Kuwait
Name
| Official name | State of Kuwait — Dawlat al-Kuwayt (دولة الكويت) |
|---|---|
| Former names | The Sheikhdom of Kuwait under the Al-Sabah (from about 1752); a British protectorate (1899–1961); Qurain and Grane on the old maps |
| Demonym | Kuwaiti |
| Meaning of the name | "The little fort" — the diminutive of kut, a fortress, for the stronghold of the town's founding |
| Motto | None official |
Quick facts
| Capital | Kuwait City — Madinat al-Kuwayt — founded in the early 1600s, the seat of the Al-Sabah since the 1750s; about 3 million in the metropolitan area, the whole country in effect |
|---|---|
| Largest districts | Al-Ahmadi, the oil governorate; Hawalli; Salmiya; Farwaniya; Jahra; Sabah Al-Salem; Fahaheel; Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh of the laborers |
| Official language | Arabic — the Kuwaiti dialect of the Gulf; English the second language of business and the schools; Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, Tagalog, Bengali and Persian among the expatriates |
| Currency | Kuwaiti dinar — ISO code KWD, KD; 1,000 fils; about 0.31 to the U.S. dollar — the most valuable currency unit in the world |
| Time zone | Arabia Standard Time, UTC+3, all year |
| Calling code | +965 |
| Internet domain | .kw |
| ISO 3166 codes | KW · KWT · 414 |
| Vehicle registration code | KWT |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 240 V, 50 Hz; plug types C and G |
| Independence | 19 June 1961, from the British protectorate — Abdullah Al-Salim the first emir of the state; the National Day kept on 25 February, the anniversary of his accession in 1950 |
| National days | 25 February, National Day; 26 February, Liberation Day, for 1991; the Islamic New Year, the Prophet's birthday, the Isra and Mi'raj, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha; 1 January |
| Constitution | 11 November 1962 — the Constitution of the State of Kuwait, the first written constitution of the Gulf, with the elected National Assembly of 1963; suspended in part in 1976–81 and 1986–92, and again since 10 May 2024, seven articles on the Assembly suspended for up to four years pending a revision by an "expert committee" |
| Population | About 4.9 million (PACI, 2025) — Kuwaiti citizens about 1.55 million, a third; the census of 2011 counted 3,065,850; the census of 2025 the first since |
| Area | 17,818 km² (6,880 sq mi) — all land; nine islands, Bubiyan the largest at 863 km², Failaka the inhabited one |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | Three horizontal bands of green, white and red with a black trapezoid at the hoist — the pan-Arab colors of the Revolt in the arrangement of the poem of Safie Al-Din Al-Hili, "white are our deeds, black our battles, green our lands, red our swords"; adopted 7 September 1961, three months after independence, replacing the red flag of the sheikhdom.Flag of Kuwait |
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| National emblem | A golden falcon with spread wings — the falcon of Quraysh — bearing a shield of the flag over a boom, the Kuwaiti dhow, sailing on blue and white waves under a blue sky, in a circle bearing the name of the state; adopted 1962 |
| National anthem | "Al-Nasheed Al-Watani" ("The National Anthem") — "Watani al-Kuwait," my homeland Kuwait — words by Ahmad Meshari Al-Adwani, music by Ibrahim Al-Soula; adopted 25 February 1978 in place of the "Amiri Salute" of 1951 |
| National colors | Green, white, red and black |
| National bird | The falcon — the saker of the emblem and the hunt; the hoopoe of the gardens; widely cited |
| National flower | The arfaj — Rhanterium epapposum, the yellow shrub of the desert spring; declared the national flower in 1983 |
| National animal | The camel — the dromedary of the Bedouin and the races; the Arabian horse; widely cited |
| National vessel | The boom — the dhow of the pearl fleets and the trade with India and Africa, on the emblem; the Al-Hashemi II of 2001 the largest wooden ship in the world |
| National dish | Machboos — the spiced rice with chicken, mutton or fish, the zubaidi pomfret of the Gulf; the harees of Ramadan; the gahwa, the Arabic coffee; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag, emblem and anthem are fixed by law; the flower by the declaration of 1983; the bird, animal, vessel and dishes widely cited |
Geography
| Location | The head of the Persian Gulf, Western Asia — Iraq to the north and west, Saudi Arabia to the south, Iran across the water; the Neutral Zone with Saudi Arabia partitioned in 1970 |
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| Land borders | 475 km (295 mi) — Iraq 254, the line fixed by the UN in 1993 after the invasion; Saudi Arabia 221 |
| Coastline | 499 km (310 mi) — Kuwait Bay and the islands |
| Highest point | An unnamed point of 306 m (1,004 ft) in the west; the Mutla Ridge of 145 m north of the bay |
| Lowest point | The Persian Gulf, 0 m |
| Mean elevation | 108 m (354 ft) |
| Rivers and water | No rivers and no lakes — the wadis of the winter rains, Wadi Al-Batin the western border; the water from the sea, the Shuwaikh desalination plant of 1951 among the first in the world, the country the most dependent on desalination on earth; the brackish aquifers of Rawdatain |
