In 2023, the total population in the Arab World increased by 8.6 million inhabitants (+1.85 percent) compared to 2022. With 473.27 million inhabitants, the total population thereby reached its highest value in the observed period. Notably, the total population continuously increased over the last years.The total population of a country refers to the de facto number of people residing in a country, regardless of citizenship or legal status.

This statistic shows the total population of the MENA countries in 2023. MENA stands for the Middle East and North Africa region. In 2023, the total population of Egypt amounted to 105.2 million inhabitants.

This statistic shows the 10 countries in Middle East-North Africa with the largest number of Christians in 2010. 4.29 million Christians lived in Egypt.

In 2022, Indonesia has the largest population of Muslims worldwide with around 241.5 million. This was followed with around 225.6 million Muslims in Pakistan and 211.16 million Muslims in India.

According to the survey, as of February 2023, four out of the six countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council ranked amongst the top 25 in the world for expatriate quality of life. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates topped the list for quality of life, whereas Saudi Arabia and Kuwait came last in the region.

Quality of life; an amalgamation of many metrics Since quality of life is dependent on many indicators, it can give us a good insight into many aspects of state welfare policies and services. Saudi Arabia, where the number of foreign workers in the private sector topped six million, also ranked as having one of the region's lowest quality of life for expatriates. Qatar, which had the second-highest quality of life for expatriates living in the GCC, was ranked as one of the most challenging countries in the region for ease of settling in. The UAE and Qatar, both of which ranked the highest in the survey, also have the highest average salaries and living standards in the region.

Foreign workers are a key pillar of the GCC economy

Countries in the GCC all have sizable expatriate populations for which their economies are heavily reliant. Roughly two-thirds of the workforce in the GCC is foreign. Although the share of foreign workers in the GCC has slightly decreased in recent years, they still considerably outweigh the local workforce. Most of these workers comprise the unskilled portion of the occupational category in the GCC. However, with diversifying investments and programs such as Vision 2030, countries have seen a rise in the number of skilled foreign workers.

As of February 2025, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were the countries with the highest TikTok reach, with virtually 138.2 percent and 123.1 percent of the population aged 18 and older using the popular social video app, respectively. Peru followed, with a reach of 99.3 percent. The United States saw around 49.6 percent of its digital population using TikTok, with over 120 million users in the country.

In 2024, Nigeria had the largest Muslim population in Africa, with around 105 million people who belonged to an Islamic denomination. Egypt and Algeria followed with 90.4 million and 39.4 million Muslims, respectively. Muslims have a significant presence in Africa, with an estimated 50 percent of the continent's population identifying as Muslim. The spread of Islam in Africa began in the 7th century with the arrival of Arab traders, and it continued through Islamic scholars and missionaries.

As of February 2025, India was the country with the largest YouTube audience by far, with approximately 491 million users engaging with the popular social video platform. The United States followed, with around 253 million YouTube viewers. Brazil came in third, with 144 million users watching content on YouTube. The United Kingdom saw around 54.8 million internet users engaging with the platform in the examined period. What country has the highest percentage of YouTube users? In July 2024, the United Arab Emirates was the country with the highest YouTube penetration worldwide, as around 94 percent of the country's digital population engaged with the service. In 2024, YouTube counted around 100 million paid subscribers for its YouTube Music and YouTube Premium services. YouTube mobile markets In 2024, YouTube was among the most popular social media platforms worldwide. In terms of revenues, the YouTube app generated approximately 28 million U.S. dollars in revenues in the United States in January 2024, as well as 19 million U.S. dollars in Japan.

Islam is the major religion in many African countries, especially in the north of the continent. In Comoros, Libya, Western Sahara, at least 99 percent of the population was Muslim as of 202. These were the highest percentages on the continent. However, also in many other African nations, the majority of the population was Muslim. In Egypt, for instance, Islam was the religion of 79 percent of the people. Islam and other religions in Africa Africa accounts for an important share of the world’s Muslim population. As of 2019, 16 percent of the Muslims worldwide lived in Sub-Saharan Africa, while 20 percent of them lived in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Together with Christianity, Islam is the most common religious affiliation in Africa, followed by several traditional African religions. Although to a smaller extent, numerous other religions are practiced on the continent: these include Judaism, the Baha’i Faith, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Number of Muslims worldwide Islam is one of the most widespread religions in the world. There are approximately 1.9 billion Muslims globally, with the largest Muslim communities living in the Asia-Pacific region. Specifically, Indonesia hosts the highest number of Muslims worldwide, amounting to over 200 million, followed by India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Islam is also present in Europe and America. The largest Islamic communities in Europe are in France (5.72 million), Germany (4.95 million), and the United Kingdom (4.13 million). In the United States, there is an estimated number of around 3.45 million Muslims.

