GCC: National and foreign populations (aged 15 and above) by educational status (2016)

Nationals
Bahrain Kuwait* Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia UAE
Illiterate N.A. 24,040 N.A. 3,616 451,716 N.A.
Reads and writes 11,105 10,067 870,872
Primary 176,615 13,640 1,269,598
Preparatory/ Intermediate/vocational 248,150 33,933 2,560,385
Secondary 197,542 61,219 5,304,191
Post-Secondary/ Pre-Univ. Diploma 95,682 7,105 629,793
University 130,362 64,706 2,404,970
Master degree/ Higher Diploma 5,135 91,207
Ph.D 23,263
Not Stated/other 118,421
Total 1,007,052 194,286 13,605,995

 

Foreign nationals
Bahrain Kuwait* Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia UAE
Illiterate N.A. 107,821 N.A. 30,450 133,225 N.A.
Reads and writes 983,323 238,113 1,114,442
Primary 197,222 428,590 1,644,326
Preparatory/ Intermediate/vocational 687,913 593,995 2,787,129
Secondary 279,728 374,768 2,352,747
Post-Secondary/ Pre-Univ. Diploma 59,305 104,841 489,189
University 136,499 342,352 1,473,042
Master degree/ Higher Diploma 6,468 97,641
Ph.D 54,379
Not Stated/other 316,067
Total 2,774,346 2,113,109 10,146,120

Sources: see below.
 
ANNEXED NOTE
 
Sources: 
Saudi Arabia: GLMM calculations, based on the published results of Labour Force Survey 2016 (Q3, Aug. 2016), General Authority for Statistics (GAStat).
https://www.stats.gov.sa/en/814
Qatar: Annual Bulletin of Labor Force Sample survey 2016 (yearly synthesis), Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics
http://www.mdps.gov.qa/en/statistics/Statistical%20Releases/Social/LaborForce/2016/Labour_force_2016_AE.pdf.
Kuwait: Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) records (December 2016).
(http://www.paci.gov.kw/en/ (English); http://www.paci.gov.kw/ (Arabic))

Oman, Bahrain, UAE: no data available for the year 2016.

Definitions:
Levels of educational attainment are adapted from ISCED classification.
The educational attainment level of an individual is the highest ISCED level successfully completed.
Categories’ labels were standardised. Each country’s data were redistributed under the new labels.

* Kuwait: population aged 10 and above.

Table as of 11 November 2017.