| Islands | 9 — Bubiyan, 863 km², the largest, low and marshy, joined by the causeway of 1983 and the site of the Mubarak Al-Kabeer port; Failaka, the Ikaros of the Greeks, 43 km², inhabited until 1990 and emptied by the invasion; Warbah, Miskan, Auhah, Umm al-Maradim, Umm an-Namil, Kubbar and Qaruh |
| Terrain | Flat desert sloping to the Gulf — the sand and gravel of the interior, the sabkha salt flats of the coast, the escarpment of the Jal Az-Zor along the bay; the oil fields under the south |
| Climate | Desert — the summers of 45°C to 50°C from May to September with the dust storms of the shamal, the humidity of August; mild winters with a few days of frost; about 110 mm of rain |
| Natural hazards | The heat — Mitribah's 53.9°C of 21 July 2016, the highest in Asia; the sandstorms; the flash floods of November 2018; the oil fires of 1991, 700 wells burning for nine months |
| Natural resources | Oil — about 101 billion barrels of reserves, the sixth-largest in the world, 7% of the earth's; natural gas; the fish and shrimp of the Gulf; the pearls of the past |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 8%, nearly all pasture; forest under 1% |
| Protected areas | The Sabah Al-Ahmad Natural Reserve of 2007 on the bay's north shore, the largest; the Jahra Pools reserve; the Mubarak Al-Kabeer reserve of Bubiyan's marshes, a Ramsar site; the Kubbar island of the terns |
| UNESCO World Heritage | None inscribed — the Sa'ad and Sae'ed area, the Kuwait Towers and Failaka on the tentative list; the sadu weaving of the Bedouin on the intangible list since 2011 |
| Administrative divisions | 6 governorates — Al-Asimah, the Capital; Hawalli; Farwaniya; Mubarak Al-Kabeer, of 1999, the newest; Al-Ahmadi; Al-Jahra — under governors appointed by the emir; the Municipal Council, half elected |
People
| Population | About 4.9 million (2025) — about 1.55 million citizens |
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| Population density | About 275 per km² (710 per sq mi) — the people on the coast, the desert empty |
| Population growth | About 1.5% a year — the expatriates coming and going with the contracts |
| Median age | About 40 years for the residents, the workers of working age; about 25 for the Kuwaitis |
| Life expectancy | About 80 years |
| Fertility rate | About 2.1 births per woman for the citizens |
| Urban population | 100% |
| Adult literacy | About 96% |
| Origin | Kuwaiti about 32% — the Arabs of the Najd and the coast, the Ajam of Persian origin, the Bedouin; other Arab about 28%, Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians, Lebanese, Yemenis and Palestinians; Asian about 37%, Indians the largest at about a million, Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Nepalese; Africans and others about 3% (PACI) |
| Languages | Arabic by the citizens and the Arabs, English the lingua franca of the rest; Malayalam, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Tagalog, Sinhala; Persian among the Ajam |
| Religion | Muslim about 75% — the citizens nearly all, Sunni about 70% and Shia about 30% of them, the Shia community among the largest of the Arab Gulf; Christian about 18% and Hindu about 5%, the expatriates; Islam the state religion and a source of law; the Shia mosque bombing of 26 June 2015 |
| Human Development Index | 0.852 (2023 data, 2025 report) — very high; about 52nd of 193 |
| The Bidoon | About 100,000 stateless residents — the Bidoon jinsiya, "without nationality," the Bedouin and others left off the citizenship rolls of the 1960s and their descendants, without passports, jobs of the state or free schooling, their status the oldest open question of the country; and the revocations of citizenship since 2024 — some 10,000 between 2011 and 2024 and about 35,000 more in the last five months of 2024 by the reports, the naturalized wives above all, "to preserve the national identity" in the government's words and a crisis of statelessness in the rights groups' |
| Sport | Football — Al-Azraq at the World Cup of 1982, champions of the Gulf Cup ten times; shooting — the Olympic golds of Fehaid Al-Deehani, in 2016 under the neutral flag; the Olympic bans of 2010 and 2015–19 over the government's interference; the camel races; the Kuwait Motor Town |
| Diaspora | Small — the Kuwaitis of London, the American universities and the Gulf; the citizens abroad about 100,000 |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary constitutional monarchy — a hereditary emirate under the Constitution of 1962, the emir head of state with the executive through a prime minister and cabinet he appoints, and an elected National Assembly with the power to question and remove ministers — since 10 May 2024 governed by decree with the Assembly suspended |
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| Emir | Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, since 16 December 2023 — the 17th ruler of the Al-Sabah; born 27 September 1940, the seventh son of Ahmad Al-Jaber, the tenth emir; deputy chief of the National Guard for 16 years and head of state security before; Crown Prince from October 2020 under his half-brother Nawaf and the country's working ruler in his illness; the oldest to accede at 83 |
