Key Takeaways

• The official language in Qatar is Arabic
• Immigrants made up a large majority of Qatar population
• Qatar is a Muslim-majority country
• Qatar has a heavily skewed population ratio of 3 males to 1 female
• 85% of Qatar population are within the working age
  
• Qatar is highly educated country
  

• GEOGRAPHY

Location
Located in Middle East, peninsula bordering the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia

Land area
11,586 sq km (CIA – The World Fact Book)

Climate
Arid with an average of only 80mm rainfall a year
Summer: Very hot by day (40°C or above), warm at night Winters: Mild, pleasant by day and very chilly at night

Main Cities
Capital: Doha
Industrial Cities: Messaieed and Ras Laffan

Official language
The official language is Arabic, although English is increasingly becoming the chosen language particularly in business situations.

• DEMOGRAPHY

Total Population
1,448,449 in year 2008, with a majority of them (44.2%) living in Doha (Figure 1.)

Population Trend
Qatar population has risen over the years, recording a 17.5% compound average growth (CAGR) 2004–2008 (Figure 2). In recent years, Qatar is ranked as the country with the highest annual average rate of change in population of 10.65% from the period 2005 to 2010. However, the rate of change is expected to drop to 1.55% between the period of 2010 to 2015, which is a result of declining fertility rate from 2.43 to 2.27 over consecutive 5-years period and a negative net migration ratio of 3.58 migrants per 1,000 population. An interesting point to note, however, would be that 85% of Qatar population is non-Qatar citizens.

Median Age: 30.1 years old

Source: Qatar ICT Landscape 2009


Population Structure

1. Sex-Ratio
Qatar has heavily skewed population sex-ratio with around 3 males to every female in the country (2008), a result of immigration of expatriate male workers from South Asia and non-rich Arab states.

Population Year 2008 (Mid-year)
Age Group	Male	Female	Total
0-4	40,288	37,938	78,226
5-9	36,252	34,546	70,798
14-10	31,450	29,936	61,386
15-19	36,750	26,015	62,765
20-24	157,274	32,854	190,128
25-29	209,314	45,068	254,382
30-34	168,299	41,392	209,691
35-39	143,020	33,058	176,078
40-44	103,272	25,105	128,377
45-49	75,116	18,445	93,561
50-54	50,085	11,652	61,737
55-59	24,924	6,336	31,260
60-64	10,689	3,500	14,189
65-69	4,477	2,297	6,774
70-74	2,632	1,503	4,135
75-79	1,426	913	2,339
80-above	1,549	1,074	2,623
Summation
	1,096,817	351,632	1,448,44

Source: Qatar Statistics Authority


2. Age Distribution
Qatar does not have a population aging issue as with other developed countries; in fact, 82% of the Qatar’s population is of the working age of between 15 to 59 years old.

Source: Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, 2009. Table A.10. United Nations


3. Literacy Rate

Generally, Qatar has a relatively high literacy rate. As of 2004 census, 89.8% of Qatar population knows at least how to read and write, with 14.7% of the population having a university educational level.

Population (10 + ) By Educational Status And Age Groups
Mar-04
Age Groups	Educational Status
	Total	Un Specified Level	Ph.D.	M.A. / M.Sc.	Higher Diploma	University	Diploma	Secondary	Preparatory	Primary	Read & Write	Illiterate
14-Oct	52836	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3270	22811	26031	724
15 - 19	42191	0	0	0	0	0	157	7387	23381	8813	1671	782
20 - 24	59567	6	0	1	125	4797	1699	21232	12116	6288	9934	3369
25 - 29	84053	18	43	246	272	16292	3839	17012	13410	8069	19178	5674
30 - 34	94809	20	61	526	287	17798	4979	16552	13818	8710	24541	7517
35 - 39	85397	25	202	705	723	17303	4269	12411	11623	7180	21870	9086
40 - 44	75877	10	255	693	450	14201	3710	11184	9660	7570	19195	8949
45 - 49	59119	4	320	521	239	10328	2965	8271	7595	5953	14884	8039
50 - 54	37353	5	402	400	302	6247	1587	5092	4111	3316	9080	6811
55 - 59	19875	3	245	248	146	3279	822	2063	1820	1498	4739	5012
60 - 64	9127	1	104	122	66	1424	198	858	652	826	1829	3047
65 - 69	4309	0	26	2	3	362	64	291	133	381	798	2249
70 - 74	2544	0	3	0	2	245	6	92	57	94	448	1597
75 +	2190	1	31	0	1	16	24	130	46	69	382	1490
Total	629247	93	1692	3464	2616	92292	24319	102575	101692	81578	154580	64346

Source: Qatar Embassy, 2004


4. Ethnic & Religion Distribution

About a quarter of the Qatar's population is of the Arab ethnic group.















77% of Qatari citizens are Islam, making Qatar a Muslim-majority country.