Kuwait’s expat population down by 56,000 in the first half of 2021 – report

The number of expatriates in Kuwait dropped by 56,300 in the first half of 2021, according to official figures.

Kuwait’s total population reached roughly 4.628 million at the end of June 2021, according to the latest demographics and labour force statistics issued by the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI), local consultancy AlShall said in its weekly report.

This means that the population decreased semi-annually by 0.9 per cent (1.8 per cent on an annual basis), the report stated.

The number of Kuwaitis in the country increased by 13,300 during the first half of the year, indicating a growth rate of 1.8 per cent on an annual basis, to reach 1.473 million in total with women (751,600) outnumbering men (721,700).

The percentage of citizens in the total population also increased slightly from 31.3 per cent at the end of 2020 to 31.8 per cent, the report stated.

Meanwhile the number of non-Kuwaitis declined by 56,300 in H1, bringing their total to 3.154 million.

Figures also showed that the country’s population decreased by 2.2 per cent in 2020 compared to growth rates of 3.3 per cent in 2020, 2.7 per cent in 2019 and 2 per cent in 2017.

Kuwait’s population saw an annual decline of 105,700 for the year 2020, the report added.

Earlier this year, figures from PACI had revealed that the number of expat residents in Kuwait fell by 4 per cent in 2020 as roughly 134,000 foreign nationals left the country between January and December 2020.

Meanwhile data released by the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) in early March revealed 19,995 expats had their work permits cancelled between January 12 and March 7 this year.

The Gulf state has seen a drop in expat numbers this year since many of them were stranded outside the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic while others lost their jobs due to the slump in economic conditions.

However, Kuwait has also been aggressively seeking to reduce its expat population as part of efforts to ‘rebalance’ its population.

Read: Kuwait doesn’t want to be an expat-majority nation anymore

Last year, Kuwaiti MPs also called to replace all expat jobs in the government within one year.

Read: Kuwait will not hire expats in the oil sector – minister