most Moroccans are Sunni Muslims of Berber, Arab or mixed Arab-Berber stock. Morocco was inhabited by Berbers since at least 5000 years ago. The Arabs conquered the territory that would become Morocco in the 7th and 11th centuries, at the time under the rule of various late Byzantine Roman princips and indigenous Beber and Romano-Berber principalities, laying the foundation for the emergence of an Arab-Berber culture. A portion of the population is identified as Haratin and Gnaoua, black or highly mixed "race" Moroccans. Morocco's Jewish minority has decreased significantly and numbers about 7,000 (See History of the Jews in Morocco). Most of the 100,000 foreign residents are French or Spanish, largely professionals working for European multinationals.

Recent studies make clear no significant genetic differences exist between Arabic and non-Arabic speaking populations, highlighting that in common with most of the Arab World, Arabization was mainly via acculturation of indigenous populations over time.. However, and according to the European Journal of Human Genetics, North-Western Africans were genetically closer to Iberians and to other Europeans than to Sub-Saharan Africans. .