Qatar's population has surged 7.5 percent in a year and was more than 1.83 million as on December 31, 2012, the National Office for Statistics said.
The data represent the number of persons of all ages, both nationals and non-nationals, within the boundaries of the country, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported, citing figures released by the Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA).
The figure does not include citizens and expatriates who were out of the country as on December 31, 2012. A disturbing trend, though, is that the gap in male-female population has been yawning. Some 74 percent of the population was male and only 26 percent female.
Meanwhile, a real estate expert and developer, Khalifa Al Muslemani, believes an additional 600,000 foreign workers might arrive this year to work on new projects that are being launched.
He told Al Sharq he expected a slew of development projects to be launched this year which may add some 600,000 new recruits to the workforce.
The Peninsula
2 January