Worldwide, the male population is slightly higher than the female population. As of 2023, the country with the highest percentage of men was Qatar with only slightly more than one quarter of the total population being women. The United Arab Emirates followed with 36 percent. Different factors can influence the gender distribution in a population, such as life expectancy, the sex ratio at birth, and immigration. For instance, in Qatar the large share of male is due to the high immigration flows of male labor in the country.

Worldwide, the male population is slightly higher than the female population, although this varies by country. As of 2023, Hong Kong has the highest share of women worldwide with almost 55 percent. Moldova followed behind with 54 percent. Among the countries with the largest share of women in the total population, several were former Soviet-states or were located in Eastern Europe. By contrast, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman had some of the highest proportions of men in their populations.

As of February 2025, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates ed the ranking of countries with the highest internet penetration rate, all recording 99 percent. The worldwide internet penetration rate as of October 2024 was 67.5 percent. Most connected regions According to the most recent observations, Northern Europe ranked first among global regions by internet penetration rate. The share of the population accessing the internet in this region was over 97 percent. Northern America ranked second, followed by Western Europe. Overall, the internet reach was higher than 80 percent across all European regions, as well as Northern and Southern parts of America. Unconnected populations Despite having the biggest online audiences worldwide, India and China are also the markets with the highest number of individuals not connected to the web. Regarding the share of population without internet access in worldwide markets, North Korea ranks first, as the internet in the country remains blocked for most of the general public as of April 2024. Central African Republic had 89.4 percent of its population unconnected, followed by Burundi, with 88.7 percent.

As of April 2024, the UAE had the highest social media penetration rate globally out of selected countries and territories, with a whopping 115 percent. Saudi Arabia and South Korea followed, with 96.2 percent and 93.4 percent of active usage reach, respectively. Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria had some of the lowest social network penetration rates in the world, with less than 25 percent of the population accessing social media in each country. The worldwide average rate of social media active usage stood at 62.6 percent as of early 2024, meaning that more than six out every ten people around the world use social networking platforms. How many people use social media? Although the top three countries with the highest social media penetration rates globally were in Eastern and Southwestern Asia in 2023, the region with the greatest social media reach was Northern Europe with 83.6 percent, followed by Western Europe with 83.3 percent and Southern Europe with 76.7 percent. In 2022, more than 4.59 billion people reported using social media, and this number is projected to reach almost six billion by 2027. Facebook: the most popular social network Meta’s Facebook, the social media giant and the first platform to reach this kind of scale, was the leading social network as of October 2023 with more than three billion global monthly active users (MAU). Additionally, Meta owns four of the biggest social media platforms, all with more than one billion MAU each: Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. As of January 2023, India was home to Facebook’s largest audience with more than 300 million MAU, followed by the United States with 175 million MAU.

This statistic shows the total population of Saudi Arabia from 2019 to 2022, with projections up until 2029. In 2022, Saudi Arabia's total population amounted to 32.18 million inhabitants.

Population of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia, the second largest Arab state, is a nation in development. As a result of the economic stability, gross domestic product (GDP) has grown by about 520 billion U.S. dollars over the past decade. This comes as a result of Saudi Arabia’s positive trade balance and the fact that Saudi Arabia exports about 2.5 times more goods than it imports. Therefore, it is no surprise that Saudi Arabia has constantly had a very high GDP growth in the past decade.

