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Arabs represent the major ethnicity in Syria, in addition to the presence of several, much smaller ethnic groups.

Ethnicity and religion are intertwined in Syria as in other countries in the region, but there are also nondenominational, supraethnic and suprareligious political identities, like Syrian nationalism.

Since the 1960 census there has been no counting of Syrians by religion, and there has never been any official counting by ethnicity or language. In the 1943 and 1953 censuses the various denominations were counted separately, e.g. for every Christian denomination. In 1960 Syrian Christians were counted as a whole but Muslims were still counted separately between Sunnis and Alawis.^[1][2][3]

The majority of Syrians speak Arabic except for a minority of mostly ethnic Assyrian Aramaic (Syriac) speakers, Kurdish speaking Syrian Kurds and Turkish speaking Syrian Turkmens, Armenian speakers who altogether form 5-10% of the population. Syrian Arab Sunni Muslims form ~70-75% of the populace, Christians altogether around 10%, Alawites at 10%, and the remaining ~5-10% consist of minor ethnoreligious groups including the Druze (3%), Isma'ilis, Mhallami, Yezidi and Twelver Shiite Muslims (the latter two together also about 3%).^[4] However, these percentages are only indicative.

The majority of Syrian Arabs speak a variety of dialects belonging to Levantine Arabic. Arab tribes and clans of Bedouin descent are mainly concentrated in the governorates of al-Hasakah, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa and eastern Aleppo, forming roughly 20 to 30% of the total population and speaking a dialect related to Bedouin and Najdi Arabic. In Deir ez-Zor a dialect of North Mesopotamian Arabic is also spoken, reminiscent of that of medieval Iraq prior the Mongol invasions in 1258.^[5]

• Arab minority groups
  • Arab Christians (predominantly Melkite Orthodox and Catholic Christians)
  • Druze
  • Sunni Muslim and Christian Palestinians
  • Arab Twelver Shias
  • Arab Ismailis

Syrian Kurds form 5 to 10% of the Syrian population, the largest non-Arab minority. Yezidis, a non Muslim group are often counted among Kurds. Other non-Arabic-speaking Muslim groups include Syrian Turkmen, who had settled Syria in Mamluk and Ottoman times, Syrian Circassians and Syrian Chechens who settled in the 19th century, Syrian Bosniaks who settled in the 1870s and Greek Muslims who were resettled in Syria following the Greco-Turkish War of 1897.

Assyrians in Syria form a multi denominational Christian minority mainly in the northeast where they have been [Indigenous]] since the Bronze Age and mainly speak Mesopotamian Eastern Aramaic dialects related to those of fellow Assyrians in Northern Iraq, Southeast Turkey and Northwest Iran.

• Muslim minority groups
  • Kurds (Sunni, although a number of Kurds follow the Yarsan religion, Yezidi religion or are converts to Christianity.
  • Arabic-speaking or Turkmen Alawis^[6]

• • Sunni and Alevi Turkmens
  • Sunni Chechens
  • Sunni Circassians
  • Syrian Bosniaks
  • Sunni Muslim Greeks
  • Muslim Ossetians^[7][8]
  • Black people of Yarmouk Basin, descendants of sub Saharan African slaves brought to the region during the Middle Ages
• Christian minority groups
  • Assyrians, a Semitic Christian Indigenous people of Northeast Syria, North Iraq and Southeast Turkey who speak Akkadian influenced dialects of East Aramaic, and like the Mandeans, are of Mesopotamian heritage.
  • Armenians
  • Greeks
  • Italians
• Other groups
  • Romani people/Kawliya of various creeds
  • Mizrahi Jews
  • Mandeans, and East Aramaic speaking Semitic gnostic people, who like the Assyrian people are of Mesopotamian heritage.
  • Arameans (Syriacs)^{[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]} in the Anti-Lebanon mountains.

The small communities of Maaloula, Jubb'adin and Al-Sarkha speak Western Neo-Aramaic and are Aramean in identity and not to be confused with the Eastern Aramaic speaking ethnic Assyrians and Mandeans of Northeast Syria.

• Demographics of Syria
• Languages of Syria
• Religion in Syria
• Sectarianism and minorities in the Syrian Civil War
• Federalization of Syria

• Sectarianism in Syria (Survey Study)
• "Syria". World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples. Minority Rights Group International.
• "Guide: Syria's diverse minorities". BBC. 2011.