Oman
Name
| Official name | Sultanate of Oman — Saltanat Uman (سلطنة عُمان) |
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| Former names | The Sultanate of Muscat and Oman (to 9 August 1970), the sultanate of the coast and the Imamate of Oman of the interior; the Omani Empire of the Indian Ocean, Muscat and Zanzibar (1696–1861); the Ya'rubi imamate; Mazun of the Sasanians; Magan of the Sumerians |
| Demonym | Omani |
| Meaning of the name | Ancient and uncertain — the Omana of Pliny and Ptolemy, from Uman, a settled place or a tribal ancestor, by the traditional readings; Magan, "the land of copper," the Sumerians' name for it 4,000 years ago; Muscat "the anchorage" of the ships |
| Motto | None official |
Quick facts
| Capital | Muscat — the port and the capital since the Portuguese and the Al Bu Said; about 1.5 million in the governorate of the six wilayats along the coast; Muttrah, Ruwi, Qurum and Seeb its quarters |
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| Largest cities | Muscat; Seeb, about 500,000, the capital's airport suburb; Salalah, about 400,000, the capital of Dhofar, the frankincense and the khareef; Bawshar; Sohar, the port of the copper and the ancient trade, the city of the protests of 2011 and the drone of 2026; Suwayq; Ibri; Saham; Barka; Rustaq; Nizwa of the imams, the fort and the Friday goat market; Sur of the dhows and the LNG; Duqm of the new port; Khasab of Musandam |
| Official language | Arabic — the Omani dialects of the coast, the interior and Dhofar, the Gulf Arabic of the media; English the language of the business, the schools' second and the road signs; Baluchi of the Batinah, Swahili of the Zanzibari families, Urdu, Hindi, Malayalam and Bengali of the expatriates; the Modern South Arabian languages of Dhofar, Jibbali of 50,000, Mehri, Harsusi, Bathari and Hobyot, the tongues older than Arabic; Kumzari of Musandam, of Persian and Arabic; Lawati of Muttrah |
| Currency | Omani rial — OMR; 1,000 baisa; since 1973; pegged at 0.3845 to the U.S. dollar since 1986, one rial 2.60 dollars |
| Time zone | Gulf Standard Time, UTC+4; no summer time |
| Calling code | +968 |
| Internet domain | .om and .عمان |
| ISO 3166 codes | OM · OMN · 512 |
| Vehicle registration code | OM |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 240 V, 50 Hz; plug type G |
| Independence | Never colonized — the Portuguese expelled from Muscat on 26 January 1650 by Imam Sultan bin Saif, the date the country counts; the Al Bu Said dynasty since 1744; the treaty with Britain of 12 October 1798, the oldest of the Gulf, and the British "protection" without a protectorate; the accession of Qaboos of 23 July 1970 the "Renaissance," the modern state's birth; the United Nations 7 October 1971 |
| National days | 18 November, National Day, the birthday of Sultan Qaboos of 1940, kept by Sultan Haitham; 23 July, Renaissance Day, for the accession of 1970; 11 January, the accession of Haitham; the Eids, the Islamic new year, the Prophet's birthday, the Isra and Mi'raj; the Muscat Festival of January and the Salalah Tourism Festival of the khareef; no Christmas but the churches |
| Constitution | 11 January 2021 — the Basic Law of the State, the Sultan's decree on the first anniversary of his accession that replaced the Basic Statute of 6 November 1996 of Qaboos: the Sultan the head of state and government, the succession by male primogeniture in the line of Turki bin Said and the office of crown prince created by Article 7, the Council of Oman of the elected Consultative Council and the appointed State Council, the Council of Ministers, the courts, the rights and the "principles of the Islamic Sharia"; no political parties; the amendment by decree |
| Population | About 5.4 million (2026 est.) — Omanis about 3.1 million, 58%, and expatriates about 2.3 million, 42%; the e-census of 2020 the count |
| Area | 309,500 km² (119,499 sq mi) — land 309,500 km², water negligible; the Musandam exclave and the Madha enclave in the Emirates |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | Three horizontal bands of white, red and green with a vertical red band at the hoist bearing in white the national emblem, the khanjar dagger in its sheath over two crossed swords — the red for the battles against the invaders and the traditional flag of the sultanate, the white for peace, prosperity and the imams of the interior, the green for the Jebel Akhdar and the fertility of the land; adopted 17 December 1970 by Sultan Qaboos in the first year of his reign in place of the plain red flag of Muscat and the white of the Imamate, the bands made equal on 25 April 1995.Flag of Oman |
