Saudi Arabia’s total population crossed 35.3 million by mid-2024, but that headline number obscures the single most important fact about the country’s demographic makeup: expatriates account for roughly 78 percent of everyone actually employed in the Kingdom, according to Saudi labor market data compiled through 2025, even though Saudi citizens still make up a majority, 55.6 percent, of total residents. Saudi Arabia is not one population. It is two overlapping populations, citizens and noncitizen residents, that behave completely differently across nearly every demographic and economic measure that matters.
Saudi Arabia’s Population Has Two Very Different Demographic Components
The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) reported that Saudi citizens numbered approximately 19.6 million by mid-2024, up from 19.3 million a year earlier, while non-Saudi residents reached approximately 15.7 million, up from 14.5 million.
Non-Saudis accounted for 75.6 percent of the total population increase during that one-year period, a figure that illustrates how heavily Saudi Arabia’s overall population growth is now driven by migration rather than citizen births.
Population at a Glance
| Metric | Saudi Citizens | Non-Saudi Residents | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population (mid-2024) | 19.6 million | 15.7 million | 35.3 million |
| Share of total population | 55.6% | 44.4% | 100% |
| Share of 0-14 age group | 33.5% | 8.6% | — |
| Share of working-age (15-64) population | 62.7% | 89.9%* | — |
| Fertility rate (births per 1,000 women) | 2.7 | 0.8 | 2.0 (total) |
The age structure difference is the clearest signal of how differently these two populations are built. Saudi citizens have a population pyramid shaped by births, deaths, and a citizen fertility rate around 2.7, still meaningfully above replacement level.
Non-Saudi residents have a population shape driven almost entirely by labor migration: overwhelmingly working-age, disproportionately male, and with a fertility rate of just 0.8, reflecting a population that is largely present to work rather than to settle and raise families in the Kingdom long-term.
How Large Is Saudi Arabia’s Migrant Population?
Estimates of Saudi Arabia’s total foreign population vary somewhat by source and methodology, but GASTAT’s official count put non-Saudi residents at approximately 15.7 million by mid-2024. Separately, estimates of the foreign workforce specifically, which excludes non-working dependents, commonly range from 11 million to 13 million as of 2025, reflecting different definitions of who counts as a foreign worker versus a foreign resident.
The workforce concentration figure is the more striking one. According to Saudi labor market data cited by economic analysts tracking the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 reforms, expatriates made up roughly 78 percent of all employed people in Saudi Arabia as of 2025, and closer to 95 percent of private-sector employment specifically, a share that has remained persistently high despite more than a decade of active Saudization policy.
Within that expatriate workforce, domestic workers alone numbered 3.97 million by the third quarter of 2024, split between roughly 2.73 million men and 1.25 million women, and this category falls entirely outside Nitaqat’s nationalization quotas because domestic workers are employed by households rather than registered private-sector establishments.
Where Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Workers Come From
Saudi Arabia’s foreign workforce draws predominantly from South and Southeast Asia, with India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh together historically supplying several million workers each, alongside significant numbers from the Philippines, commonly estimated near 900,000. Arab-origin migrants, particularly from Egypt, Yemen, and Sudan, form another substantial share, along with growing numbers from African countries including Ethiopia. These figures should be read as approximate ranges rather than precise counts, since Saudi Arabia does not publish a single comprehensive nationality-by-nationality workforce breakdown on a regular basis, and figures compiled by researchers and migration-monitoring organizations vary depending on whether they count workers, dependents, or total residents from each origin country.
Migrant employment is heavily concentrated in specific sectors. Historically, foreign workers have dominated construction, agriculture, domestic service, cleaning, and retail and trade, while occupying a smaller but economically significant share of high-skill roles in finance, oil and gas, and healthcare.
A widely cited estimate suggests roughly 15 percent of foreign workers hold professional positions in sectors such as oil, finance, or healthcare, roles that have proven far more resistant to Saudization requirements than lower-wage manual and service positions.
