The population of Syria registered in the Civil Records by the beginning of 2010, totaled 23,695,000, of them 11,792,000 females and 11,903,000 males, compared to 23,027,000 by the beginning of 2009, recording an increase of nearly 670,000. According to a statistical report for 2010 released by the Central Bureau of Statistics, quoted by the Syrian News Agency "SANA", the number of births registered in 2009 was 670,793, of them 343,264 males and 327,529 females, while the number of deaths registered in the same year reached 76, 650, of them 32,312 females and 44,338 males. The number of marriage contracts registered in 2009 were 241,422, while that of divorce certificates were 29,525. The statistical report also showed that the state employees amounted to 1.65 million by the end of 2009, more than 20.4 percent of them have university degrees. The total number of visitors to Syria in 2009 reached 6,655,858. The Arab visitors reached 4,787,931and the foreign visitors recorded 1.86 million.
