Demographics of Saudi Arabia

As of 2022, the country had a reported population of 32,175,224.^[19]

Structure

The following data has been retrieved from the CIA World Factbook as of 2020:

Population age distribution

0–14 years: 24.84%

15–24 years: 15.38%

25–54 years: 50.2%

55–64 years: 5.95%

65 years and over: 3.63%

Sex ratios

at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female

0–14 years: 1.04 male(s)/female

15–24 years: 1.09 male(s)/female

25–54 years: 1.52 male(s)/female

55–64 years: 1.61 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 1.12 male(s)/female

According to the CIA World Factbook the population of Saudi Arabia has a large young population ages 0–19 years and an increasing middle-age population ages 20–35 years.^[8] With a growing population reaching adulthood, global economists and the Saudi government have become concerned that there are more Saudis seeking jobs than are available.^[20] The nation has also seen a rise in its older population as life expectancy has risen throughout the last 40 years.^[20]

Life expectancy at birth

The following data has been retrieved from the CIA World Factbook as of 2018.

Total population:

Male: 74.2 years

Female: 77.3 years

Density

Population Density: 15.322 people per km² of land (2017)^[1]

Births and deaths^[21][22][23]

Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (01.VII.2020) (Provisional Estimates):^[25]

The following data has been retrieved from the CIA World Factbook as of 2020:

• Birth rate: 14.7 births/1,000 population ^[8]
• Death rate: 3.4 deaths/1,000 population
• Maternal mortality rate: 17 deaths/100,000 live births
• Infant mortality rate:
  • male: 12.2 deaths/1,000 live births
  • female: 10.4 deaths/1,000 live births
• Total fertility rate: 1.95 children born/woman^[26]

Saudi Arabia is ranked 111th in comparison to the world with a birth rate of 18.51 births per 1,000 people in 2019.^[8] The nation's death rate is ranked 220th worldwide with 3.3 deaths per 1,000 people.^[8] Although birth rates have decreased in the last two decades, rates of decline fail to match the significant decline in death rates.^[27] Because of this, Saudi Arabia has experienced a population explosion in the last 40 years,^[9] and continues to grow at a rate of 1.63% per year.^[8] Saudi Arabia's population growth continues to be 0.295% higher than population growth rates in the Middle East and North Africa.^[28] Infant mortality rates have declined dramatically in the past twenty years from 25.3 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1995 to 6.3 deaths in 2017, according to the World Bank.^[29] Saudi Arabia has a substantially lower infant mortality rate in comparison to the Middle East and North Africa region, which continues to face a high of 19.3 deaths for every 1,000 live births as of 2017. This significant reduction can be attributed to rising access to modern healthcare across the country, ranking 26th worldwide for healthcare system quality.^[30] The construction of new hospitals and primary healthcare centers across the Kingdom, as well as healthcare during pregnancy and increased use of vaccinations account for a decline in infant mortality and increased life expectancy.^[31]

UN estimates

The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates. Population estimates account for under numeration in population censuses.^[32]

Nationality

noun:Saudi(s)
adjective:Saudi or Saudi Arabian

Ethnicity

The ethnic composition of Saudi citizens is 90% Arabs and 10% Afro-Arabs.^[33] However, 38.3% of inhabitants (about 13.3 million people) are non-citizens,^[8] most of them are migrant workers.^[34]

The following data has been retrieved from the CIA World Factbook:^[35]

Urban population: 85% of total population (2023)

Rate of urbanization: 1.69% annual rate of change (2020–25 est.)

Historically, some of the population of Saudi Arabia followed a nomadic lifestyle, while most lived in villages and small towns ran by emirs. Following the discovery of oil in the 1930s, the Kingdom became far more settled as people moved to centers of high economic activity.^[8] Significant population growth can be seen in the rise of urbanization throughout Saudi Arabia, which has grown 2 percent in the past ten years.^[36] The largest Saudi cities have become flooded with new residents as more people move to urban cities to find better employment opportunities, and overcrowding has become a major issue across the nation.^[36]

Migration is a significant part of Saudi Arabia's tradition and culture, as the nation's thriving oil economy attracts large numbers of foreign workers from an assortment of countries throughout Asia and the Arab world.^[26] Following economic diversification in response to the oil boom of the 1970s, the Saudi government encouraged skilled and semi-skilled workers to enter the Kingdom as the demand for infrastructure and development intensified.^[37] Saudi Arabia is among the top five immigrant destination countries around the world, currently hosting 5.3 million international migrants in its borders. In 2017, non-native residents accounted for 38% of the Kingdom's total population, more than twice that of the United States whose immigrants make up 15% of the nation's total population.^[38] The majority of Saudi Arabia's foreign born population are males between the ages of 25 and 45. These immigrants make up a larger percentage of the total population in this age group compared to native-born Saudis ages 25–45, according to the United Nations 2013 report.^[39] 26.3% of the total migrant population in Saudi Arabia are from India, followed by Pakistan (24.2%), Bangladesh (19.5%), Egypt (19.3%), and finally the Philippines (15.3%).^[39] Most immigrants of the Kingdom are skilled, unskilled, and service industry foreign workers. Although the living and working conditions for immigrant workers are harsh in Saudi Arabia, economic opportunity tends to be much greater than in their homelands.^[26] There are around five million illegal immigrants in Saudi Arabia, most of which come from Africa and Asia. These immigrants are planned to be deported within the next few years.^[40] There are over 118,000 Westerners in Saudi Arabia, most of whom live in compounds or gated communities.^[41]

People from other immigration jurisdictions

Nationality	Residents
Egypt	2,700,000[42]
Pakistan	2,700,000[43]
India	2,592,166[44]
Bangladesh	2,500,000[45]
Yemen	>2,000,000[46]
Syria	2,500,000[47][48]
Indonesia	1,500,000[49]
Philippines	938,490[50]
Sudan	819,600[51]
Myanmar	500,000 (Rohingya)[52][53]
Jordan	430,000[54]
Sri Lanka	400,000[55]
Turkey	220,000 (2019*)[citation needed]
Nepal	215,000[56]
Somalia	165,000 (1991*)[57]
Lebanon	100,000[58]

The government does not ask about religion on their census surveys. However, according to official statistics, in 2020, 85-90% of Saudi Arabian citizens were Sunni Muslims, 10-12% are Shia.^[59] The rest are other forms of Islamic minorities. Other smaller communities reside in the south, with Ismaili Shia's constituting around half of the population of the province of Nejran, and a small percentage of the Holy Islamic cities of Mecca and Medina.

In 2022, there is a Christian population in the country of approximately 2.1 million; there are also groups of Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs in the country.^[60]

According to a poll in 2013 by WIN-Gallup International, 5% of 502 Saudi Arabians surveyed stated they were "convinced atheists".^[61][62]

In 2022, the kingdom's total population was approximately 35 million; it was estimated that of these, over one-third were foreign workers.^[63]

The official language of Saudi Arabia is Arabic. Saudi Sign Language is the principal language of the deaf community. The large expatriate communities also speak their own languages, the most numerous of which are Urdu (4,000,000) which after Arabic is widely used especially among the South Asian community, which makes the largest community of expatriate, Indonesian (850,000), Filipino/Tagalog (700,000), Malayalam (447,000), Rohingya (400,000), and Egyptian Arabic (300,000).^{[64][65][66][circular reference]}

External videos
Why 82% of Saudi Arabians Just Live in These Lines -RealLifeLore

• International Religious Freedom Report 2010