The Changing Demography of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has a long history, in which demographic progress has been marked as resulting from multidimensional and multisectorial development, enabling a high quality of life, rather than coerced family planning or control. Efforts to build a competitive economy and living standards highlighted the need for infrastructure to maintain low levels of morbidity and mortality, and an absence of population pressure combined with socio-religious traditions, customs, and practices favoring a pronatalist perspective dictating the fertility preferences of the Kingdom’s people. This book, an empirical and analytical demonstration of resource-intensive Saudi Arabian demography, traces the journey from an agrarian to a modern society. It explores the demographic, socio-economic, developmental, epidemiologic, and health aspects of this transition.