jordan pulse -

Tomorrow, Wednesday, marks Arab Population and Development Day, which coincides with the anniversary of the establishment of the Arab Council for Population and Development in 2019, serving as an occasion to evaluate the demographic situation of the Arab world, enhance developmental work, and exchange expertise on the impact of demographic shifts on sustainable development.
According to a statement by the council today, Tuesday, demographic trends indicate that Arab societies are characterized by varying population sizes and compositions, with each undergoing different stages of demographic transition and varying in the proportion of non-Arab populations, which is reflected in the labor market, economic growth, housing, education, health, and social services needs.
This year's Arab Day comes as the population of the Arab world reaches approximately 511 million people, ranking third globally after India and China. About 60 percent of them live in the African part of the Arab world, particularly in Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, and Morocco, which are inhabited by about 51 percent of the Arab world's population.
The council pointed out that the population of the Arab world is expected to rise to about 591 million by 2035, and to about 718 million by 2050, an increase of about 207 million over the next 24 years, with an average annual increase of about 9 million people.
Data showed a significant disparity in fertility levels, with Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, and Tunisia recording low rates below the replacement level of two or fewer children per woman. The presence of expatriate populations in Gulf countries may have contributed to influencing the estimation of the rate, while rates ranged between 2.1 and 2.9 in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Morocco, Jordan, Syria, Djibouti, Algeria, Palestine, and Egypt, and between 3 and 3.9 in Libya, Iraq, and Yemen. The highest rates were recorded in Somalia at 6.4, Mauritania at 4.8, Sudan at 4.2, and the Comoros at 4 births per woman.
Arab societies generally remain youthful, with children under the age of 15 making up about 30 percent of the total population. This percentage rises in low-income countries, with Somalia recording 48 percent, Yemen 44 percent, Mauritania 42 percent, and Sudan 40 percent, posing a developmental challenge in education, healthcare, and nutrition, compared to low percentages in the Gulf, reaching 15 percent in Qatar, 16 percent in the UAE, and 18 percent in Kuwait due to declining fertility and a high proportion of young expatriate labor.
Senior citizens aged 65 and above account for less than 5 percent of the population in most Arab countries, with Qatar and the UAE recording the lowest percentages not exceeding 2 percent, while Tunisia recorded 10 percent, Morocco 9 percent, Lebanon 8 percent, and Algeria 7 percent, due to declining fertility in the past two decades and the presence of a proportion of their populations abroad.
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