| Crown Prince | Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, since 1 June 2024 — the prime minister of 2019–22 and the foreign minister of 2011–19, born 1953; named by the emir without the Assembly's approval that the Constitution requires, the Assembly being suspended |
| Prime Minister | Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, since April 2024 — a former finance and oil minister, born 1952; the head of the cabinet of the decree years; Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem before him, of the months of January–April 2024 |
| The suspension | The emir's address of 10 May 2024, four days before the new Assembly's first sitting — the Assembly of 4 April 2024 dissolved and suspended for up to four years, seven articles of the Constitution suspended, the laws to be passed by the emir and the cabinet, an "expert committee" to study the Constitution and the electoral system; the Assembly had "been used for unhealthy purposes," the emir said, and the country's "course" would be corrected; the third suspension after 1976 and 1986, this one without a date to end; the Carnegie and Gulf analysts calling it the gravest since 1962, the government its critics' fault; no election scheduled by September 2026 |
| The Assembly | The National Assembly — Majlis al-Umma — 50 members elected for four years by the single non-transferable vote in five districts, with the ministers ex officio; the first in the Gulf, of 1963; dissolved a dozen times and now silent; the last election of 4 April 2024, the opposition of Islamists, tribal and liberal deputies with a majority; women able to vote and stand since 16 May 2005, one elected in 2024 |
| The next election | None scheduled — the suspension of up to four years running to 2028 |
| Succession | The Al-Sabah since Sabah I in 1752, the two branches of Al-Jaber and Al-Salim alternating by custom until Emir Sabah's choice of Nawaf broke it in 2006; the emir chooses the crown prince, the Assembly to approve him; the deposition of the ailing Emir Saad by the Assembly in January 2006 after nine days, the Constitution used |
| The war of 1990–91 | Iraq's invasion of 2 August 1990 and the annexation as its "19th province," the royal family in Taif, the seven months of occupation with about 1,000 Kuwaitis killed and the country looted; the UN's ultimatum and the coalition of 34 nations; the air war from 17 January 1991 and the ground war of 100 hours from 24 February; the liberation of 26 February 1991; the 700 oil wells set alight and the Highway of Death at Mutla; the border drawn by the UN in 1993, Iraq's recognition of 1994; the 605 prisoners and the missing, most found in the mass graves after 2003; the compensation of US$52 billion paid by Iraq to 2022 |
| Legal system | Civil law on the Egyptian and French models with Islamic law for personal status and the Constitution; the Constitutional Court that annulled an election in 2012 and 2013; the death penalty, carried out in 2023 and 2025; the emir's decrees since 2024 |
| Governorates | 6 under appointed governors; the Municipal Council of 16, ten elected and six appointed |
| Defense | The Kuwait Armed Forces, about 17,000, with the National Guard; the American bases of Camp Arifjan, Ali Al Salem and Buehring, some 13,000 U.S. troops, the launching ground of the Iraq war of 2003; a major non-NATO ally since 2004; the Iranian missiles and drones crossing the Gulf in the wars of 2024–26 and the defenses; the GCC's Peninsula Shield |
| United Nations | Member since 14 May 1963 — the membership delayed two years by the Soviet veto on Iraq's behalf; Security Council seats in 1978–79 and 2018–19; the resolutions of 1990–91 the state's salvation |
| Memberships | The Gulf Cooperation Council, a founder at Abu Dhabi in 1981; the Arab League since 1961; OPEC, a founder at Baghdad in 1960; the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; the Non-Aligned Movement; the WTO since 1995; the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development of 1961, the first of the Arab aid funds |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$160 billion (2025, IMF) |
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| GDP per capita | About US$32,000 (2025) — about US$100,000 for the citizens alone |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$50,000 (2025) |
| GDP growth | About 2–3% a year (2024–25) with the OPEC quotas — the oil the whole story; inflation about 3% |
| Economy by sector | Oil about 50% of GDP, above 90% of exports and government revenue; services about 45%; industry beyond oil and agriculture the rest |
| Currency | Kuwaiti dinar (KWD), pegged to a basket |
| Oil | About 2.5 million barrels a day under the OPEC quota, with a capacity of 3 million and a goal of 4 million by 2035 — the Burgan field, found in 1938 and producing since 1946, the second-largest oil field in the world after Ghawar; the Kuwait Oil Company, nationalized in 1975, and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation; the Al-Zour refinery of 2022, among the largest in the world; the Neutral Zone fields shared with Saudi Arabia |
