Take the Qataris. There are just , of them living in Qatar, the spit of land in the Gulf that sits on top of the world's third largest deposits of natural gas. Qatar developed its economy later than the other Gulf states, who used to look down on the country as something of a poor cousin. It was only in the s that Qatar began to exploit its North Field, the single largest gas field in the world.
Since then, the once-sleepy country has changed almost beyond recognition. Qatar now tops many of the measures used to assess a country's well being. In , Qataris were the world's richest people in GDP per capita terms. For Qatari citizens, the news is even better. Such an injection of riches has seen the country undergo a remarkable transformation. Qatar's economic boom, fuelled by surging gas exports, has drawn in workers who come from all over the world, but chiefly from South Asia.
They build the skyscrapers mushrooming all over Doha, polish the spotless hotel floors that are already clean enough to eat off, open doors that don't need opening for guests and provide, on average, one domestic servant for every two Qataris. The population has tripled in the last decade alone, up from just over , people in to 1.
In any other country this level of immigration would probably have led to serious levels of discontent. Some grumble that there are too many foreigners; others that there are too many Western influences. For older Qataris, the country is barely recognisable.
So, of course there are social strains, debates, and disagreements taking place within the small community of Qatari nationals - though these rarely come to an outsider's attention. Yet in Qatar there is stability, or certainly more than is found in some of its neighbours. This difference is due to the fact that according to the Shari'a Islamic law , the religion of children follows that of the father.
Therefore, the vast majority of non-natives who have received citizenship in these countries are females married to GCC males. Only in exceptional circumstances have the authorities granted citizenship to a male foreigner; their number, in any case, was insignificant. In the case of Qatar, before the Citizenship Act No.
The new act provides for the first time a legal mechanism by which a foreigner can apply for Qatari citizenship. According to the new law, Qatari citizenship may be obtained for those who fulfilled the following conditions: a residency in Qatar for at least twenty-five consecutive years; b the ability to speak Arabic; c a clean criminal record; and d a lawful means of income.
In addition to these conditions, those born to a naturalized Qatari father shall be deemed a naturalized Qatari. The new law, however, limits the number of those to be granted Qatari citizenship to only fifty annually. It should be noted in this respect that the Qatari authorities regularly insisted that the number of those who acquired citizenship in this fashion was very small.
Thus, for example in a interview, Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad stated: "A policy to increase the population; we don't have this actually. But we give [citizenship] for the people first who apply and who fulfill our own regulations. Until now there are not many who are asking. While official Qatar followed the common naturalization policy of the other GCC states with the majority of those receiving citizenship being foreign women married to Qatari nationals, evidence indicates that a substantial number of foreign males also succeeded in receiving Qatari citizenship.
Recently, Qatar apparently started a new process of naturalization of Bahraini Sunnis. Moreover, since the latest publication of vital statistics annual bulletins of the QSA is from , it is impossible to try to evaluate the scale of the Qatari national population following the census.
But whatever the number of naturalized citizens in Qatar, the major contributor to the rapid growth of the indigenous Qatari population since the s has been natural increase.
Qatar University College of Pharmacy. Eighteen female pharmacy students receive their bachelor of science degrees from Qatar University College of Pharmacy, November 30, It is probable that the decline in the fertility rate of Qatari women has been due to both a substantial increase in the number of indigenous females receiving post-secondary education and to delayed marriages.
Since there are no official vital demographic statistics prior to , the only possibility for estimateing Qatar's natural increase rate during the s is through comparison with other countries with similar socioeconomic conditions. According to the ECWA estimate, in the crude birth rate of the indigenous Qatari population was approximately 50 per 1, while the crude death rate was 20 per 1, The total fertility rate in was estimated at 7.
These values are quite similar to those which prevailed in other Gulf countries at that time. For example, Kuwait's CBR amounted to Like other Gulf oil states, Qatar's natural increase rate rose rapidly following the onset of the oil boom, due to a sharp decline in CDR as greater oil revenues translated, in part, into better health services and a sharp rise of living standards.
Due to its nearly exclusive reliance on oil revenues, Qatar fits the classic model of a rentier state, that is, a country that receives a considerable portion of its national revenues from the sale of its natural resources to external clients. Qatar has no income tax, and its citizens are recipients of generous subsidies and extensive social welfare programs. As a result, Qatar is pro-natalist by its very nature, like other rentier states. Since more than 80 percent of Qatari males work in the public sector, family allowances are, in effect, granted to almost all citizens.
In addition to the indirect pro-natalist measures, there are also various direct pro-natalist measures, first and foremost generous family allowances for each child of male heads of households who are employed in the governmental sector. Further, the high salaries and luxury work conditions without any work-reward causation offered its national employees can be construed as pro-natalist behavior as are the various full subsidies of public services, including healthcare and education, as well as high subsidies on housing, foodstuffs, and energy products.
The impact of these measures can be seen in the demographic data. In total contrast to what would be expected in line with the "demographic transition theory" i. By , the total fertility rate of indigenous Qatari females was 5. This pattern continued through the s when despite great improvements in both healthcare and educational services which led, in effect, to healthcare indicators similar to those of the developed world , Qatar's fertility rates remained very high.
By , the total fertility rate was 5. While the significant improvement in these services led to a substantial delay in first births, their cumulative number remained the same see Table 6. This trend ended, however, by the early s with the fertility rate of Qatari women gradually declining to 3.
It is probable that this decline, marked especially by the drop in births to women under the age of twenty-four, was due to both a substantial increase in the number of indigenous females receiving post-secondary education and to delayed marriages. At least by , the Qatari authorities had acknowledged the problem and established the Permanent Population Committee PPC to promote higher fertility.
Its main objective was to, "Raise the current natural population increase rate for nationals, or at least maintain it to achieve an appropriate balance among Qatar's total population.
Birth in Qatar does not entitle newborns to citizenship; the marriage of a non-Qatari male to a Qatari female does not grant citizenship to the husband or to the child. As a result, these children are denied privileges such as free electricity and water, subsidized food products, free education, and government jobs set aside for nationals. Thus far, not only have all of the demographic projections for Qatar totally failed, but they have not even been maintained for a decade. For example, in the mids, the World Bank projected that Qatar's total population, both nationals and foreigners, would reach , in and increase to , in In , for example, the Population Division of the U.
Census Bureau [41] that "in , the population [both Qataris and non-Qataris] is expected to exceed 1. Qatar Population by Year Historical. Qatar Population by Year Projections. Qatar Population Pyramid Loading Qatar Median Age There are 2,, people over age 18 in Qatar.
Qatar Population Pyramid. The official language of Qatar is Arabic, but English is prevalent in use as a second language.
Cities in Qatar. Qatar Population Rank Western Asia , The Middle East. Where is Qatar? The Population of Qatar - chart plots the total population count as of July 1 of each year, from to Population : Overall total population both sexes and all ages in the country as of July 1 of the year indicated, as estimated by the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Population Prospects: The Revision.
For forecasted years, the U. For all other years: latest year annual percentage change equivalent assuming homogeneous change in the preceding five year period, calculated through reverse compounding. Yearly Change : For absolute change in total population increase or decrease in number of people over the last year from July 1, to June 30 For all other years: average annual numerical change over the preceding five year period.
Migrants net : The average annual number of immigrants minus the number of emigrants over the preceding five year period running from July 1 to June 30 of the initial and final years , or subsequent five year period for data.
A negative number means that there are more emigrants than immigrants.
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