North Yemen

North Yemen is a name given to the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (1918–1962) and the Yemen Arab Republic (1962–1990), states that exercised sovereignty over the territory that is now the north-western part of the state of Yemen in southern Arabia.

Neither state ever designated itself as "North Yemen" and the term only came into general use when the Federation of South Arabia gained independence as the People's Republic of South Yemen in 1967 making such a distinction necessary. Prior to 1967, the North was known in short form simply as "Yemen." In 1970, South Yemen changed its name to the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen thus eliminating any directional reference in either of the Yemens' official names but the existence of two Yemens preserved the North Yemen and South Yemen designations in popular parlance. Alternate forms were "Yemen (Sanaa)" for North Yemen and "Yemen (Aden)" for South Yemen after their respective capital cities.

The merger of the two Yemens in 1990 ended the term's association with an independent state but "North Yemen" continues to be used to refer to the area of the former Yemen Arab Republic and its history and, anachronistically, to pre-1967 polities and events (e.g. the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen or the North Yemen Civil War).

Basic information
Area: 167,943 km² (64,843.15 sq mi)
Population (2010 estimate): 20,019,009
Population density (1990 estimate): 42.6 /km²  (110.4 /sq mi)
Language: Arabic
Capital: Sana'a
Currency: North Yemeni rial
Calling code: +967
ISO Country Codes: YE, YEM, 886
Historical dates:
Independence of Mutawakkilite Kingdom from the Ottoman Empire: November 1, 1918
Admitted to the United Nations: September 30, 1947
Yemen Arab Republic established: September 26, 1962
Unification with South Yemen: May 22, 1990
Houthis seize territory roughly corresponding to North Yemen in course of the 2014–15 Yemen unrest

See also
 Yemen
 History of Yemen
 Yemen Arab Republic
 Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen
 South Yemen
 Yemeni unification
 Houthis

Category:Former polities of the Cold War
Category:Geography of Yemen
 
Category:Historical regions