The Workforce Looks Different From the Total Population
This is the single most important distinction for understanding Saudi demographic data: the total resident population and the employed labor force are not proportionally represented by nationality. Non-Saudis make up 44.4 percent of total residents but roughly 78 percent of the employed workforce, because most Saudi citizens present in the country at any given time include children, students, retirees, and homemakers who are not economically active, while the vast majority of non-Saudi residents are present specifically because they hold a job.
This gap explains why headline population figures and headline labor-market figures about Saudi Arabia can seem to contradict each other in casual reporting. A statement that “the population is majority Saudi” and a statement that “the workforce is majority foreign” are both accurate simultaneously, describing two different measures of the same country.
Saudi Citizens Have a Different Age and Family Structure
Saudi citizens skew notably younger at the base of the population pyramid than non-Saudi residents, reflecting ongoing citizen births: citizens made up 33.5 percent of the 0-14 age group nationally, compared to just 8.6 percent for non-Saudis.
At the 2022 census, the median age of Saudis under 30 reached 63 percent of the citizen population, and the overall population median age was 29 years, notably younger than in Iran or several East Asian economies, though the trajectory for citizens is toward gradual aging as fertility, at 2.7, continues its own slow decline from far higher historical levels.
Non-Saudi residents, by contrast, are concentrated almost entirely in the working-age bracket, with far fewer children and elderly individuals present, since most non-Saudi residency is tied directly to active employment contracts rather than family settlement or retirement.
Saudization Is Changing the Population and Labor Market Equation
Saudization, implemented through the Nitaqat program since 2011, requires private-sector establishments to employ a minimum share of Saudi nationals, with quotas varying by sector and company size. The policy has achieved substantial results in specific sectors: localization in Saudi Arabia’s finance sector reached roughly 88 percent, and the banking sector specifically topped 94 percent, according to Saudi Ministry of Human Resources officials.
Despite these sector-specific successes, the aggregate expatriate share of total employment has remained high, around 78 percent as of 2025, for structural reasons that Nitaqat’s design does not fully address:
- Domestic workers are exempt: Nearly 4 million domestic workers, roughly 23 percent of all employment in the Kingdom, fall outside Nitaqat’s establishment-based quota system entirely, since they are employed by households rather than registered businesses.
- Wage gaps persist: The average Saudi wage across the economy runs roughly 2.7 times higher than prevailing expatriate wages in comparable roles, meaning firms choosing between a fully quota-counted Saudi hire and a cheaper expatriate hire face a persistent cost incentive working against Saudization goals.
- Skilled expatriate roles resist localization: Professional positions in oil, finance, and healthcare, historically held by a smaller but highly skilled share of the expatriate workforce, have proven far more difficult to localize than lower-wage manual and service roles.
- Policy has continued to evolve rapidly: Temporary work visa quota rules were removed from Saudi Arabia’s Qiwa labor platform for all nationalities in April 2025, reinstated for most nationalities that July tied to a firm’s Nitaqat compliance status, then suspended again in February 2026 for workers from 17 countries including India, Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria, and Turkiye, illustrating how actively the policy framework is still being adjusted rather than settled.
Geographic Concentration of Citizens and Migrant Workers
Saudi Arabia’s foreign workforce concentrates heavily around the country’s major economic centers. Riyadh, as the capital and largest financial and administrative hub, and the Eastern Province, home to the oil and petrochemical industry centered on Dhahran and Dammam, both host large expatriate professional populations.
Jeddah and the wider Makkah region combine substantial expatriate labor in construction, trade, and services with the unique demographic role of hosting millions of temporary religious pilgrims annually for Hajj and Umrah, a population flow that is separate from, but sometimes confused with, permanent resident counts.
What Happens to the Population as the Economy Diversifies?
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 economic diversification program, aimed at reducing dependence on oil revenue, is directly reshaping labor demand and, by extension, migration patterns. Large-scale giga-projects in construction, tourism, and entertainment have driven continued strong demand for both skilled and unskilled foreign labor even as Saudization policy simultaneously pushes toward localization, producing what amounts to two countervailing demographic forces operating at once: economic diversification is expanding overall labor demand while Saudization policy tries to shift the nationality composition of who fills that demand.
