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

Nationals
Bahrain Kuwait* Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia UAE
males females males females males females males females males females males females
Illiterate N.A. N.A. 2,267 21,773 N.A. N.A. 79 2,831 98,846 352,870 N.A. N.A.
Reads and writes 4,099 7,006 4,537 5,530 233,657 637,215
Primary 97,375 79,240 7,072 6,568 582,248 687,350
Preparatory/ Intermediate/vocational 136,435 111,715 16,572 17,361 1,302,119 1,258,266
Secondary 97,141 100,401 34,873 26,346 2,982,586 2,321,605
Post-Secondary/ Pre-Univ. Diploma 41,834 53,848 3,139 3,966 434,094 195,699
University/ BA 46,719 83,643 28,046 36,660 1,157,165 1,247,805
Master degree/ Higher Diploma 3,552 1,583 67,079 24,128
Ph.D 19,166 4,097
Not Stated/other 58,387 60,034
Total 487,809 519,243 94,318 99,262 6,876,960 6,729,035

 

Foreign nationals
Bahrain Kuwait* Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia UAE
males females males females males females males females males females males females
Illiterate N.A. N.A. 68,536 39,285 N.A. N.A. 26,395 4,055 85,087 48,138 N.A. N.A.
Reads and writes 696,514 286,809 204,228 33,885 745,172 369,270
Primary 125,193 72,029 370,766 57,824 1,238,525 405,801
Preparatory/ Intermediate/vocational 501,764 186,149 533,614 60,381 2,064,411 722,718
Secondary 183,033 96,695 298,791 75,977 1,574,424 778,323
Post-Secondary/ Pre-Univ. Diploma 40,576 18,729 84,720 20,121 387,645 101,544
University 85,073 51,426 234,738 107,614 1,025,418 447,624
Master degree/ Higher Diploma 4,721 1,747 71,693 25,948
Ph.D 38,283 16,096
Not Stated/other 230,750 85,317
Total 1,936,160 838,186 1,753,252 359,857 7,230,658 2,915,462

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.