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

Nationality Group	Kuwaitis			Non-Kuwaitis			Total
Economic Activity/ sector	Governmental	Non-governmental	Total	Governmental	Non-governmental	Total	Governmental	Non-governmental	Total
Agriculture hunting and forestry	3	192	195	19	35,514	35,533	22	35,706	35,728
Mining and quarrying	4,300	122	4,422	430	1,464	1,894	4,730	1,586	6,316
Manufacturing	2,761	2,031	4,792	2,823	106,560	109,383	5,584	108,591	114,175
Electricity, gas and water supply	11,432	0	11,432	1,702	71	1,773	13,134	71	13,205
Construction	64	6,840	6,904	50	195,409	195,459	114	202,249	202,363
Wholesale and retail trade	138	6,599	6,737	170	258,535	258,705	308	265,134	265,442
Hotels and restaurants	84	649	733	253	59,381	59,634	337	60,030	60,367
Transport, storage and communications	3,025	2,781	5,806	1,731	53,618	55,349	4,756	56,399	61,155
Financial intermediation	826	4,445	5,271	341	10,638	10,979	1,167	15,083	16,250
Real estate, renting and business activities	2,544	7,359	9,903	605	82,131	82,736	3,149	89,490	92,639
Public administration and defence, compulsory social security	131,778	2	131,780	60,655	60	60,715	192,433	62	192,495
Education	6,958	364	7,322	7,024	10,203	17,227	13,982	10,567	24,549
Health and social work	3,695	241	3,936	6,508	5,115	11,623	10,203	5,356	15,559
Other community, social and personal service activities	683	1,159	1,842	2,015	72,130	74,145	2,698	73,289	75,987
Private households with employed persons	3	130	133	194	265,423	265,617	197	265,553	265,750
Extra-territorial organizations and bodies	4	3	7	1,796	521	2,317	1,800	524	2,324
Not Stated	404	16,125	16,529	817	234,056	234,873	1,221	250,181	251,402
Total	168,702	49,042	217,744	87,133	1,390,829	1,477,962	255,835	1,439,871	1,695,706

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.