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| National emblem | The khanjar, the curved dagger of the Omani man's dress in its silver sheath, hung from a belt over two crossed swords — the badge of the Al Bu Said dynasty since the 18th century, the emblem of the state on the flag, the passports and the rial; the khanjar the national dress's pride and the wedding gift |
| National anthem | "Nashid as-Salam as-Sultani" ("The Sultanic Salute") — the tune of 1932 written by the British bandmaster James Frederick Mills for a visit of Sultan Said bin Taimur, the words of 1970 by Rashid bin Uzayyiz Al Khusaidi for Qaboos, revised on 6 November 2020 for Sultan Haitham; "O Lord, protect for us our Majesty the Sultan" |
| National motto | None official |
| National colors | Red, white and green |
| National animal | The Arabian oryx, hunted to extinction in the wild in 1972 and brought back to the Jiddat al-Harasis from the American zoos in 1982, its sanctuary the first World Heritage site ever delisted, in 2007, for the shrinking of the reserve to the oil; the Arabian leopard of the Jebel Samhan of Dhofar, about 200 left; the Arabian tahr of the Hajar; the green turtles of Ras Al Jinz; the camel of the races; widely cited |
| National tree | The frankincense tree, Boswellia sacra, of the Dhofar wadis, the resin the pharaohs burned and the Magi carried, the Land of Frankincense of the World Heritage; the date palm of the aflaj oases; the ghaf of the desert; widely cited |
| National dish | Shuwa — the lamb or goat marinated in the spices, wrapped in banana leaves and buried in a pit of embers for a day or two, the dish of the Eids; the Omani halwa of the rosewater, saffron and ghee served with the kahwa coffee and the dates of every welcome; the majboos and the kabsa rice, the harees, the mashuai grilled kingfish, the lokhemat; the Zanzibari of the returnees; widely cited |
| National sport | Football, the Red Warriors of the Gulf Cups of 2009 and 2017 and the Asian Cups since 2004; the camel racing of the Batinah tracks; the dhow racing and the Oman Sail of the Indian Ocean; the bullfighting of Sohar and Barka with no blood; the cricket of the Asian expatriates and the T20 World Cup co-host of 2021; the Tour of Oman of the cyclists since 2010; the hockey; the horse of the Royal Cavalry; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag by the decree of 1970 and the Basic Law; the emblem by the dynasty's usage and the law; the anthem by the decrees of 1970 and 2020; the animals, tree, dishes and sports widely cited |
Geography
| Location | The Middle East, the southeastern corner of the Arabian peninsula — the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea to the east and south, the Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, Yemen to the southwest; the Musandam exclave at the Strait of Hormuz facing Iran 55 km across; Iran, Pakistan and India across the water |
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| Land borders | 1,561 km (970 mi) with three neighbors — Saudi Arabia 658 across the Empty Quarter, the border fixed only in 1990 and the road opened in 2021; the United Arab Emirates 609, in three pieces around Musandam and Madha, the Buraimi oasis of the old dispute and the Hatta road; Yemen 294, the Dhofar frontier of the rebellion and the Mahra desert; the Musandam exclave of the Shihuh tribes cut off by the Emirates |
| Coastline | 2,092 km (1,300 mi) by the Factbook and 3,165 by the sultanate's own count — the Batinah coast of the palms from Sohar to Muscat, the cliffs of Muscat, the turtle beaches of Ras Al Jinz, the Sharqiya of Sur, the Dhofar shore of the monsoon, the Masirah island of the American air base, the Damaniyat islands; the Musandam fjords, the "Norway of Arabia," of the khors and the dolphins; the southern shore of the Strait of Hormuz, 39 km wide at the narrowest, the shipping lanes in Omani waters, the fifth of the world's oil and the war of 2026 |
| Highest point | Jabal Shams, 3,004 m (9,856 ft), on the Jebel Akhdar of the Hajar |
| Lowest point | The Arabian Sea, 0 m |
| Mean elevation | 310 m (1,017 ft) |
| Rivers | None permanent — the wadis of the flash floods that run for hours after the rains, the Wadi Bani Khalid and the Wadi Shab of the pools, the Wadi Ghul of the canyon, the Wadi Samail that cuts the Hajar between Muscat and the interior, the Wadi Darbat of Dhofar in the khareef; the aflaj, the 4,000 falaj channels of the underground springs that irrigate the oases by the gravity of 2,500 years, the Falaj Daris of Nizwa and the four others of the World Heritage; the desalination plants the water of the cities |
| Lakes | None — the khors, the tidal lagoons of the Dhofar coast, Khor Rori of the ancient port of Sumhuram; the Ain Al Kasfah hot spring, the Bimmah sinkhole of the Hawiyat Najm; the Wadi Dayqah dam of 2012, the largest reservoir; the seasonal ponds of the mountains |
