The population of the six GCC countries reached 57.6m in 2023, compared to 56.6m in 2022.
Males accounted for 62.4 per cent of the total population, while females made up 37.6 per cent.
A GCC Statistical Centre report also indicates that the population density was 23.9 people per square kilometre, with the total area of the GCC countries amounting to 2.4m square kilometres.
GCC population statistics
The GCC Statistical Centre released the ninth edition of the Atlas of GCC Statistics for 2024. Speaking at the release of the Atlas, Jassim Mohammed Al Budaiwi, Secretary-General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, said that statistics represent one of the most important foundations for planning and development in the journey of joint Gulf cooperation.
Intisar bint Abdullah Al Wahibiah, Director-General of the GCC Statistical Centre, highlighted that the Statistical Atlas is one of the leading annual publications in the field of geographic information systems.
The Atlas revealed that the total workforce in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries reached approximately 33.1m in 2023, compared to 30.3m in 2022.
According to the GCC Statistical Centre, 45.0m people were of working age (15 years and above) in the GCC countries in 2023.
The Atlas also reported marriage and divorce statistics, showing that the marriage rate in 2022 stood at 4.7 contracts per 1,000 people aged 15 and above in the GCC, while the divorce rate was 1.8 cases per 1,000 people in the same age group.
In terms of education, the total number of students in early childhood education, including nurseries and kindergartens, reached 712,400 in the 2021-2022 academic year.
Meanwhile, the total number of school students across the GCC was 8.9m for the same period.
Regarding healthcare, the GCC had approximately 843 government hospitals in 2022, representing 58.4 per cent of the total, with private hospitals accounting for 41.6 per cent.
The number of hospital beds across the Gulf Cooperation Council reached 122,100, with 74.6 per cent in government hospitals and 25.4 per cent in private ones.
The number of physicians stood at 29.6 per 10,000 residents, while there were 61.2 nurses per 10,000 residents in 2022.
For water statistics, the Centre reported an 18.8 per cent increase in rainfall across the Gulf Cooperation Council between 2000 and 2022, with 214.1 billion cubic metres of rainfall recorded in 2022.
The production of desalinated water grew by 9.0 per cent annually over the same period.
In 2022, 1.4 billion cubic metres of treated water were used for irrigation, 3.7 billion cubic metres of surface water were recorded, and the number of wastewater treatment plants increased by 10.1 per cent compared to 2021.
In foreign trade, the Gulf Cooperation Council’s trade volume reached $1.482tn in 2023. Total commodity exports amounted to $823.1bn, with national oil exports making up 63.8 per cent non-oil exports 19.3 per cent and re-exports 16.9 per cent.
Intra-Gulf Cooperation Councilcommodity exports were valued at $131.6bn.
In macroeconomic terms, the GCC’s nominal GDP stood at $2.113tn in 2023, with an annual growth rate decrease of 3.5 per cent compared to 2022. The inflation rate in the Gulf Cooperation Council was recorded at 2.2 per cent in 2023.
Tourism statistics showed that 68.1m tourists visited the GCC in 2023. The region had 10,900 hotel establishments, offering a total of 696,600 rooms.
In telecommunications, the Gulf Cooperation Council had 5.5m fixed phone lines and 94.9m mobile subscriptions in 2023.
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