Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, occupies the Maghreb region of North Africa, bordered by Algeria and Libya and fronting the Mediterranean Sea, with Tunis as its capital. Once home to ancient Carthage, founded by Phoenician settlers among the indigenous Berber population in the ninth century BC, the territory later came under Ottoman control from 1574 before France ruled it as a protectorate from 1881 to 1956. Tunisia gained independence on 20 March 1956, initially as the Tunisian Republic under Prime Minister Habib Bourguiba, and was formally declared a republic the following year. It operates today as a unitary presidential republic, and the 2011 Tunisian Revolution that overthrew its long-serving president catalyzed the wider Arab Spring movement across the region. With a population of about 12 million as of the 2024 census, Tunisia is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, at about 99 percent, and Arabic is its official language.
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