Kuwait: Population by nationality group, sex and administrative region (governorate) of residence (December 2015)

Locality Gender Nationality group
Kuwaitis Arabs Asians Africans Europeans N. Americans S. Americans Australians/ Oceanians Total non-Kuwaitis Total
Capital Governorate Males 115,876 49,166 134,393 895 869 996 80 79 186,478 302,354
Females 122,394 22,863 87,425 9,646 800 843 51 47 121,675 244,069
Total 238,270 72,029 221,818 10,541 1,669 1,839 131 126 308,153 546,423
Hawalli  Governorate Males 110,279 221,669 163,851 1,148 4,393 5,207 331 491 397,090 507,369
Females 113,565 134,737 139,215 11,390 4,280 4,266 275 405 294,568 408,133
Total 223,844 356,406 303,066 12,538 8,673 9,473 606 896 691,658 915,502
 Al-Ahmadi Governorate Males 136,924 106,973 331,673 2,019 2,217 5,013 241 207 448,343 585,267
Females 140,079 54,053 88,632 6,948 1,224 1,919 171 134 153,081 293,160
Total 277,003 161,026 420,305 8,967 3,441 6,932 412 341 601,424 878,427
Al-jahra Governorate Males 90,434 111,695 89,669 1,438 210 250 119 68 203,449 293,883
Females 94,966 85,476 35,648 7,018 187 206 73 49 128,657 223,623
Total 185,400 197,171 125,317 8,456 397 456 192 117 332,106 517,506
Al-Farwaniya Governorate Males 112,987 278,078 394,081 2,236 632 650 131 84 675,892 788,879
Females 118,967 92,576 123,661 8,399 455 482 84 53 225,710 344,677
Total 231,954 370,654 517,742 10,635 1,087 1,132 215 137 901,602 1,133,556
Mubarak Al-Kabeer Governorate Males 74,637 9,408 39,956 253 241 239 30 22 50,149 124,786
Females 76,238 7,399 28,833 4,658 333 215 33 16 41,487 117,725
Total 150,875 16,807 68,789 4,911 574 454 63 38 91,636 242,511
  Not Stated   Males 145 1,894 856 14 35 56 3 5 2,863 3,008
Females 114 1,552 315 22 22 45 2 1 1,959 2,073
Total 259 3,446 1,171 36 57 101 5 6 4,822 5,081
Total Males 641,282 778,883 1,154,479 8,003 8,597 12,411 935 956 1,964,264 2,605,546
Females 666,323 398,656 503,729 48,081 7,301 7,976 689 705 967,137 1,633,460
Total 1,307,605 1,177,539 1,658,208 56,084 15,898 20,387 1,624 1,661 2,931,401 4,239,006

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 which 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).
(The children of Kuwaiti mothers and non-Kuwaiti fathers (with specific nationality) inherit the father’s nationality. They are stateless if the father is stateless).

(c) Nationality group: collected according to the nationality of the head of the household.
Nationalities are grouped according to specific features common to certain population subgroups: language, geographic origin, etc. or according to internationally recognized categories such as: (Arab / non-Arab Asian countries / non-Arab African countries; European countries … etc.).

2. Institution which provides data

The Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI)

3. Period of data coverage: 31 December 2015

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.
The “publications” section also proposes a selection of data tables processed thematically in downloadable Excel and PDF format (English and Arabic):
https://www.paci.gov.kw/stat/GeneralStat.aspx
The present data is in the “Population” file.

Date of access: May 2016