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| Conventional Long Form: | Republic of Yemen |
| Conventional Short Form: | Yemen |
| Location: | Middle East, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Red Sea, between Oman and Saudi Arabia |
| Capital City: | Sanaa |
| Government Type: | Republic |
| Population: | 18,078,035 (July 2001 est.) |
| Area [sq.km]: | 527,970 (slightly larger than twice the size of Wyoming) |
| Currency: | Yemeni rial (YER) |
| Languages: | Arabic |
| National Holiday: | Unification Day, 22 May (1990) |
| Background: | North Yemen became independent of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. The British, who had set up a protectorate area around the southern port of Aden in the 19th century, withdrew in 1967 from what became South Yemen. Three years later, the southern government adopted a Marxist orientation. The massive exodus of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis from the south to the north contributed to two decades of hostility between the states. The two countries were formally unified as the Republic of Yemen in 1990. A southern secessionist movement in 1994 was quickly subdued. In 2000, Saudi Arabia and Yemen agreed to a delimitation of their border. |
