The Arabian Gulf countries
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The Gulf Cooperation Council
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a regional, intergovernmental, political, and economic union made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and came into being after signing a joint charted on the 25th of May, 1981. The GCC, not surprisingly, is headquartered in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Saudi Arabia is by far the most populous of the six Arabian Gulf states. These six countries have long been viewed analytically as broadly similar to one another and were once labelled by the World Bank as being “resource-rich [but] labour poor.”
The Arabian Gulf countries
Since the late 1990s, the Arabian Gulf has undergone rapid socioeconomic change. From 1998, the region’s real GDP has expanded by an annual average of around five per cent to date. Over the same period, the population has risen from just over 28 million to 59 million (as of 2025). What makes the region unique demographically-speaking, is that of the current population, only 43 per cent are Gulf citizens (Khaleeji, Arabic: خليجي, meaning: “people of the gulf”). Of the 25 million Khaleejis, around three-quarters are Saudi nationals (see: Arabian Gulf data). At the other end of the spectrum, there are only several hundred thousand Qatari citizens. Qataris are by far and away the richest in per capita PPP GDP terms anywhere in the world (most, if not all, international rankings institutions do not delineate between nationals (i.e., Qataris) and the country’s large pool of temporary “guest workers” (i.e., non-nationals) when compiling their annual league tables, based on IMF datasets).
With the exception of Oman and Saudi Arabia, the citizenries of all Gulf countries are in the minority (relative to their respective pools of expatriate residents) and, as a consequence, rely heavily on non-national labour to carry out all manner of work. In Qatar and the UAE, nationals only make up a small fraction of their respective workforces (five and nine per cent respectively; and in terms of the real private sector comprise only a few percentage points at most).
Notes Country profile information is compiled from, amongst others, the following sources. On each of the six country profile pages full reference information is provided.
| i | This is the website of Dr Emilie J. Rutledge who, with almost two decades’ worth of experience in managing, designing and delivering university-level economics courses, is currently Head of the Economics Department at The Open University.
 erutledge.com  Dr Emilie J. Rutledge Emilie has published over 20 peer-reviewed papers and is the author of “Monetary Union in the Gulf.” Her current research focus is on employability, the feasibility of universal basic incomes and, the oil-rich Arabian Gulf’s economic diversification and labour market reform strategies. On an ad hoc basis, Emilie provides consultancy on developing interactive university courses, alongside analytical insight on the political-economy of the Arabian Gulf. |