Demographic and health indicators in Gulf Cooperation Council nations with an emphasis on Qatar

Abstract

Qatar is a rapidly developing wealthy state that is part of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a group of six countries that share relatively similar economic and cultural profiles. We aimed to capture key health indicators and demographic data from Qatar and GCC countries by examining 1980–2010 data from the World Bank Databank and WHO report. The results highlighted a unique demographic profile in Qatar, which has the lowest age dependency ratio, highest male to female ratio, and second highest migrant population in the world. In comparison to other GCC countries, Qatar had the highest life expectancy and the lowest communicable disease and-all cause mortality rates. The GCC countries generally had a low percentage of their population over age 65, a high percentage of migrants, a very low crude death rate and very high overweight and obesity prevalence. Examination of data trends showed a decline in birth rate and fertility rate with significant improvement in under-five and maternal mortality rates over the last three decades.