Demographics of Kuwait



This is a demography of the population of Kuwait (سكان الكويت).

Expatriates account for around 60% of Kuwait's total population, with Kuwaitis constituting 38%-42% of the total population. The government and some Kuwaiti citizens consider the proportion of expatriates (which has been relatively stable since the mid-1970s) to be a problem, and in 2016 the number of deportations increased.

Governorates
Kuwait consists of six governorates: Hawalli, Asimah, Farwaniyah, Jahra, Ahmadi and Mubarak Al-Kabeer. Most people in Kuwait live in the governorates of Hawalli, Asimah, and Farwaniyah.

Historical populations
The biggest population difficulty in Kuwait involves the Bedoon, stateless people. According to Human Rights Watch in 1995, Kuwait has produced 300,000 stateless Bedoon. Kuwait has the largest number of stateless people in the entire region. The Bedoon issue in Kuwait is largely sectarian.

According to recent statistics provided by the Central Statistics Bureau, as of January 2024, Kuwait's population reached 4.91 million, an increase of 119,700 from the previous year's 4.79 million. The number of Kuwaiti citizens rose by 28,700 to reach a total of 1.545 million. Specifically, the number of male citizens increased to 758,700, and female citizens reached 787,000. Concurrently, the expatriate population also increased by 90,990, totaling 3.36 million. Amongst the expatriates, the male population reached 2.26 million and the female population climbed to 1.1 million.

Vital statistics

 * UN estimates


 * Registered births and deaths

Structure of the population
Structure of the population (1.01.2020) (Census - provisional):

Life expectancy


Source: UN World Population Prospects


 * Ethnic groups
 * Kuwaiti 41.4%, Arab expat 21.4%, Asian (mostly South Asian) 35.3%, African 1%, other 0.7% (includes European, North American, South American, and Australian) (2018 est.)


 * Languages
 * Arabic (official)
 * English spoken widely


 * Religion
 * Muslim (official) 74.6%
 * Christian 18.2%
 * Other and Unspecified 7.2%