Libya has a small population in a large land area. Population density is about 50 persons per sq. km. (80/sq. mi.) in the two northern regions of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, but falls to less than one person per sq. km. (1.6/sq. mi.) elsewhere. Ninety percent of the people live in less than 10% of the area, primarily along the coast. More than half the population is urban, mostly concentrated in the two largest cities, Tripoli and Benghazi. Fifty percent of the population is estimated to be under age 15.

Native Libyans are primarily a mixture of Arabs and Berbers. Small Tebou and Touareg tribal groups in southern Libya are nomadic or semi-nomadic. Among foreign residents, the largest groups are citizens of other African nations, including North Africans (primarily Egyptians and Tunisians), West Africans and Sub-Saharan Africans.

Cultural differences between the provinces are important. The population of the west is far more cosmopolitan than that of the east and includes a higher proportion of people with Berber, Sudanese African, and Turkish origins. Cyrenaica was profoundly affected by the teachings of the 19th-century Sanusiyah, an Islamic brotherhood, which had little influence in the west and south. Since the 1969 coup, life-styles have been strongly influenced by the revolutionary government's restructuring of national and local government and its efforts to reduce the influence of traditional tribes. The government has also brought women out of traditional seclusion and into the mainstream of the revolutionary socialist society.
Libyan culture centres on folk art and traditions, which are highly influenced by Islam. The traditional arts of weaving, embroidery, metal engraving, and leatherwork rarely depict people or animals because of the Islamic prohibition against such representation. The dominant geometric and arabesque designs are best presented in the stucco and tiles of the Karamanli and Gurgi mosques of Tripoli. Surviving traditions are represented by festivals, horse races, and folk dances. Nonreligious literature has developed largely since the 1960s; it is nationalistic in character but reveals Egyptian influences.

The arts are supported by the government through the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Education and National Guidance, and the Al-Fikr Society, a group of intellectuals and professionals.
Libraries include the Government Library and the Archives in Tripoli, the Public Library in Banghazi, and the university libraries. The Department of Antiquities is responsible for the Archaeological Museum, the Leptis Magna Museum of Antiquities, the Natural History Museum, and the Sabratha Museum of Antiquities, all in the western region, and the archaeological sites of Ptolemais and Appolonia in the eastern region. The Sabha Museum contains exhibits of ancient remains of the former Fezzan region.