INTRODUCING SAUDI CITIES

According to the UN “World Population Prospects 2017” 9 and the World Bank’s “World DataBank, World Development Indicators”, Saudi Arabia is among the countries with the highest population growth rates in the world. In 2015, the annual population growth in Saudi Arabia was 2.5%. The total Saudi population has increased by 15 million during the last twenty-five years (19922017), almost doubling since 1990. At this annual growth rate, it is projected that the population of Saudi Arabia will reach 45 million by 2050, which means that in the next 35 years there will be a population increase of about 13.5 million.10 It can be derived from this growth that the Kingdom will have to provide jobs, housing, infrastructure, and services for about one and a half of its current population in the next 25 years. If not properly managed, this might have substantial environmental, social, and economic impacts and could adversely affect the sustainability, prosperity, and resilience of Saudi cities. Throughout history and until 1970, the Saudi rural population was much higher than the urban population. In 1970 the urban and rural population became approximately equal (48.7% and 51.3% respectively). By 2015, the share of the urban and rural population that prevailed in 1950 was completely reversed; with the urban population at 83.1% and rural population at only 16.9% of the total population in Saudi Arabia. This trend is expected to continue to increase. According to UN DESA “World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision”, the urban population share will increase to 88.7% in 2050, while the rural population share will continue declining to only 11.3 of the total population (TABLE 1).

TABLE 2:

Distribution of Amanah, Municipalities and Village Clusters by region12

SOURCE:

General Department for Organizational Development (MOMRA), 2018, UN published statistical report.