| The fund | The Kuwait Investment Authority — the oldest sovereign wealth fund in the world, founded in 1953 as the Kuwait Investment Board in London, eight years before independence, with about US$1 trillion, the fourth-largest; the Future Generations Fund that takes a tenth of revenue by law; the London office that paid for the government in exile in 1990–91 |
| The state and the workers | About 70% of Kuwaitis employed by the state at salaries the private sector cannot match, with subsidized fuel, water, power and housing; the expatriates in the private sector under the kafala sponsorship, reformed in part; the Kuwaitization of the 2020s |
| Vision 2035 | The "New Kuwait" plan — the Silk City of Madinat al-Hareer in the north, the Mubarak Al-Kabeer port on Bubiyan, the northern economic zone with China's interest, most of it on paper; the debt law passed by decree in 2025 after eight years of parliamentary refusal, the first borrowing since 2017 |
| Public finances | The budget of about US$80 billion, in deficit when oil falls below about US$90; public debt about 5% of GDP, among the lowest on earth, with the fund behind it; no income tax; the corporate tax of 15% on the multinationals from 2025 |
| Income classification | High income (World Bank) |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airport | Kuwait International Airport at Farwaniya — about 15 million passengers; the new Terminal 2 of Foster + Partners, the largest in the region by roof, under construction for a decade |
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| Airlines | Kuwait Airways, founded 1954, the flag carrier; Jazeera Airways, the low-cost carrier of 2005, the first private airline of the Gulf |
| Main ports | Shuwaikh, the port of the capital, and Shuaiba of the refineries; Mina Al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah, the oil terminals; the Mubarak Al-Kabeer port on Bubiyan, under construction since 2007 and disputed with Iraq, whose Faw port faces it |
| Railways | None — the GCC railway to link the six states, planned since 2009 for the 2030s; the Kuwait metro of the plans |
| Roads | About 6,600 km (4,100 mi), nearly all paved — the ring roads of the capital, the First through the Seventh; the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Causeway of 2019 across the bay to Subiya, 36 km, among the longest bridges in the world; the Highway 80 to Iraq, the Highway of Death of 1991 |
| The towers | The Kuwait Towers of 1979 on Ras Al-Ard, the three of the Swedish design with the water tanks in the spheres; the Liberation Tower of 1996, 372 m; the Al-Hamra Tower of 2011, 413 m, the tallest |
History in dates
| c. 2000 BC | Dilmun on Failaka |
|---|---|
| c. 325 BC | Alexander's admiral founds Ikaros on Failaka |
| c. 1613 | The town of Kuwait founded by the Bani Utub |
| 1752 | Sabah I the first ruler — the Al-Sabah dynasty |
| 1899 | Mubarak the Great's agreement with Britain, 23 January — the protectorate |
| 1920 | The Battle of Jahra against the Ikhwan; the wall built |
| 1938 | Oil struck at Burgan, 22 February |
| 1946 | The first oil exported, 30 June |
| 1950 | Abdullah Al-Salim emir, 25 February — the National Day |
| 1951 | The desalination plant; the welfare state |
| 1953 | The Kuwait Investment Board — the first sovereign fund |
| 1961 | Independence, 19 June; Iraq's claim and the British return |
| 1962 | The Constitution, 11 November |
| 1963 | The first National Assembly, 23 January; the United Nations, 14 May |
| 1975 | Oil nationalized |
| 1976 · 1986 | The Assembly suspended, twice |
| 1985 | The attempt on Emir Jaber, 25 May |
| 1990 | Iraq invades, 2 August |
| 1991 | The air war, 17 January; the ground war, 24 February; liberation, 26 February; the oil fires to November |
| 1992 | The Assembly restored, 5 October |
| 2003 | The base of the invasion of Iraq, 20 March |
| 2005 | Women win the vote, 16 May |
| 2006 | Jaber dies, 15 January; Saad deposed after nine days; Sabah Al-Ahmad emir, 29 January |
| 2015 | The Imam Sadiq mosque bombing, 26 June — 27 dead |
| 2020 | Sabah dies, 29 September; Nawaf emir |
| 2023 | Nawaf dies, 16 December; Mishal emir |
| 2024 | The election of 4 April; the Assembly suspended, 10 May; Sabah Al-Khalid crown prince, 1 June |
| 2025 | The debt law by decree; the citizenship revocations |
Records & firsts
| The most valuable currency unit | The dinar, about US$3.25 |
|---|---|
| The oldest sovereign wealth fund | The Kuwait Investment Authority, 1953 |
| The second-largest oil field | Burgan |
| The sixth-largest oil reserves | About 101 billion barrels, 7% of the world's |
| The hottest temperature in Asia | Mitribah, 53.9°C, 2016 |
| The first written constitution of the Gulf | 1962 |
| The first elected parliament of the Gulf | 1963 — and suspended since 2024 |
| The most dependent on desalination | Since 1951 |
| Among the longest bridges | The Sheikh Jaber Causeway, 36 km |
| The largest wooden ship | The Al-Hashemi II |
| The oil fires of 1991 | 700 wells, nine months |
| Two-thirds foreign | The expatriate majority |
| The first Arab aid fund | The Kuwait Fund, 1961 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Kuwait?
