The total population of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is estimated at 62.8m in 2025, with an average annual growth of 3.5%, according to the GCC Statistical Centre (GCC-Stat). GCC states accounted for around 0.8% of the world's population.
In a bulletin, GCC-Stat said that the population had grown steadily from 56.6m in 2022 to 59.1m in 2023 to 61.5m in 2024.
At the current rate of growth, the population is projected to reach 83.6m by 2050, representing an increase of 33.61% compared to 2025.
The latest available detailed statistics, which were from 2024, revealed that 38.2% of the total population was in the age group of 15-34 years, followed by 76.7% in the age group of 15-64 years. Children (under 15 years old) represented 20.6% of the population, whereas the elderly group (65 and above) represented 2.6%. There were 168 males per 100 females in 2024 at the GCC level.
There were 30.4 dependents per 100 in the working-age group in 2024, including 27.0 children and 3.4 elderly people per 100 working-age individuals. The bulletin said that the high proportion of the working-age population provides an important base for economic growth and enhancing productivity, and also highlights the importance of investing in and empowering youths.
By GCC state, Saudi Arabia had the biggest population of 35.3m followed by the UAE (11.3m), Oman (5.3m), Kuwait (4.9m), Qatar (3.1m) and Bahrain (1.6m).