The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers the greater part of the Peninsula.

The majority of the

population of the Peninsula live in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Peninsula contains the world's
largest reserves of oil. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are economically the wealthiest in the
region. Qatar, a small peninsula in the Persian Gulf on the larger peninsula, is home to
the Arabic-language television station Al Jazeera and its English-language subsidiary Al Jazeera
English. Kuwait, on the border with Iraq, is an important country strategically, forming one of the
main staging grounds for coalition forces mounting the United States-led 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Population[edit]
Historical population

Year Pop. ±%

1950 9,481,713 —    

1960 11,788,232 +24.3%

1970 15,319,678 +30.0%

1980 23,286,256 +52.0%

1990 35,167,708 +51.0%

2000 47,466,523 +35.0%

2010 63,364,000 +33.5%

2014 77,584,000 +22.4%

2018 86,221,765 +11.1%

Political Definition: Gulf Cooperation Council

and Yemen
Sources:1950–2000[14] 2000–2014[15]

Historical population (Gulf 4)

Year Pop. ±%

1950 356,235 —    

1970 1,329,168 +273.1%

1990 4,896,491 +268.4%

2010 11,457,000 +134.0%

 2014 17,086,000 +49.1%

2018 18,675,440 +9.3%

Population of 4 smallest (in area) GCC states

with entire coastline in Persian Gulf: UAE,
Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait
Sources:1950–2000[16] 2000–2014[15]

Though historically lightly populated, political Arabia is noted for a high population growth rate –
as the result of both very strong inflows of migrant labor as well as sustained high birth rates. The
population tends to be relatively young and heavily skewed gender ratio dominated by males. In
many states, the number of South Asians exceeds that of the local citizenry. The four smallest
states (by area), which have their entire coastlines on the Persian Gulf, exhibit the world's most
extreme population growth, roughly tripling every 20 years. In 2014, the estimated population of
the Arabian Peninsula was 77,983,936 (including expatriates). [17] The Arabian Peninsula is known
for having one of the most uneven adult sex ratios in the world with females in some regions
(especially the east) constituting only a quarter of vicenarians and tricenarians. [18]
Cities[edit]
The ten most populous cities on the Arabian Peninsula are:

Rank City Population

1  Riyadh 7,231,447

2  Jeddah 4,610,176

3  Kuwait City 3,114,553

4  Sanaa 2,972,988

5  Dubai 2,878,344

6  Mecca 2,042,106

7  Sharjah 1,684,649

8  Muscat 1,549,729

9  Medina 1,488,782

10  Abu Dhabi 1,482,816

Source: 2020[19]