Saudi population decreases by 2.6% due to the exit of foreigners during the pandemic
By the year 2021, Saudi Arabia’s total population dropped by 2.6 percent to 34.1 million, from roughly 35 million midway through the year 2020.
The main cause of the overall population decline, according to Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Statistics, is an 8.6 percent reduction in the number of non-Saudis, many of whom left the nation during the Corona pandemic.
The authority added that the Saudi population increased by 1.2% in mid-2021, on an annual basis.
A total of 19.4 million people, or 56.8% of the population, were males, while 14.7 million people, or 43.2 percent, were female.
The authority cited the fact that Saudi Arabia’s population declined in the middle of 2021 after rising from 34.2 million in 2019 to 35 million in 2020 as the cause of the fall.
It showed that for both Saudis and non-Saudis, natural reproduction—defined as the number of births minus the number of deaths—was positive.
Therefore, the decline in the total population was mainly caused by the decline in the number of non-Saudi males residing in the Kingdom by 10.6% in mid-2021 due to the Corona pandemic.
The Saudi population constituted 63.6% of the total population, while the non-Saudis constituted 36.4%.