In a developing country, there is a tendency for the population to move to more urban cities where the employment rates are higher. The degree of urbanization in Saudi Arabia has grown by around 2 percent from 2002 to 2012. Some of the biggest cities in Saudi Arabia have witnessed the urbanization changes first-hand. The capital of Saudi Arabia and the biggest city, Ar-Riyad, is home to about five million inhabitants. However, the high number of illegal immigrants in Saudi Arabia also accounts for the total population. More awareness to health risks and better living conditions have increased the life expectancy at birth in Saudi Arabia by about 3 years in the last decade. With a rapidly growing total population, it has grown by around 8 million inhabitants over the past decade, the government has set some rules to avoid overcrowding and overpopulation. The fertility rate in Saudi has steadily decreased over the past years in order to attempt to control the rapidly growing population.

The two countries with the greatest shares of the world's Jewish population are the United States and Israel. The United States had been a hub of Jewish immigration since the nineteenth century, as Jewish people sought to escape persecution in Europe by emigrating across the Atlantic. The Jewish population in the U.S. is largely congregated in major urban areas, such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, with the New York metropolitan area being the city with the second largest Jewish population worldwide, after Tel Aviv, Israel. Israel is the world's only officially Jewish state, having been founded in 1948 following the first Arab-Israeli War. While Jews had been emigrating to the holy lands since the nineteenth century, when they were controlled by the Ottoman Empire, immigration increased rapidly following the establishment of the state of Israel. Jewish communities in Eastern Europe who had survived the Holocaust saw Israel as a haven from persecution, while the state encouraged immigration from Jewish communities in other regions, notably the Middle East & North Africa. Smaller Jewish communities remain in Europe in countries such as France, the UK, and Germany, and in other countries which were hotspots for Jewish migration in the twentieth century, such as Canada and Argentina.

This statistic shows the estimated number of Muslims living in different European countries as of 2016. Approximately 5.72 million Muslims were estimated to live in France, the most of any country listed. Germany and the United Kingdom also have large muslim populations with 4.95 million and 4.13 million respectively.

In the Middle Eastern region, the share of the population that earned at least the equivalent of the highest 40 percent of global income earners as of 2022 in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms was 81.5 percent. Saudi Arabia topped the list with the highest share of middle-class and above category of consumers in the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia the share of middle class and above consumer share was 100 percent.

The statistic shows the trade balance of goods (exports minus imports of goods) in the Mashriq countries in 2023. The Mashriq, also Mashreq, is the region encompassing the eastern part of the Arab World, comprising the countries Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. A positive value means a trade surplus, a negative trade balance means a trade deficit. In 2023, the trade surplus of goods in Saudi Arabia amounted to about 111.23 billion U.S. dollars.

This statistic shows the degree of urbanization in the Mashriq countries in 2023. The Mashriq, also Mashreq, is the region encompassing the eastern part of the Arab World, comprising the countries Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Urbanization is defined as the share of urban population in the total population. In 2023, 92.02 percent of the total population of Jordan lived in urban areas.

As of February 2025, there were 5.56 billion internet users worldwide, which amounted to 67.9 percent of the global population. Of this total, 5.24 billion, or 63.9 percent of the world's population, were social media users. Global internet usage Connecting billions of people worldwide, the internet is a core pillar of the modern information society. Northern Europe ranked first among worldwide regions by the share of the population using the internet in 2024. In The Netherlands, Norway and Saudi Arabia, 99 percent of the population used the internet as of April 2024. North Korea was at the opposite end of the spectrum, with virtually no internet usage penetration among the general population, ranking last worldwide. Asia was home to the largest number of online users worldwide – over 2.93 billion at the latest count. Europe ranked second, with around 750 million internet users. China, India, and the United States rank ahead of other countries worldwide by the number of internet users. Worldwide internet user demographics As of 2023, the share of female internet users worldwide was 65 percent, five percent less than that of men. Gender disparity in internet usage was bigger in the Arab States and Africa, with around a ten percent difference. Worldwide regions, like the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe, showed a smaller gender gap. As of 2023, global internet usage was higher among individuals between 15 and 24 years across all regions, with young people in Europe representing the most significant usage penetration, 98 percent. In comparison, the worldwide average for the age group 15–24 years was 79 percent. The income level of the countries was also an essential factor for internet access, as 93 percent of the population of the countries with high income reportedly used the internet, as opposed to only 27 percent of the low-income markets.