Saudi Arabia data questions answered
The 15 questions people search most about Saudi Arabia's official figures, each answered from the body that publishes them, with a link to check the latest number yourself.
What is the population of Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia's population was 35,300,280 in 2024, according to the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) population estimates shown on its home page on 13 October 2026. The World Bank's World Development Indicators give 36,973,555 for 2025.
The total includes both Saudi citizens and non-Saudi residents, who make up a large share of the population and of the workforce. GASTAT's estimates build on the 2022 census and are updated each year; they are published with breakdowns by nationality, sex and age. Year-to-year changes are driven heavily by migration of foreign workers, so the total can rise or fall faster than births and deaths alone would suggest.
What is the inflation rate in Saudi Arabia?
Annual consumer price inflation in Saudi Arabia was 1.8% in August 2026, according to GASTAT's CPI release of 15 September 2026. Prices for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels rose 3.9%, food and beverages 1.4% and transport 2.0%. Compared with July 2026, the index rose 0.1%.
The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels group, which includes rents, was the largest driver named in the August release. The riyal's fixed link to the US dollar means imported inflation depends partly on the dollar. GASTAT publishes the CPI monthly along with a wholesale price index.
What is Saudi Arabia's GDP growth?
GASTAT's home page gave real GDP growth of -4.7% for the second quarter of 2026 on 13 October 2026, after growth of 3.0% in the first quarter, according to GASTAT's Q1 2026 GDP release. In US dollars, the World Bank puts Saudi GDP at US$1.277 trillion in 2025.
GASTAT splits GDP into oil activities, non-oil activities and government activities. Because oil output follows OPEC+ production decisions, the headline rate can swing sharply even when the non-oil economy grows steadily, so check the non-oil figure for claims about economic diversification. GASTAT issues a flash estimate about a month after each quarter, followed by a fuller release that can revise it.
What is the unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia?
The unemployment rate for Saudi nationals was 6.5% in the second quarter of 2026, according to GASTAT's main indicators on 13 October 2026.
GASTAT's quarterly Labour Force Survey reports separate rates for Saudis and for the total population including non-Saudis. The total rate is much lower, because most non-Saudi residents are in the country on work visas, so make sure a claim uses the right one. The World Bank's modelled ILO estimate for the whole population was 3.0% in 2025. GASTAT also publishes rates by sex, which differ substantially.
What is the interest rate in Saudi Arabia?
The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) raised its repo rate by 25 basis points to 4.50% and its reverse repo rate by 25 basis points to 4.00%, according to a SAMA announcement dated 16 September 2026. SAMA had cut the repo rate to 4.25% and the reverse repo to 3.75% in an earlier decision.
SAMA's rate decisions usually follow those of the US Federal Reserve, because the riyal is linked to the dollar. Bank lending rates and the Saudi interbank offered rate (SAIBOR) move with the policy rates but are set in the market. SAMA publishes its decisions as news releases on its website.
What is Saudi Arabia's GDP per capita?
Saudi Arabia's GDP per person was US$34,536.66 in 2025, according to the World Bank's World Development Indicators. It divides GDP at current prices, in dollars, by the mid-year population.
Because the riyal is linked to the dollar, exchange-rate movements matter less than in most countries, but oil prices move nominal GDP a great deal from year to year. The population used includes non-Saudi residents, many of whom are workers on lower incomes, so GDP per capita is not a measure of what a typical Saudi household earns.
What is the Saudi riyal exchange rate?
The Saudi riyal is linked to the US dollar under the exchange-rate policy run by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), which publishes its policy and exchange-rate statistics on its website. The official rate could not be read on a SAMA page on 13 October 2026, so it is not quoted here.
Because of the link to the dollar, the riyal's rate against other currencies, such as the euro or the pound, moves with the dollar's own rate against them. Banks and exchange houses quote their own buying and selling rates around the reference rate. SAMA's monthly statistical bulletin gives historical rates against major currencies.
What is the average salary in Saudi Arabia?
GASTAT publishes average monthly wages for employees in its Labour Market Statistics, using records from the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) and its Labour Force Survey, with separate figures for Saudis and non-Saudis and by sex and sector. The figures are on GASTAT's website under labour market statistics; they could not be read automatically on 13 October 2026, so none are quoted here.
