Gulf Labour Markets, Migration, and Population (GLMM) Programme

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GCC: Some estimates of foreign residents in GCC states by country of citizenship (selected countries, last available date, 2015-2018)

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Nationality Bahrain  Kuwait Oman Qatar UAE
(mid-2018)  (end 2018) (mid-2017) (c.2016) (c. 2015)
Afghanistan 22 3,500 – 4,000 150,000
Azerbaijan 22 120 7,000
Bangladesh 133,375 281,131 718,856 280,000 700,000
Bhutan 74
China 1,011 >10,000 200,000
India 316,784 1,012,104 766,735 650,000 2,600,000
Indonesia 744 2,946* 14,155 43,000 85,000
Iran, Islamic Rep. of 243 30,000 400– 500,000***
Japan 140 944 2,603
Kazakhstan 21 200 5,000 – 6,000
Korea, Republic of 147 2,000 10,000
Kyrgyzstan 47 330
Malaysia 211 4,848 6,000 – 7,000
Myanmar 175
Nepal 16,757 70,378 16,580 >350,000 300,000
Pakistan 58,877 109,427 268,868 125,000 1,200,000
Philippines 36,796 213,989 45,213 260,000 525,530
Singapore 40 300 >2,000
Sri Lanka 5,922 93,749 20,003 145,256 300,000
Taiwan 9 400
Thailand 1,698 4,500 10,000
Turkey 1,610 8,000 10,000
Uzbekistan 52
Viet Nam 86 2,000
Asia 1,868,208
Algeria 102 5,000 10,000
Egypt 24,569 670,524 46,970 200,000 400,000***
Iraq 472 8,976 52,000
Jordan 7,791 40,000 200,000
Kuwait 36
Lebanon 987 24,000 100,000***
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 55
Mauritania 54 5,000
Morocco 1,489
Oman 174
Qatar 19
Saudi Arabia 396 127,604
Sudan 1,113 50,000 75,000
Syria 3,599 160,120 54,000
Tunisia 712 20,000
United Arab Emirates 19
West bank and Gaza strip 277 20,000 150,000
Yemen 5,720 90,000
Arab countries 1,261,062
Benin 4 82
Cameroon 204
Central African Rep. 130
Chad 12 200
Eritrea 35 10,000 3,000
Ethiopia 1,160 18,905* 13,572 22,000 90,000
Gambia 106 135
Ghana 771 2,231* 5,000 500
Ivory Coast 5 3,036*
Kenya 1,618 14,000 40,000
Liberia 40
Madagascar 2 3,589*
Mali 12
Mauritius 27
Nigeria 115 7,500
Senegal 22 a few hundreds 700 – 800
Seychelles 27
Somalia 58 70,000
South Africa 436 6,000 100,000
Tanzania, United Rep. of 88 17,077
Uganda 756 20,886 3,000
Zambia 4
Zimbabwe 57
Africa 47,227
Albania 63 1,200 200 – 300
Austria 42 500 2,500
Belarus 56 200 2,500
Belgium 61 600 3,000
Bosnia and Herzegovina 16 1,000 – 2,000
Bulgaria 319 500
Croatia 21 500
Cyprus 94 1,000
Czech Republic 24 100 1,500
Denmark 34 900 3,000 – 4,000
Finland 9 200 1,180
France 389 5,000 25,000
Germany 212 2,000 12,000
Greece 141 2,200 5,000
Hungary 35 300 2,500
Ireland 288 2,000 7,000
Italy 200 2,100 10,000
Latvia 3 10 300
Macedonia 1,000
Moldova, Rep. of 12 154
Netherlands 75 1,432 5,000
Norway 12 160 1,184
Poland 82 700 – 800 2,348
Portugal 93 1,500
Romania 136 2,500
Russian Federation 144 2,000
Serbia and Montenegro 9 2,000 5,000
Slovakia 37 100 1,000
Slovenia 4 100 – 150
Spain 107 3,500 12,000
Sweden 102 527 4,000
Switzerland 148 250 2,430
Ukraine 159 1,000 5,000
United Kingdom 4,190 25,000 120,000
Europe 18,076
United States 897 >11,000** 50,000
Canada 428 9,000 40,000
North America 20,513
Argentina 7 400
Brazil 91 1,500
Chile 12 270
Colombia 42 200
Cuba 7 600
Dominican Republic 3 44 2,000-3,000
Ecuador 8 100
El Salvador 7 100
Mexico 48 400 3,000 – 3,500
Peru 7 300
Venezuela 43 337 1,200
South and Latin America 1,813
Australia 297 5,500 16,000
New Zealand 134 989 444
Australia and Oceania 1,626
Other/Unclassified 11,429 105,679 21 100
Total foreign nationals 648,873 3,218,525 2,054,594 n.a. n.a.

ANNEXED NOTE
 
1. Technical Notes and Definitions

* Domestic labourers only.
**Only Military personnel. Data for overall US population in Qatar not available
*** 2013 data.
Blank cell means data was not available.

Estimates for Saudi Arabia were not included here.
See section POP 1.2 in the Saudi Arabia page for some estimates and ranges of foreign residents by country of nationality.

2. Characteristics and sources of data/ estimates:

Bahrain:
Expatriate management system (EMS) of LMRA, quarterly data. Figures were calculated by the author using the following datasets:
http://blmi.lmra.bh/2018/06/data/ems/Table_07a.xls (workers) and http://blmi.lmra.bh/2018/06/data/ems/Table_60.xls (family dependents).
These estimates of foreign residents are inferred from figures of expat visa issuances (GCC workers are not included).
EMS data include domestic workers but exclude work visas for artists and certain other categories of workers in non-civilian organisations
(Armed Forces, for instance).

Kuwait:
Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) data (administrative records).
https://www.paci.gov.kw/stat/

Oman:
NCSI. Population Statistics, Issue 7, 2018.
Data is taken from administrative records.

Qatar:
Data from foreign embassies and press sources (national or foreign officials), in:
SNOJ, J. Population of Qatar by nationality – 2017 report, Priya DSouza Consultancy, February 2017.
http://priyadsouza.com/population-of-qatar-by-nationality-in-2017/
However, the current figures were found to match official records from the Qatari Interior Ministry (residency documents).
Figures for the total foreign population cannot be included, since the estimates miss certain countries,
and were released for various dates of reference.

UAE:
Data from foreign embassies and press sources (national or foreign officials), in:
Snoj, Jure. “UAE’s population- by nationality”, BQ Magazine, Doha, April 12, 2015.
http://www.bq-magazine.com/economy/socioeconomics/2015/04/uae-population-by-nationality
(link dead). For details on the original publication, see:
https://gulfmigration.grc.net/uae-estimates-of-population-residing-in-the-uae-by-country-of-citizenship-selected-countries-2014/
Figures for the total foreign population cannot be included, since the estimates miss certain countries,
and were released for various dates of reference.

Last date of access: May 2019.

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