More than half of country’s population lives in the capital and the municipality of Al Rayyan. According to Qatar Social Statistics 2009 – 2018, around 39.8 percent of population lived in Doha while 24.9 percent lived in Al Rayyan municipality in 2018. The report, released yesterday by The Planning and Statistics Authority, showed that Qatar’s population increased by 1.1 million during 2009 – 2018 period.

“The Planning and Statistics Authority presents the fifth report in a series of comprehensive social statistics, which summarises the path of social statistical development for the State of Qatar between 2009 -2018, hoping to meet the requirements of the Second National Development Strategy for the State of Qatar (2018-2022),” said H E Dr. Saleh Mohamed Al Nabit, President of Planning and Statistics Authority. “Through this release, PSA endeavoured to highlight the most frequently-used indicators in the planning and implementation processes,” he said.

The report throws light on the trends in the country’s demography and contains statistical data and indicators related to tourism, health, education, culture, sports and other sectors.

“About two thirds of the population are settling in Doha and Al Rayyan municipalities in 2018. The lowest populated municipality was Al Shamal where only 0.5 percent of the total population was residing,” said the report.

“According to mid-year population estimates, there were 2.8 million people in mid-2018, a rise of 1.1 million people compared to 2009. As for the annual population growth rate, it dropped from 13.1 in 2009 to 10.1 in 2014, and then began to decline significantly until it reached 1.3 in 2018,” noted the report.

The economic changes experienced by Qatar over the past years resulted in changes in the population growth rates.

More than half of the population resides in rented housing, while 21 percent of the households own their homes. “18.3 percent of the population lives in housing provided by the government and companies to its employees (government housing or corporate housing). The remaining households live in the endowment residences and free housing in 2010,” said the report.

The rate of physicians witnessed stability in the State of Qatar during the period, as this rate rose very slightly from 3.1 physicians per thousand people in 2009 to 3.3 physicians per thousand people in 2018.

Statistics show that Qatar had achieved 100 percent of deliveries under special and professional supervision as a result of the state’s efforts in achieving the 3rd goal of SDGs, which is to “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”; one of the most important factors of safe maternity.

“Statistics showed a significant reduction in the illiteracy rate in 2018, 1 percent; compared to 5.3 percent in 2009, specifically, the illiteracy rate for the 15-24-year-old age-group declined for both sexes, to 0.2 percent for females and 0.9 percent for males,” noted the report. The total number of kindergartens increased from 165 to 473, of which 7 percent are for boys, 10 percent are for girls, while the remaining 83 percent of them were mixed during the period 2008-2009 — 2017-2018. Foreign kindergarten accounted for the highest proportion of them 84 percent in 2017-2018.

Qatar’s efforts to achieve the second Millennium Development Goal (MDGs), to achieve universal primary education, were successful as the number of primary schools increased from 197 to 288 during the period 2008-2009 to 2017-2018, of which 24.3 percent were for boys, 22.2 percent were for girls and 53.5 percent were mixed for 2017-2018.

The report noted a remarkable development in higher education was achieved through the setting up of several international universities, which offered many specialisations in different fields. This led to an increase in the number of students at universities from 13,000 in the year 2008/2009 to 34,000 students during the academic year 2017-2018. The annual growth rate was 11 percent during 2008-2009 and 2017-2018.

Economically active population have increased significantly in size over the years; it increased by about 2 folds during the period 2009-2018. This development was remarkable over the past few years. The annual growth rate reached 2 percent during the period 2017 – 2018.

In 2018, the labour force participation rate was 88 percent, which is a constant percentage compared to 2009.

Data showed that there was a rise in the number of cinema audience from 1 million in 2009 to 1.8 million in 2018. However, the proportion of cinema halls, remarkably increased during the period (2009 – 2018), from 25 halls in 2009 to 51 in 2018.