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

An international independent, non-partisan, non-profit programme hosted and supported by the Gulf Research Center. The programme provides data, analyses, and recommendations contributing to the improvement of understanding and management of Gulf labour migration, population, and labour markets, engaging with and respecting the viewpoints of all stakeholders.

Labour force by nationality (Kuwaiti/ non-Kuwaiti), activity sector and sector of economic activity (Total) (2013)

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Nationality  Kuwaitis Non-Kuwaitis Total
Economic Activity/ sector Governmental Non-governmental Total Governmental Non-governmental Total Governmental Non-governmental Total
Agriculture hunting and forestry 6 436 442 29 36,079 36,108 35 36,515 36,550
Mining and quarrying 5,123 204 5,327 456 1,515 1,971 5,579 1,719 7,298
Manufacturing 3,011 3,960 6,971 2,867 112,430 115,297 5,878 116,390 122,268
Electricity, gas and water supply 14,491 0 14,491 1,790 74 1,864 16,281 74 16,355
Construction 89 12,652 12,741 58 204,429 204,487 147 217,081 217,228
Wholesale and retail trade 178 13,748 13,926 227 282,450 282,677 405 296,198 296,603
Hotels and restaurants 174 1,950 2,124 262 67,363 67,625 436 69,313 69,749
Transport,  storage and communications 3,944 4,392 8,336 2,636 55,981 58,617 6,580 60,373 66,953
Financial intermediation 1,679 7,837 9,516 434 12,907 13,341 2,113 20,744 22,857
Real estate,  renting and business activities 2,912 10,884 13,796 639 92,501 93,140 3,551 103,385 106,936
Public administration and defence, compulsory social security 234,700 11 234,711 83,998 82 84,080 318,698 93 318,791
Education 30,111 1,820 31,931 12,612 23,974 36,586 42,723 25,794 68,517
Health and social work 11,184 605 11,789 17,410 12,575 29,985 28,594 13,180 41,774
Other community, social and personal service activities 1,119 2,854 3,973 2,506 97,179 99,685 3,625 100,033 103,658
Private households with employed persons 3 190 193 223 561,986 562,209 226 562,176 562,402
Extra-territorial organizations and bodies 9 16 25 2,395 707 3,102 2,404 723 3,127
Not Stated 684 39,280 39,964 1,245 268,779 270,024 1,929 308,059 309,988
Total 309,417 100,839 410,256 129,787 1,831,011 1,960,798 439,204 1,931,850 2,371,054

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.

 

(d) Government sector: any organization of the government (organizations, authority and departments), included within the state budget

(Ministries and government departments; authorities with attached budgets; authorities with independent budgets).

 

(e) Non-governmental sector: any part of the private sector (a company or an individual) or any authority of the non-governmental sector.

 

(f) Domestic sector: the household/ family sector, where the work is associated with the residence and its inhabitants, their service and their comfort (including maids, nannies, cooks, drivers, etc.).

The “domestic sector” data is merged with the “non-governmental sector”. A proxy estimate of workers in the domestic sector can be inferred from the number of workers in the category “Private households with employed persons”, or see table http://gulfmigration.eu/employed-population-by-nationality-kuwaiti-non-kuwaiti-activity-sector-and-sex-2013/ .

 

Presented data include unemployed population.

 

Economic activities are categorised according to ISIC( Rev. 3) international classification of occupations.

 

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 2013

 

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: April 2014.

 

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