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Doha: Qatar’s population growth is set to reach 2.3 million by 2015 posing urgent challenges to the state, a report issued by the Permanent Population Committee said.
The Committee has published its first report for 2005 to 2007 where it urges policymakers to take immediate steps to address the demographic boom with adequate social policies.
“The population growth is set to exercise pressure on our educational, health and social systems, on our society and job market. This study will help policymakers take better decisions about the country’s future,” said Shaikh Hamad Bin Jabr Al Thani, chairman, in the preface to the report, a summary of which was obtained by Gulf News on Tuesday.
“The population growth is set to increase in the next few years to the tune of 5.3 per cent per year to reach about 2.3 million people by 2015, based on our 2007 statistics. In 1950 only half of the population were living in towns. In 2004 the total number of citizens and residents were in the urban communities,” said the report, noting that in 50 years the indigenous Bedouin population has disappeared completely.
Shaikh Hamad said the Committee has prepared a number of recommendations based on the results of the report, which will be forwarded to the Council of Minister for action. They include six categories Population and Workforce, Education, Training and Human Resources Development, General Health and Reproductive Health, Empowerment, Environment and Sustainable Development and Database and National Indicators.
The last census conducted in Qatar in 2004 put the total population at 742,000 but Ebrahim Ebrahim, economic advisor to the Qatari Government, said the number could have already reached 1.5 million people as of 2008, although this was an unofficial figure.
Imbalances
“The sudden increase in the population due to the economic boom has led to several problems and mounted immense pressure on resources. The demand for housing, for instance, has risen considerably,” he told Qatar TV last week.
Qatar has huge gas resources and the leadership has set the country on a fast development track which has witnessed investments in the oil and gas, civil aviation and real estate sectors. The economic growth has attracted a large number of immigrant workers, mainly from Asia and other Arab countries, who represent about 85 per cent the existing population.
But sociologists at the Population Committee, which was set up in 2004 to draft a population control strategy, have recently warned that an unchecked demographic boom may create imbalances in the country’s social system and eventually also affect economic growth.
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