50 percent unemployment
in Tripoli poor areas

Chronic illnesses are the most

commonly reported health condition

Unemployment rates range from 55 to 60 percent in some Tripoli neighborhoods, according to the UN-Habitat and UNICEF Neighborhoods study of 2018. The areas under study are Jabal Mohsen, El-Qobbeh, and Tabbaneh.

The poverty rate reached 20 percent in Jabal Mohsen, 13 percent in El Qobbeh, and 14 percent in Tabbaneh.

According to the UNICEF, the poverty rate is a wealth index that includes households that have or do not have the following items: A fixed phone, radio, television, refrigerator, watch, bicycle, motorcycle or moped, cart, car, boat, computer, mobile, or Internet.

The highest number of non-Lebanese among the three areas under study is found in Tabbaneh, with 17 percent of the area’s population.

Chronic illnesses are the most commonly reported category of health condition in the three areas under study. The higher percent of chronically ill individuals is in El-Qobbeh with 15 percent of the area’s population, according to the study.

Primary school attendance reaches 90 percent in Jabal Mohsen, 84 percent in Tabbaneh, and 56 percent in El-Qobbeh.

A building condition assessment was undertaken as part of the neighborhood field surveys. More than half of buildings in Tabbaneh need emergency intervention and major structural repair. A lower percentage was recorded in Jabal Mohsen and El-Qobbeh, 14 percent and 27 percent respectively.

Around 11 percent of the buildings in each of the El-Qobbeh and Tabbaneh neighborhoods are not connected to the electrical grid. The percentage of buildings not connected to the domestic water network is highest in Tabbaneh, at 26 percent.

In the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood, 98 percent of the surveyed enterprises, both shops and workshops, are in operation, while two percent are vacant. The neighborhoods of El-Qobbeh, and especially Tabbaneh, have substantially larger portions of vacant stores.