Saudi Arabia Country Profile Facts

Saudi Arabia, a sovereign state, is the 5th largest country in Asia. ABD AL-AZIZ bin Abd al-Rahman Al Saud captured Riyadh in 1902 and made propaganda for 30 years to combine Arabian Peninsula. The country’s fundamental law signifies that the country will be on the hands of sons and grandsons of the kingdom founder. Saudi Arabia accepted the Kuwaiti royal family and 4, 00,000 refugees during Iraq’s invasion. For Kuwaiti independence, it allowed Arab troops on its land. Due to the operation desert storm, the presence of foreign forces on its soil became a high tension among the Saudi royal family and the public. The stress among Saudi’s slowly decreased after the US military moved to Qatar in 2003. In May and November 2003, there were terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia to prevent terrorism and extremism, Saudi Government dealing with new initiatives. It results in the media freedom boom and government plan announcement for partial political representation plans. After the invention of petroleum in 1938, the Government’s concern was only about its economy, which was highly dependent on petroleum output and prices. About 571 CE(Common Era), the Islamic prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca. He united all tribes of the peninsula to create a single Muslim religion, after his death in 632 CE(Common Era), his followers expanded the Muslim faith and captured more territory.

Land

With Riyadh as capital, Saudi has a total area of 2,149,690 square kilometers. The Gulf of Aqaba separates Saudi  from Egypt & Israel. The Red Sea and the Persian Gulf is the central coast of the country. It has its border as Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Oman, and Yemen. Saudi Arabia has four central regions, namely Hejaz, Najd, Eastern Arabia, and Southern Arabia. Among these, Hejaz is a highly populated region.

Population

Saudi Arabia with 33.4 million populations in 2018 was reached to 34.2 million in 2019. According to the UN Data in 2019, the population density is 15.9 people per square kilometers, the life expectancy at birth of male was 73.1 years and female are 76 years. The sex ratio is 136.6 males per 100 females.

Religion

Islam is the central religious belief for Saudi citizens. The reason for the rise of other religions in Saudi was due to foreign workers who came to Saudi Arabia for temporary work. About 75-90% of Saudi citizens are Sunni Muslims, and the remaining 10-25% are Shia Muslims.

Languages

Arabic is the official language, but on the other hand, it is varied among Saudi citizens. Hejazi Arabic, Najdi Arabic, and Gulf Arabic are the variants of Arabic spoken among Saudi’s. Foreign workers speak other languages as their own.

Economy

According to the World-Bank report, Saudi Arabia is a high-income economy and is the 18th largest in the world. Over the past few years, Saudi Arabia became the world’s largest oil producer and oil exporter. Its oil reserves are the second largest after Venezuela , and gas reserves are the fifth-largest after United States of America in the world. Saudi Arabia is the only Arab country that plays a significant part in G-20 economies. In the 2019 estimate, the GDP (nominal) was $779.289 billion, and GDP (PPP) was $1.924 trillion. Saudi Arabia has a very high Human Development Index value of 0.857 in 2018. The economy is the highest in the Middle East. For military expenditure, it ranks 3rd in the world.

Saudi Arabia Country Code : SA

Saudi Arabia Country Dialing Code: +966