Unlike most other people of the Arabian Peninsula who have historically been nomads or semi-nomads, Yemenis are almost entirely sedentary and live in small villages and towns scattered throughout the highlands and coastal regions.

Yemenis are divided into two principal Islamic religious groups: 42-48% Shi’a and 49-55% Sunni. This is broken up as: 30-40% of the Zaidi order of Shi’a Islam, 8-15% of the Ja’fari and Isma’ili orders of Shi’a Islam, and 55% of the Shafi’i order of Sunni Islam.