Employed population by nationality group and occupation group (Kuwait) (2012)

 

Occupation	Kuwaitis	Arabs	Asians	Africans	Europeans	North Americans	South Americans	Aus.- Oceanians	Total N.-K.	Grand total
Legislators, senior officials and managers	10,495	37,325	23,327	250	1,348	1,636	119	139	64,144	74,639
Professionals	70,922	73,207	26,885	295	2,088	2,093	156	225	104,949	175,871
Technicians and associate professionals	57,223	18,764	40,012	129	651	2,263	55	35	61,909	119,132
Clerks	158,050	64,789	42,280	468	613	561	67	44	108,822	266,872
Service workers and shop and market sales workers	67,455	96,093	489,129	57,760	650	810	89	46	644,577	712,032
Skilled agricultural and fishery workers	136	4,201	7,503	363	2	0	0	0	12,069	12,205
Craft and related trades workers	9,885	44,794	109,620	158	265	445	35	12	155,329	165,214
Production supervisors and foremen	5,139	55,035	248,892	736	367	2,444	48	12	307,534	312,673
Regular work professionals	126	96,144	212,294	1,452	196	446	20	11	310,563	310,689
Not Stated	7,652	39,226	50,545	1,559	1,252	1,496	53	110	94,241	101,893
Total	387,083	529,578	1,250,487	63,170	7,432	12,194	642	634	1,864,137	2,251,220

Source: PACI

 

ANNEXED NOTE

1. Characteristics of data and definitions

The source of data used here is the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI), an independant government body in charge of :

1- centralising all population and labour force data in order to manage a fully computerised population register

2- issuing mandatory civil identification cards to every resident of the country, regardless of age and nationality.

The other source of demographic and socioeconomic data on Kuwait is the Central Statistical Office (CSO), operating within the Planning Ministry. The CSO has conducted ten population and housing censuses since its inception in 1957.

Since 1995 a marked discrepancy was witnessed between PACI’ and CSO’ population figures. PACI’ database is connected electronically with other administrations and bodies registering demographic events and professional/ residency issues (births and death; departures and arrivals; end of service, residency and ID deliveries, etc.).

PACI’s records of residents’ movements is thus regularly updated, which limits the risk of population overcount. Therefore, it is more likely that residents were undercounted during CSO- Ministry of Planning’s census operations (see: Shah, N. Population of Kuwait. Structure and Dynamics, Kuwait: Kuwait University Academic Publication Council, 2010, chapter 1).

(a) Kuwaiti: the Kuwaiti nationality rests upon a document of Kuwaiti nationality or a certificate proving Kuwaiti nationality issued by the Ministry of Interior of Kuwait.

(b) Non-Kuwaiti: his/ her nationality is determined by the name of the State having issued the passport. The foreign national also entered Kuwait legally and has a stamp of residence.

This category includes the Bidoon, a category of stateless persons living in the Emirate. Kuwait’s Bidoon population originates from three broad categories:

1) those whose ancestors failed to apply for nationality or lacked necessary documentation at the time of Kuwait’s independence in 1961;

2) those recruited to work in Kuwait’s army or police force during the 1960s who permanently settled in Kuwait, along with their families;

3) children of Kuwaiti mothers and stateless or foreign fathers (see Human Rights Watch. Prisoners of the Past. Kuwaiti Bidun and the Burden of Statelessness, June 2011, p. 3).

(c) Population in the labour force: population aged 15 years and above, included in the labour market, either employed (in the government or private sector, as itinerant worker, employed in the domestic sector), or unemployed.

Occupations are categorised according to (slightly adapted) ISCO 88 international classification of occupations (major (1-digit) group titles).

Note: figures of expatriates differ slightly between PACI’s various sources of data (database; tabulated data).

2. Institution which provides data

The Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI)

3. Period of data coverage: December 2012

The database is updated three times a year and the website presents only the most recent data.

4. Data availability

The statistics section of PACI’s website (http://www.paci.gov.kw/en/ (English); http://www.paci.gov.kw/ (Arabic)) provides population and socio-economic data broken down by nationality (Kuwaiti/ non-Kuwaiti). Some data are displayed by nationality groups.

Analytical tables and data crosstabulations are available for download in PDF, html, .png and Excel (.csv) formats.

Date of access: June 2013.