The State of Qatar is a very rich and rather small country in Western Asia that is mostly known for its natural resources and for the state-owned airline Qatar Airways, which is considered one of the best airlines in the world.
Recently, Qatar has become the center of attention because it was selected as the host country of the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup, an extremely popular sports event. However, there is more to Qatar than just a sports competition.
Qatar is a highly-developed country that is rich in economic terms but also cultural and historically speaking. In this article, we’re going to show you some interesting facts about Qatar!
Qatar Facts
1. Qatar is one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
According to a report issued in 2019 by the USA Today, Qatar is the richest country in the whole world, mostly thanks to its abundance in resources such as petrol and natural gas. Qatar’s Gross National Income (GNI) per capita — GNI is the total amount of money that a country has earned — in 2019 was $116,799, which is $20,000 more than the second richest country in the world, Macao, China.
On top of that, Qatar also has one of the highest GDPs (Gross Domestic Product) in the world at approximately $70,000 per capita. The higher the GDP, the higher the standard of living, which means that people living in Qatar are some of the wealthiest on the planet!
2. This country has one of the lowest unemployment rates among all countries.
Due to its small population — approximately 2,7 million people — and extremely rich economy, Qatar had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world at 0,1% in 2019, a fun fact about Qatar.
On top of that, Qatar had an HDI (Human Development Index) of 0.848 in 2019, which falls under the ‘very high human development’ category. The HDI assesses life expectancy, knowledge level of the citizens, and the GNI of a country. The higher the HDI, the better it is to live in that country.
Out of 189 territories and countries that were assessed by the United Nations Development Programme, Qatar ranked 41st in the Human Development Index ranking.
3. The State of Qatar owns one of the world’s largest airlines.
Qatar Airways is a 5-time champion of the title of Airline of the Year due to its exceptionally great performance and it has over 160 travel destinations.
Qatar Airways’ headquarters is located in the country’s capital, Doha, and its flights are based in the Hamad International Airport, which is known, among other reasons, for a peculiar and quite large teddy bear sculpture on display at the airport’s shopping hall. The sculpture is known as the ‘Lamp Bear’.
On top of that, Qatar Airways sponsors sports teams such as the widely known Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and the popular South American soccer team Boca Juniors.
4. It has no forests.
Because Qatar has a total area of approximately 11,500 km² — that’s a smaller area than that of the largely-inhabited Los Angeles County, California — and it is located in an area of hot, dry desert, this highly-developed country is unable to grow forests.
Forests require lots of space and lots of water so that trees can grow healthily, and you can’t find much water in a desert region like Qatar, where streets need artificial irrigation in order to avoid getting too hot.
According to The World Bank, this country is one of the six countries where there are absolutely no forests, an interesting fact about Qatar. However, Qatar does have an artificial forest in the works and it will be the largest man-made forest in the whole world with over 90,000 trees!
5. Its population is made up of way more men than women.
Because Qatar is a small country, its population is proportionally small. With approximately 2,7 million people living in Qatar, it falls behind cities like London and New York in terms of population.
According to the 2015 Census, there were 1,816,981 men and only 587,795 women, which means that for every 1 woman, there are 3 men in this country, a fun Qatar fact. This is mostly due to the fact that most of the country’s population is made up of immigrants, most of whom are male.
6. There are more immigrants in Qatar than native Qataris.
Due to the fact that Qatar has a small population and is very rich in resources, many people from other countries migrate from their homes to work in Qatar.
Because of this large influx of expatriates moving to Qatar, the country’s population in mid-2015 — this was the time when their most recent Census took place — was made up of approximately 300,000 Qataris whereas there were over 2,1 million non-Qataris. Indians make up for most of the migrant population in Qatar.
Most of the population in Qatar live in cities, making it a very urbanized country.
7. Qatar has been ruled by the same monarch family for over 150 years.
The Al Thani family has been ruling Qatar since the 19th century, with Muhammad bin Thani being the first ruler of the Qatari peninsula. His son, Jassim bin Muhammad Al Thani, founded the modern State of Qatar in 1878.
Since then, the Al Thani family has been ruling Qatar, taking part in several political activities and they are responsible for leading the country into becoming the wealthiest nation in the world. The current ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has been in occupying the most important position in the country since 2013.
8. This country will be the first Arab country to host the FIFA World Cup.
Although Qatar is not one of the traditional countries in football, it will be the host country of the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup, becoming the first Arab country to do so, an interesing Qatar fact. It is on the process of building eight stadiums with a modern and impressive design to host the matches.
Because the country’s temperature is pretty high, the dates of the competition have been re-scheduled and instead of taking place in June-July, the World Cup will happen during November-December, which is when the temperature of the country is more “foreigner-friendly”.
Conclusion
Although it is a small country, Qatar is the wealthiest nation in the world thanks to being rich in natural resources such as petroleum. With a population of approximately 2,7 million people, this country is made up of a mixture of cultures due to a huge influx of workers coming from all over the world to live in Qatar.
Displaying a modern architecture, Qatar is one of the safest places in the world and also one of the best places to live, according to its high HDI. Thanks to its positive figures, the country will be the first Arab country to host a FIFA World Cup event.
It is certainly worth it to get to know more about Qatar before the entire world turns its attention to this tiny and well-developed country in 2022!
I hope that this article on Qatar facts was helpful. If you are interested, visit the Country Facts Page!