Average wages for Saudi nationals and for non-Saudi workers differ widely, so a single average for all workers depends heavily on the mix of the workforce. Check whether a figure covers the private sector only, the government sector, or both, and whether it includes allowances.
What is the VAT rate in Saudi Arabia?
Value added tax in Saudi Arabia is administered by the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA), which publishes the VAT law, its implementing regulations and guidelines on its rules and regulations pages. The rate could not be read on a ZATCA page on 13 October 2026, so it is not quoted here.
Saudi Arabia has no personal income tax on salaries. Companies owned by Saudi and GCC nationals pay zakat, and foreign-owned companies pay corporate income tax, under rules also published by ZATCA. When checking a claim about the VAT rate, confirm the date, as the rate has changed since VAT was introduced.
How much debt does Saudi Arabia have?
General government gross debt was 31.8% of GDP in 2025, according to the IMF's World Economic Outlook database, which marks recent years as estimates.
The government's own figures are published by the National Debt Management Center and by the Ministry of Finance in its budget statements and quarterly budget performance reports, which give total public debt in riyals split into domestic and external debt. Comparisons should use the same measure and year, because the IMF's general government measure and the Ministry's central government figures differ in coverage.
What is Saudi Arabia's budget for 2026?
The Ministry of Finance publishes the Budget Statement for each fiscal year, a pre-budget statement in the autumn and quarterly budget performance reports. On 13 October 2026 its budget page listed the Budget Statement 2026, the Q1 2026 budget performance report and the Pre-Budget Statement for FY 2027. The documents could not be read automatically, so no totals are quoted here.
The budget sets planned revenues, spending and the deficit or surplus; actual outcomes in the quarterly performance reports often differ, mostly because oil revenue depends on prices and output.
How many expats live in Saudi Arabia?
GASTAT publishes the number of non-Saudi residents in its annual population estimates and in the 2022 census results, with breakdowns by sex, age and region; its labour market statistics also report non-Saudi workers by sector. The figures are on GASTAT's website; the nationality split could not be read automatically on 13 October 2026, so it is not quoted here.
The total population of 35,300,280 for 2024 shown on GASTAT's home page includes both Saudis and non-Saudis. Counts of workers from labour records, residence permits and household surveys differ in coverage, for example in whether domestic workers are included, so compare like with like.
What is the life expectancy in Saudi Arabia?
Life expectancy at birth in Saudi Arabia was 79.0 years in 2024, according to the World Bank's World Development Indicators.
The figure summarises death rates at every age in a single year and covers the whole resident population. Because non-Saudi residents are mostly working-age adults who often return home when older, the age structure of the population differs from that of citizens; GASTAT publishes its own health and vital statistics for Saudis and non-Saudis. Estimates are revised when new census and registration data arrive.
What is the birth rate in Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia's crude birth rate was 16.5 births per 1,000 people in 2024, according to the World Bank's World Development Indicators, and the total fertility rate was 2.31 births per woman, according to the World Bank.
The crude birth rate is calculated over the whole population, including non-Saudi workers, many of whom live in the country without their families; this lowers it compared with the rate among Saudi citizens. GASTAT publishes birth statistics and fertility for Saudis separately in its demographic and vital statistics releases.
Is Saudi Arabia safe? What is the crime rate?
97.7% of the population said they feel safe walking alone at night in their residential area, according to GASTAT's Safety Index results announced on 29 June 2026. GASTAT reported that this placed Saudi Arabia first among G20 countries on country-reported data in the UN Sustainable Development Goals Indicators Database.
This is a survey measure of perceived safety, which is SDG indicator 16.1.4, not a count of recorded crimes. Counts of reported crimes come from the Ministry of Interior and the Public Prosecution, and court statistics from the Ministry of Justice. Perception surveys and crime records measure different things, so a claim should say which one it uses.
Source guides
- General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT)
- Saudi Central Bank (SAMA)
- Ministry of Finance, Saudi Arabia
- Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA)
Questions were chosen from the searches people make most about this country's figures, and each answer was written from the official page it links to, read on 14 October 2026. These answers give no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request.