In a sense, they constitute the world's oldest nation'. ^ 'Among the peoples of the ancient Near East, only the Egyptians have stayed where they were and remained what they were, although they have changed their language once and their religion twice.Since 2006, religion has been omitted from censuses after widespread claims that the figures had been distorted. Estimates range from as low as 5% to as high as 20%. ^ While Islam is the majority and official religion of the country, the size of the country's historic Christian minority is highly controversial and disputed by various entities and groups.Other dialects and minority languages are spoken regionally.
^ Literary Arabic is the sole official language.