The State of Kuwait — Dawlat al-Kuwayt — an emirate ruled by the Al-Sabah family since the 1750s, a British protectorate from 1899 and independent since 19 June 1961, when Iraq at once laid claim to it and Britain sent troops back. The name is the diminutive of the Arabic kut, a fort, "the little fort," for the stronghold on the bay where the town was founded in the early 1600s; Kuwait is the town, the bay and the country.
What is the capital of Kuwait?
Kuwait City — Madinat al-Kuwayt — on the southern shore of Kuwait Bay, the walled town of the pearl divers and dhow builders that the oil rebuilt from the 1950s, with the three Kuwait Towers of 1979 as its emblem and the Liberation Tower of 1996; about 3 million people in the metropolitan area, which is nearly the whole country, spread through the governorates of the Capital, Hawalli, Farwaniya, Mubarak Al-Kabeer, Ahmadi and Jahra. Salmiya, Hawalli and Farwaniya are the districts of the expatriates; Ahmadi the oil town; Jahra the old Bedouin town by the Mutla Ridge.
How big is Kuwait, and how many people live there?
About 17,818 km² (6,880 sq mi) — a little smaller than New Jersey, about the size of Swaziland — a wedge of desert at the head of the Persian Gulf between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, with nine islands, Bubiyan and Failaka the largest, and a bay that gave it its harbor. The Public Authority for Civil Information counts about 4.9 million residents, of whom about 1.55 million, a third, are Kuwaiti citizens; the rest are expatriates, Indians, Egyptians, Bangladeshis, Filipinos and Syrians above all, in the highest foreign share of any large state but the Emirates and Qatar.
What are the highest and lowest points of Kuwait?
An unnamed point of 306 m (1,004 ft) in the far west near the Saudi and Iraqi borders — the Mutla Ridge north of the bay, at 145 m, the country's other rise, where the retreating Iraqi army was caught on the "Highway of Death" in 1991; and the Persian Gulf. The country is flat desert without a river or a lake, its water from the sea by desalination since 1951, among the first in the world, and its summers among the hottest on earth: Mitribah recorded 53.9°C in July 2016, the highest temperature ever measured in Asia and among the highest anywhere.
What currency does Kuwait use?
The Kuwaiti dinar (ISO code KWD, KD), of 1,000 fils, issued by the Central Bank of Kuwait since 1969 and pegged to a basket of currencies — at about 0.31 to the U.S. dollar, one dinar buying about 3.25 dollars, the most valuable currency unit in the world. Clocks keep Arabia Standard Time, UTC+3, all year; the working week runs Sunday to Thursday.
Who governs Kuwait?
Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the ruler since 16 December 2023 on the death of his half-brother Nawaf, at 83 the oldest to take the throne — who on 10 May 2024, five months in, dissolved the National Assembly that had been elected on 4 April and suspended it for up to four years with seven articles of the Constitution, saying the country's politics had been "used for unhealthy purposes" and that an expert committee would revise the Constitution; the Assembly, the only elected parliament of the Gulf with real powers since 1963, has not sat since, and the emir rules by decree. Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid, named Crown Prince on 1 June 2024 without the Assembly's vetting, is the heir, and Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah the prime minister since April 2024. No election is scheduled.
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