Lebanon is considered an Arab country today, but its Christian Maronite population (Eastern Catholics in full communion with Rome) is genetically closer to Cypriot and Armenian Christian populations, according to a large genome-wide study, while Lebanese Muslims show greater genetic affinity with Syrians, Palestinians, and Jordanians.

Another major international study of 926 Lebanese men published in the American Journal of Human Genetics found that Lebanese Muslims show stronger Arabian Peninsula ancestry while Lebanese Christians show some genetic connections to Western Europe.

Before 1920, Christians made up 80% of Mount Lebanon's population. Following the establishment of Greater Lebanon in 1920, predominantly Muslim areas were added, immediately reducing its Christian share to 57% of the new country. Fast forward to today: Lebanon has been flooded with 2 million Syrian refugees on top of 230,000 Palestinians.

At the same time, generations of Maronites have emigrated from Lebanon due to wars and cultural and religious differences, stemming from all these demographic shifts.

Today, Christian Maronites make up approximately only 9% of everyone living within Lebanon's territory.

The case of Lebanon serves as a warning to Europe and the West: when mass migration and demographic change cause one population to grow significantly relative to another, the native population can become an increasingly smaller minority in its historical homeland.

Lebanon may seem like a country where almost half the population today consists of foreigners. However, Syrians and Palestinians have a significant genetic affinity with Lebanese Muslims, meaning the demographic shift has made the population more genetically similar, whereas the distinct Maronite population, which formed a large majority in pre-1920 Mount Lebanon, has dwindled to a small minority of those residing in Lebanese territory.

The global population of Lebanese Christian Maronites and their descendants is estimated at about 10 million, with about 4 million in Brazil, 1.5 million in Argentina, 1.2 million in the United States, 2 million in other Latin American countries, 400 thousand in Europe, and 700 thousand in Lebanon.