Population

Oman had around 4.4 million inhabitants in 2016. It is likely that the number has again increased, as it has generally been on the rise in recent decades. The birth rate of almost three children per woman not only reflects the Arabian love for large families – rather, it is an expression of the deep satisfaction that persists in the country and of the fact that people have experienced a transformation in the last few decades that is second to none. Due to this fact, more than half of Omanis are under 18 years old and more than 30 % are under 15. The people of Oman today have a much longer life expectancy than they did some three decades ago. Only parts of the country can really be described as inhabited. Oman is about the size of the Federal Republic of Germany, but a much smaller population. In addition, about 78 % of the people in Oman live in metropolitan areas. Only 5 % of the people live as Bedouins – even the desert dwellers have mostly traded their tents for permanent houses. In addition to high birth rates and low mortality rates, many European expatriates have contributed to the strong growth of the population in recent decades, which has almost quintupled in the last 30 years.