Recent Saudi employment data through early 2025 recorded 18.1 million total employees Kingdom-wide, reflecting continued strong overall labor market growth even as the nationality mix within it remains a subject of active policy intervention.
Saudi Arabia’s Future Population Composition
Saudi Arabia’s demographic future will likely be shaped by several interacting trends rather than a single clear trajectory. Citizen population growth will continue at a moderate pace, driven by fertility around 2.7 births per 1,000 women that remains above replacement level but is gradually declining as urbanization and rising education, particularly for Saudi women, continue.
Non-Saudi population growth will remain closely tied to labor demand from giga-projects and broader economic diversification, meaning it could rise or fall relatively quickly depending on project timelines and Saudization enforcement, in contrast to the citizen population’s slower, more predictable demographic momentum.
Whether the roughly 78 percent expatriate share of employment declines meaningfully over the next decade depends less on demographic factors than on policy choices: wage convergence, further exemption or inclusion of domestic workers under Nitaqat-style rules, and the pace at which Saudi citizens, particularly women, whose labor force participation has risen substantially under Vision 2030 reforms, move into private-sector roles historically dominated by expatriates.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What percentage of Saudi Arabia’s population is foreign?
Non-Saudi residents made up 44.4 percent of Saudi Arabia’s total population of 35.3 million as of mid-2024, according to GASTAT, while Saudi citizens made up 55.6 percent.
2. How many Saudi citizens live in Saudi Arabia?
Saudi citizens numbered approximately 19.6 million by mid-2024, according to the General Authority for Statistics, up from 19.3 million the previous year.
3. Which nationalities make up Saudi Arabia’s migrant population?
Saudi Arabia’s foreign workforce draws predominantly from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, along with the Philippines, and Arab-origin countries including Egypt, Yemen, and Sudan, with growing numbers from African countries such as Ethiopia. Comprehensive official nationality-by-nationality breakdowns are not published on a regular basis.
4. Why does Saudi Arabia rely on migrant workers?
Migrant workers fill roughly 78 percent of all Saudi Arabia employment and about 95 percent of private-sector jobs, driven historically by a preference among many Saudi citizens for public-sector employment, wage gaps between citizen and expatriate labor, and strong ongoing labor demand from construction and giga-projects tied to Vision 2030.
5. What is Saudization?
Saudization, implemented through the Nitaqat program since 2011, is a quota-based policy requiring private-sector companies to employ a minimum share of Saudi nationals, with targets varying by industry and company size, aimed at reducing citizen unemployment and expatriate labor dependence.
6. Are migrant workers included in Saudi Arabia’s population statistics?
Yes. GASTAT’s population estimates include all residents regardless of nationality, counting non-Saudi residents as 15.7 million of the Kingdom’s 35.3 million total population as of mid-2024, separate from and larger than narrower estimates of the active foreign workforce alone.
7. Where do most migrant workers live?
Migrant workers concentrate around Saudi Arabia’s major economic centers, including Riyadh, the Eastern Province’s oil and petrochemical hub around Dhahran and Dammam, and Jeddah and the broader Makkah region tied to construction, trade, and religious tourism.
8. Will Saudi Arabia’s foreign population shrink?
This depends primarily on policy and economic factors rather than demographic momentum. Continued Vision 2030 giga-projects sustain strong foreign labor demand, while Saudization enforcement, wage policy, and recent shifts in temporary work visa rules for specific nationalities could reduce the expatriate share of employment over time, though the aggregate share has remained persistently high despite over a decade of active policy effort.
Sources
- General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Population Estimates Publication 2024.
- Gulf Labour Markets, Migration and Population Programme (GLMM), Saudi Arabia Population by Nationality dataset, 2010-2024.
- UNFPA World Population Dashboard, Saudi Arabia country data, 2025.
- United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024 Revision.
- Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, Nitaqat program updates, 2024-2026.
- Vision2030.ai labor market analysis, Saudi employment and Nitaqat compliance data, 2025-2026.
