Doha municipality accounts for 40% of Qatar population

HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani flanked by HE the Minister of Development Planning and Statistics Dr Saleh Mohamed Salem al-Nabit, (Right) and prominent Qatari businessman HE Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al-Thani at the World Statistics Day event.

By Ayman Adly/Staff Reporter

Doha municipality has the largest chunk of population in the country with 956,460 persons out of a total population of 2,404,776, according the latest simplified census conducted recently.

The Ministry of Statistics and Development Planning (MSDP) released the outcomes of the general simplified census of population, housing and establishments 2015 as part of the celebrations of the World Statistics Day.

The last general census was conducted in 2010 and the population was only 1,699,435 persons. Qatar's population increased by 705,341 persons in five years at an annual increase rate of 7.2% due to the huge number of new expatriate workers.

However, the majority of the population in the country is males with only 587,795 females versus 1,816,981 males, mostly of the young age category. Around 85% of the population of Qatar falls in the category of 15- 64 years old.

Doha Municipality has almost 48.8% of the housing units in the country, followed by Al Rayyan municipality (27.6%), Al Wakrah (10.1%), Umm Sala (3.1%), Al Khor and Al Zakhira (4.5%), Al Shammal (0.5%), Al Dayyan (2.2%) Al Shahaniya (3.5%).

The number of housing units increased by 58,815 in 2015, compared to the 2010 census with an annual rate of 3.9%. Similarly, the number of establishments increased by 15,437 compared to 2010 with an annual growth rate of 6.6%. Most establishments are located in Al Rayyan municipality (36.6% of the overall number), followed by Doha (30.9%), and the lowest at Al Shammal (1.1%). The outcomes of the census were presented by Nasser Saleh al-Mahdi, MSDP director of censuses, surveys and statistical methods department.

The celebrations were opened by HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, who stressed the importance of such statistics in enhancing and supporting the development efforts in the country. He also commended the achievements of MSDP, in particular in accomplishing such an accurate census in a record time with a marginal cost and the minimum number of field visits to families and other places.

"We look forward to completing the process of building an effective national statistical system that meets all national aspirations and international requirements," he said, stressing the need all public and private entities in the country to maintain effective co-operation with MDPS in this respect.

Meanwhile, HE the Minister of Development Planning and Statistics Dr Saleh Mohamed Salem al-Nabit, who stressed the role of modern sophisticated technology in collecting information in a timely manner. He said that only 300 persons were hired to collect the information on the field for this census; only 10% the number of staff who conducted such process in 2010. He also pointed out that there is a need to go for knowledge-based economy so the economic growth rate will supersede the population growth.

"The process of collecting information was highly organised and we depended greatly on sophisticated technology, government records and abridged a three-phase process into one (population count, building and housing units), but the product is highly reliable and accurate," said Dr al-Nabit.

He further expected that the number of unskilled and low skilled workers in the country is expected to increase only on the short run due to the huge construction and infrastructure projects. However, after sometime, the demand on the services of such category of population would be less, giving way for more demand on skilled and highly skilled professionals, so the number of unskilled workers would accordingly fall.

Ivo Haninga, United Nations Statistics Division assistant director and chief of economics statistics branch, New York, took part in the event alongside various government officials and international guests. The opening ceremony was followed by a number of discussion sessions among experts on related issues.