Lebanon is a Middle Eastern country bordered by Syria, Israel, and the Mediterranean Sea. The area that is now Lebanon was part of the Ottoman Empire, and France was given a mandate over the northern portion after World War I. Lebanon became an independent country in 1943. A civil war, from 1975 to 1990, led to an estimated 120,000 deaths, along with extensive infrastructure damage. Syria occupied Lebanon from 1976 until 2005.

In 2014, Lebanon was classified as a country with high human development (the second-highest category) on the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP’s) Human Development Index (HDI), with a score of 0.769 (on a scale where 1 denotes high development, and 0 denotes low development). Life expectancy at birth in 2014 was estimated at 79.3 ...