According to the latest data from the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) the population of Kuwait which currently stands at over 4.8 million is poised to touch the five million mark in 2020.

It is interesting to look back on some statistics from the World Bank and other sources to see the shift in demographics over the years. At the time of the country’s independence in 1961, the population of Kuwait was only around 300,000 people, most of them were citizens or soon to be made citizens. Foreigners were few and those that were around were respected and not considered in the derogatory fashion prevalent today. Why, the word ‘expat’ had probably not even been coined back then.

Anyway, coming back to the population story, it took Kuwait nearly 15 years to cross the magical million mark in 1975 and another 13 years to add a million more people by 1988. Following the vicious Iraqi invasion and the exodus of residents from Kuwait, the population dropped to a low of 1.6 million in 1995.

But since then, the population has been climbing steadily until 2005 when it began registering its present sharp climb. In 2010, the number of people in the country touched three million and just seven years later the population crossed the four million stage in 2017. Now, in just three years, Kuwait is on the threshold of touching the five million milestone.

In most countries, population growth is usually attributed to a rise in fertility rate and a growth in  life expectancy. In Kuwait, while the total number of years has increased from 72 in the 1990s to 75 years at present, the fertility rate has been steadily falling. During the same period that life expectancy has grown, the number of child-births per woman in the country has dropped from three in the mid-90s to two children per woman today.

So where does this rapid climb in population come from? For once, the parliamentarians who always blame expatriates for all the woes of the country, have it right. Expatriates who numbered only a few thousands at the time of the country’s independence, now account for 71 percent of the population.

The daily statistics provided by PACI show that as of Saturday, 17 August, the population of Kuwait was 4,829,507 of which 1,419,385, or a little over 29 percent were citizens, and 3,410,112, or nearly 71 percent were expatriates.

 

 

 


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