| Terrain | The coastal plain of the Batinah and the gravel plains; the Hajar mountains, the Western and Eastern Hajar of 700 km, the Jebel Akhdar plateau at 2,000 m of the terraces and the roses, the Jabal Shams; the interior of Nizwa and Ibri, the oases of the imamate; the Empty Quarter of the west, the Rub' al Khali of the world's largest sand sea shared with the Saudis, and the Wahiba Sands of the east; the Jiddat al-Harasis gravel desert of the oryx; the Dhofar mountains of the Jebel Qara and Jebel Samhan over Salalah, green in the monsoon; the Musandam peaks falling into the sea; the Madha and Nahwa enclaves |
| Climate | Arid and hot — the summers of 45°C on the coast with the humidity and 50 in the interior, the winters mild at 20°C, the mountains cool and the Jebel Akhdar with frost and the snow of a decade; the rain of 100 mm at Muscat and 350 in the mountains; the khareef of Dhofar, the monsoon drizzle of June to September that brings the Gulf's tourists to Salalah; the cyclones of the Arabian Sea |
| Natural hazards | Cyclones — Gonu of 6 June 2007, the strongest on record in the Arabian Sea, 50 dead and Muscat flooded, Phet of 2010, Mekunu of May 2018 over Salalah, Shaheen of 3 October 2021 with 14 dead on the Batinah; the flash floods of the wadis, the floods of 14–16 April 2024 with 21 dead, schoolchildren among them, the deadliest of the wadis; the heat; the mosque attack of Wadi Kabir of 15 July 2024, six dead and the three Omani attackers, the Islamic State's first in the country; the drones and missiles of the war of 2026 on Duqm, Salalah, Sohar, Khasab and the strait, 18 dead by the count |
| Natural resources | Oil — about a million barrels a day from the Fahud and the Yibal of the interior since 1967 and the Block 6 of Petroleum Development Oman, the reserves of 5 billion barrels, the Duqm refinery; natural gas of the Khazzan and Ghazeer fields of BP, the Oman LNG of Qalhat; copper of Sohar mined since the Sumerians; chromite, the largest exporter of gypsum in the world, marble, limestone, silica; the fish of the two seas, the tuna and the kingfish; the frankincense of Dhofar; the dates of 8 million palms; the sun and the wind of the hydrogen plans |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 5%, the date palms and the aflaj gardens; forest none of account, the frankincense woodland and the Dhofar scrub; the desert the rest |
| National parks and reserves | The Arabian Oryx Sanctuary of 1994 in the Jiddat al-Harasis, delisted by UNESCO on 28 June 2007 after the state cut it by 90% for the oil, the first site ever struck off; the Ras Al Jinz turtle reserve of the 20,000 green turtles; the Damaniyat Islands of the reefs; the Jebel Samhan of the leopard; the Wadi Sareen of the tahr; the Al Saleel of the gazelles; the Sultan Qaboos Nature Reserve of the Empty Quarter; the Khor Rori and the Dhofar khors of the birds; the Musandam's waters of the whale sharks |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 5 — Bahla Fort (1987), the mud-brick fortress of the Banu Nebhan of the 12th to 15th centuries; the Archaeological Sites of Bat, Al-Khutm and Al-Ayn (1988), the beehive tombs of the third millennium BC; the Land of Frankincense (2000), Khor Rori, Al Baleed, Shisr of the "lost city of Ubar" and the Wadi Dawkah trees; the Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman (2006), the five falaj; the Ancient City of Qalhat (2018), the port of the Hormuz kings; the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary of 1994 delisted 2007; the Al-Bar'ah dance (2010), the Al-Taghrooda camel poetry (2012), the Al-Ayyala (2014), the majlis, the coffee and the Al-Razfa (2015), the horse and camel Ardhah (2018) and the Khanjar crafts (2022) on the intangible list |
| Administrative divisions | 11 governorates — muhafazat — since the reform of 28 October 2011, Muscat, Dhofar, Musandam, Al Buraimi, Ad Dakhiliyah, Al Batinah North and South, Ash Sharqiyah North and South, Adh Dhahirah and Al Wusta, each under a governor of the Sultan's; 61 wilayats under the walis; the municipal councils elected since 2012, the last on 25 December 2022 and the next in 2026–27; the sheikhs of the tribes |
People
| Population | About 5.4 million (2026 est.) |
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| Population density | About 17 per km² (45 per sq mi) — the Muscat and Batinah coast holding two-thirds of the people, the Empty Quarter empty |
| Population growth | About 2% a year — the Omanis at 2.5% on the young families, the expatriates by the oil price and the projects; the "Omanization" of the jobs the policy since the 1990s |
| Median age | About 26 years — the Omanis about 21, half the citizens under 25 |
| Life expectancy | About 78 years |
| Fertility rate | About 2.6 births per woman among the Omanis, from 8 in 1980 |
