There has been a 12.17 percent increase in the number of expatriates, according to the General Authority for Statistics (GAS) third quarter survey for this year. The number of expatriates in the Kingdom reached 11.6 million by mid 2016. In 2015 there were 10.2 million expats in the Kingdom. A total of 1,419,905 expatriates from various parts of the world arrived in the Kingdom this year, according to GAS data. The number of female expatriates has increased by about 13.59 percent this year reaching 3,657,643 witnessing a rise of 497,256 over their number the previous year which was 3,160,387. The number of expatriate men increased by 922,649 in 2016. Expatriate men at present stand at 8.3 million compared to their number in 2015 which was 7.8 million. The number of Saudi men and women declined by 693,324 in 2016 reaching 20.7 million from 20.8 million in 2015. The number of Saudi women decreased by 353,245 at the rate of 3.46 percent going down to 9.8 million in mid-2016 from 10.2 million the same time last year. Expatriates are occupying 72 percent of jobs in the tourism and hospitality sector against 28 percent Saudis. The GAS survey showed that the number of unemployed Saudi citizens reached 693,784, of them 254,108 were men and 439,676 women. The results indicate that the highest rate of unemployment among Saudis was among those who are between 25 years and 29 years of age, i.e. 39 percent of the total unemployed Saudi nationals.
