15 staggering facts about Saudi Arabia
15 staggering facts about Saudi Arabia
- Jun. 2, 2015, 10:53 AM
- 76,193
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Reuters/Mohamed AlhwaityA man takes a "selfie" with camels.Saudi Arabia has been front and center over the past few months as oil prices plunged in late 2014 and then saw a mild recovery in 2015.
But it's worth taking a step back and looking at its unique economy as a whole and what that might mean for its future.
"The oil boom of the past decade has transformed Saudi Arabia into a major global economy with a young population and large wealth that offer great potential," writes HSBC economist Razan Nasser, "but with lower oil prices, the Kingdom's structural challenges are ever more pressing."
We've taken a closer look at some of the numbers behind Saudi Arabia young, oil-driven economy.
The Kingdom's Ghawar oil field has enough reserves to fill 4,770,897 Olympic swimming pools.
Saudi Arabia's Ghawar field is the largest in the world. It has an estimated 75 billion barrels of oil left.
An Olympic-size swimming pool can hold 660,253.09 gallons of liquid.
Source: US Energy Information Administration
Saudi Arabia's petroleum sector makes up 45% of GDP, which makes it bigger than the total GDPs of Iraq, Morocco, Rwanda, and Tonga combined.
Ali Al-Naimi, Minister of Petroleum, with a falcon.
Iraq's GDP is $222.879 billion, Morocco's GDP is $104.4 billion, Rwanda's GDP is $7.451 billion, and Tonga's GDP is $466 million.
Source: CIA Factbook, HSBC
Saudi Arabia's population is slightly bigger than Texas's, but Texas's GDP is nearly 2 times as large.
Plus, Saudi Arabia has the 19th largest GDP — but if Texas were its own country, it would have the 13th largest GDP (just below Australia and right above Spain).
Overall, this suggests that Texas is more productive than Saudi Arabia.
Source: Business Insider, World Bank
Saudi Arabia's growth has been fueled by increased resources, NOT by increased productivity.
Source: HSBC
Saudi Arabia is erecting the world's tallest building, which will be one kilometer tall — AKA taller than 492 LeBron James' standing on top of one another.
Saudi Arabia is building Kingdom Tower, which will be the world's
tallest building in 2018. It's going to stand one kilometer tall.
China is also planning on building a one-kilometer-tall building. So, technically speaking, the two will be tied for first.
LeBron James stands at 6-foot-8, or 2.03 m.
Source: CNN
China is also planning on building a one-kilometer-tall building. So, technically speaking, the two will be tied for first.
LeBron James stands at 6-foot-8, or 2.03 m.
Source: CNN
The expected cost of the Kingdom Tower's construction is 19.2 times the amount Taylor Swift made last year.
The Kingdom Tower is expected to cost $1.23 billion.
Taylor Swift reportedly raked in $64 million in 2014.
Source: The Huffington Post
Taylor Swift reportedly raked in $64 million in 2014.
Source: The Huffington Post
47% of the Kingdom's population is under the age of 24, while only 5% are over 60.
A man holds an Uromastyx lizard.
"Saudi Arabia's young and growing population has hard-wired strong consumption growth in the Kingdom for decades to come," writes HSBC's Nasser. "However, in the long term, meeting the demands of this growing population will become more of a challenge."
Source: CIA Factbook and HSBC
Almost 60% of the labor force in Saudi Arabia is foreign.
A Yemeni worker.
"Saudi nationals continue to work largely in the public sector with little incentive to join the private sector or to improve productivity," writes HSBC's Nasser.
Notably, most of the people who work in oil and service sectors in Saudi Arabia are foreigners.
Source: HSBC and CIA Factbook
Saudi Arabia's female labor force participation rate was roughly 20%, the 8th lowest in the world.
Bill Gates criticized the Saudi Arabia's female employment at the World Economic Forum in 2007.
When one person asked him if Saudi Arabia might become a major, competitive economy by 2010, Gates responded, "Well, if you're not fully utilizing half the talent in the country, you're not going to get close to the top."
Source: HSBC, The Washington Post, World Bank
On a related note, this is the only country where women are forbidden to drive.
"The conservative Islamic state has no written ban on women driving, but Saudi law requires citizens to use a locally issued license while in the country. Such licenses are not issued to women, making it effectively illegal for them to drive," according to Reuters.
Source: Reuters
Saudi Arabia may end executions by beheading because there's a shortage of swordsmen in the country.
Source: Ahram Online
About 100 camels are sold in the capital of Saudi Arabia every day.
The capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, has a large camel market. About 100 camels are sold every day.
Source: Random History
Source: Random History
Saudi Arabia is building six "economic cities" that are expected to add an amount 3.5 times as large as Kenya's total GDP to Saudi Arabia's GDP
The cities are spread around the country and are expected to add 1.3 million jobs and raise the GDP per capita from $13,000 to $33,500.
Kenya's GDP is $44.1 billion.
Source: OECD
Massive oil revenues enabled Saudi Arabia to get away with inefficient spending. But with lower oil prices, it's becoming apparent that this model isn't sustainable.
"Such spending habits, along with the inability to generate non-oil revenue, have led to higher dependency on oil. Hence, the drop in oil prices has had a transformative impact on Saudi Arabia's as well as the entire GCC..." he adds.
Consequently, Saudi Arabia's had to tap into its resources following the price drop, which has been an okay strategy so far...
Source: HSBC
Saudi Arabia's annual military expenditure is 4 times the GDP of Afghanistan.
Saudi special forces.
However, it's notable that Saudi Arabia's military expenditure is 10.4% of its GDP — which is huge. Most countries are around 2-4%, with the US around 3.5%.
Afghanistan's GDP was $20.7 billion in 2013.
Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
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