Arabic is the official language. English is taught to all students and is widely spoken.

In 1946, the population was about 400,000; in 1997, it reached 4.6 million, a figure twice that of 1981. After the 1967 war with Israel and Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, there were sudden and massive influxes of Palestinian Arab refugees, who now make up more than two-thirds of the population.

The Emirate of Transjordan was the name given to this small state when it was recognized in 1921, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the promulgation of the Balfour Declaration.

Jordan has an area of about 35,475 square miles (91,900 square kilometers). It lies in the center of the Middle East, sharing its northern border with Syria, eastern border with Iraq, it's southern and eastern borders with Saudi Arabia, and western border with the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, and Israel.

21 December 2011
The Ministry of Health has decided to raise the fee for overnight stays in public hospitals by 40 per cent to increase the revenues of the Health Insurance Fund,

21 December 2011
The Royal Film Commission (RFC) on Wednesday announced the local film projects that will receive grants from the first round of the Jordan Film Fund (JFF).

21 December 2011
The private sector plays a fundamental role in supporting and implementing the Madrasati initiative, Madrasati Director Dana Dajani said Tuesday.

08 December 2011
The Aqaba Port Corporation (APC) went into complete paralysis on Wednesday after thousands of its staff went on strike.

08 December 2011
His Majesty King Abdullah has underlined the vital need for accurate and comprehensive research data that decision makers in the Arab world can rely on to formulate policies.

08 December 2011
His Majesty King Abdullah, the Supreme Commander of the Jordan Armed Forces, is surrounded by members of a Gendarmerie unit, where he attended a drill on Wednesday.

21 December 2011
The tendering process for the Jordan Red Sea Project (JRSP) has begun, a senior government official said on Tuesday, announcing that the mega-venture has been linked to a regional water security project.

21 December 2011
The State Security Court (SSC) on Tuesday released on bail another 21 of the 99 defendants standing trial on charges of plotting terrorist attacks and inciting riots and sectarianism in Zarqa in April this year.

21 December 2011
Jordan on Tuesday said that its goal of joining the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has not been forfeited, and more meetings between the Kingdom and the oil-rich bloc will continue in the coming stage.

08 December 2011
Jordan has made great strides in upholding children’s rights this year and work will continue to ensure the sustainability of ongoing projects towards this goal, a UN representative said on Wednesday.

08 December 2011
A Jordanian delegation is currently in Israel to discuss results of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project’s economic feasibility study and the environmental and social impact assessment, a government official said on Wednesday.

08 December 2011
Fresh off surprise electoral victories in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt, Islamists face both a golden opportunity and an uncertain political landscape.

21 December
Egyptians returned to the polls on Wednesday in a staggered parliamentary election after five days of violence in Cairo that has cast a pall over the transition to democracy and drawn a US rebuke of Egypt’s security forces.

21 December
Turkish President Abdullah Gul called on France on Tuesday to drop a parliamentary bill making it illegal to deny the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey was genocide.

21 December
Iraq’s prime minister urged the Kurdish authorities in the north of the country to hand over the vice president accused of running hit squads that targeted government officials, saying he must face justice.

08 December 2011
Yemeni Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi issued a decree Wednesday setting up a unity government headed by opposition leader Mohammed Basindwa, the state news agency Saba said.

08 December 2011
Turkey said Wednesday it would not let its territory be used to launch attacks against other countries after Syria said it had foiled a bid by "terrorists" to infiltrate from the Turkish border.

08 December 2011
The Muslim Brotherhood's political party said Wednesday it had won a majority of the seats up for grabs in Egypt's run-off elections, which would give it at least 40 percent of the seats in Parliament decided thus far.

21 December
North Korea will shift to collective rule from a strongman dictatorship after last week’s death of Kim Jong Il, although his untested young son will be at the head of the ruling coterie, a source with close ties to Pyongyang and Beijing said.

21 December
A New Zealand air force cargo plane flew to Antarctica on Wednesday to parachute sea pumps and hull patches to a leaking Russian fishing vessel that has been stuck in the frigid waters after striking sea ice last week.

21 December
Decommissioning Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will take three or four decades, Japan’s government said on Wednesday as it unveiled plans for the next phase of a huge and costly cleanup of the tsunami-wrecked complex.

08 December 2011
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday canceled a planned visit to Britain to return straight home after rare sectarian attacks the previous day which killed 59 people and put the spotlight back on Afghanistan’s security problems.

08 December 2011
The United States called on Wednesday for closer international cooperation to prevent terrorist groups from developing or using biological weapons, a threat it said was growing.

08 December 2011
A minibus struck a roadside bomb while driving in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, triggering an explosion that killed 19 Afghan civilians, officials said.