Women/Men ratio in the Middle East

antiskeptic

Hi.

I'm reading down a UN list which shows the ratio of women to men (expressed as number of women/100 men) in all the countries of the world. As you might expect, the ratio is typically 1 for 1 although there is some deviation from this. For example:

Ireland 101/100
England 105/100
US 103/100
China 95/100
Peru 98/100
Cuba 100/100
Azarbeijan 106/100

Invariably, countries won't dip below 90 women per 100 nor rise above 110 women per 100 men. Except in the Middle East where there are some quite startling deviations.

Qatar 48/100
United Arab Emirates 47/100
Saudi Arabia 85/100
Oman 78/100
Bahrain 76/100
Kuwait 67/100

Muslim countries in other parts of the world follow the 100/100 norm. But I was just wondering does anyone here have any insight into what's going on in the Middle East?

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/indwm/ww2005/tab1a.htm

Capt'n Midnight

I'd imagine migrant workers would make up most of the extra males.

hivizman

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

I'd imagine migrant workers would make up most of the extra males.

I'm quite confident that this is correct.

I came across an interesting detailed analysis of the population of Qatar at the following website: http://www.catnaps.org/islamic/population.html

Although this does not provide a detailed breakdown of the Qatari population between nationals and migrants, it gives the gender breakdown month by month over the last couple of years. One observation from the figures given is that there is a significant drop in the number of women in Qatar during the summer months. A lot of people from the Gulf go to cooler climates to get away from the heat of the Gulf summer - I visited the Gold Coast (Surfers' Paradise) in Queensland, Australia in July a few years ago and it was full of people wearing middle eastern dress.

The website above also gives an age breakdown by gender for 2008, with comparisons for 1999 and 1989. Whereas, in the earlier years, the age group 30-39 accounted for the largest number of the male population, in 2008 it is the 20-29 age group, with around 30% of the male population in this segment. This lends support to the suggestion that the gender imbalance in Qatar is the consequence of high numbers of migrant workers, who would tend to be young males (often from Pakistan and India).

Tom Dunne

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

I'd imagine migrant workers would make up most of the extra males.

A casual, non-scientific observation out my window here would strongly suggest that is the case.

Here in Bahrain, there is a significant number of Indian/Pakistani/Bangladesh/Nepalese immigrant workers, the vast majority of which appear to be men.

(though technically Western Expats could also be classed as immigrants, I would say that we tend to bring families with us, as opposed to other immigrant groups who appear to leave the families at home)

irishconvert

Not suited to the Islam forum. I think this is the best place but mods if you feel another forum is better then please move it on.