About Tunisia

Located on the Mediterranean Sea on the north shores of Africa, Tunisia was formerly the center of civilization during the years of Carthaginian Empire. Its unique position gave it access to trading routes all over Africa and Europe. During its golden years the Carthaginian Empire spanned from modern southern Spain, through to Sardinia all he way to northern Libya. After it was conquered by the Romans, in 2nd century B.C., Tunisia’s wealth gained from trade and commerce was all but plundered, and Tunisia turned into a poor protectorate for many different empires, including the Roman Empire, the Arab Empire and the French Empire as well. Tunisia gained independence from France in March 20th 1956, and since then has diversified its economy, which has lead to its recent economic success.

Whenever you travel or relocate to a new country, it is often important to have some background information on your destination. As such we have provided a general outline of Tunisia below. Please be advised that the information contained on this page may be liable to change without prior warning, and as such you should consult an expert for more details.

Official Name: Tunisian Republic

Capital City: Tunis

Location: Northern Africa, on the Mediterranean Sea bordering Algeria and Libya.

Size: Tunisia Ranks 99th in the world for its land area of 163,610 sq km’s, comparatively the U.K is 244,820 sq km’s.

Climate: Temperate in the north with mild fairly rainy winters, and hot and dry during the summer. Normal arid desert conditions in the south.

Population: Tunisia has a population 10,383,577, about half of Australia’s population.

Life expectancy at birth: 75.56 years at birth. This puts Tunisia at 74th in the world. Well ahead of its African neighbors, and the world average of 66.12 years.
                                                                                            
Major Illness:  Most major diseases in Tunisia have been eradicated; however visitors to the desert regions are warned of catching heat stroke.

Ethnicities: Arabic is the main denomination comprising of 98% of the population, 1% are European and others comprise of Jewish and African ethnicities.

Languages: Arabic is the official language, however French is still the language used in commerce.

Religion: Similar to the ethnicity groups, 98% of the population is Muslim, 1% Christian, and the other 1% comprising of Jewish and other African tribal religions.

Government: Tunisia is a republic, which features a bicameral house system where the government is directly elected by the people.

Head of State: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is the current president of Tunisia.

Economy: Tunisia’s economy is very diverse having important agricultural, tourism, oil production and manufacturing sections, all which perform well on the global scale of industry competitiveness. Tunisia ranks number one in Africa for industry competitiveness. The Tunisian government still has fairly large hold of the businesses operating in Tunisia however recently more efforts to privatize the industries has lead to high economic growth, seeing GDP increases of 6.3%. This drive was achieved due to huge development in the non-textile manufacturing, agricultural recovery in production, and a strong move towards the services sector.
However despite this large economic growth, Tunisia will have to work harder to create more working opportunities for its citizens as it still carries the burden of 14.2% unemployment rate. Broader privatization, further liberalization of the investment code to increase foreign investment, improvements in government efficiency, and reduction of the trade deficit are among the challenges ahead.

GDP: The Tunisian GDP purchasing power parity equals $76.07 billion USD.

For more information about Tunisia expat insurance, the international health insurance plans that we can offer there, or to receive a free quote, please contact one of our expert advisers today.

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