| Urban population | About 88% |
| Adult literacy | About 96% — the schools of the Renaissance, three in 1970 and 1,900 now |
| Ethnic groups | Omani Arab about 58% of the population and the whole of the citizenry with its strands — the tribes of the interior and the coast, the Baluchi of the Batinah and the army, a fifth of the Omanis by some counts, the Zanzibari Omanis who came back from East Africa after 1964 with their Swahili, the Lawatiya of the Muttrah souq, the Ajam of Persian descent, the Dhofaris of the Jibbali hills and the Mehri plains, the Shihuh of Musandam; the expatriates about 42% — Indians about 700,000 of Kerala and Gujarat, Bangladeshis about 700,000, Pakistanis 300,000, Egyptians, Filipinos, Sri Lankans, Nepalis, the Westerners of the oil; the mixed nation of the Indian Ocean |
| Languages | Arabic by the citizens and the Arab expatriates, the Omani Arabic of the "hadari" and "bedu" and the Gulf standard; English by the educated and the commerce; Baluchi by a tenth of the country; Swahili by the Zanzibaris; Urdu and Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, Tagalog, Sinhala of the workers; the Modern South Arabian languages of Dhofar, Jibbali and Mehri, the survivors of the pre-Arabic tongues of the peninsula that UNESCO lists as endangered; Kumzari of the Musandam village of Kumzar |
| Religion | Muslim about 89% by the estimates — the Ibadi of about 45%, the majority of the Omanis by the older counts and a large minority by the newer, the third branch of Islam of the Kharijite roots of 650 that elected its imams and ruled the interior until 1959, the tolerant and the plain, the mosques without minarets of old, the Sultan and the Grand Mufti Ahmed Al Khalili of its school; the Sunni of about 45%, the Baluchi, the Dhofaris, the Sharqiya tribes and the expatriates; the Shia of about 5%, the Lawatiya, the Baharna and the Ajam of Muscat and the Batinah, the Wadi Kabir mosque of the attack of 2024; Hindu about 5% and Christian about 6% of the expatriates, the churches and the temples of Ruwi and Ghala of the Sultan's land; the religious tolerance the state's pride and the law's ban on the parties, the proselytizing and the sects |
| Human Development Index | 0.858 (2023 data, 2025 report) — very high; about 50th of 193 |
| The Omanis and the jobs | The "Omanization" of the private sector since 1988, the quotas of the citizens in the banks, the shops and the oil, the 100,000 young Omanis without work of the protests of Sohar in February 2011 and of Sohar and Salalah in May 2021, the jobs promised and the expatriates sent home; the "Vision 2040" of the diversification, the tourism, the mines, the logistics and the fisheries; the pensions and the social protection law of 2023; the income tax of 5% on the earnings above 42,000 rials a year, the first in the Gulf, enacted 22 June 2025 for 1 January 2028; the women of the Shura and the ministries, the first Gulf women ministers of 2004; the majlis of the tribes; the Zanzibari and the Baluchi and the question of who is the Omani of the fortieth year of the Renaissance |
| Sport | Football — the Gulf Cups won at Muscat in 2009 and in Kuwait in 2017, the Asian Cups of 2004, 2007, 2015, 2019 and 2024, the World Cup qualifying of 2026 lost in the fourth round of October 2025, Ali Al Habsi of Wigan; the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex; the Oman Sail of the Extreme Sailing and the Arabian Sea; the camel races of the winter, the horse of the Royal Cavalry; the cricket of the Oman Cricket Academy and the World Cups of 2021 and 2024; the Tour of Oman won by the Nibalis and the Froomes; the Muscat Marathon; the Olympics since 1984 with no medal; the Asian Games; the bullfighting of the Batinah Fridays |
| Diaspora | Small — the Omanis of the Gulf, Britain and the United States of the students and the merchants; the Omani communities of Zanzibar, Kenya and Tanzania of the empire's heirs, the Swahili-speaking Arabs of the coast; the Gwadar of Pakistan that was Omani until 1958; the 2.3 million expatriates who send their money home to Kerala and Dhaka |
Government
| Form of government | Absolute monarchy — the Sultanate under the Basic Law of 2021, the Sultan the head of state and government, the prime minister, the supreme commander, the chairman of the central bank's board until 2020 and the source of the law by decree; the Council of Oman of the Consultative Council of 90 elected and the State Council of 86 appointed, advisory both; the Council of Ministers; no parties, no unions but the federation of 2010, the assembly by permission; the shura of the majlis and the tribes the tradition; "not free" by Freedom House and the "stable and quiet" of the region's watchers; the "renewed Renaissance" of Haitham after the "Renaissance" of Qaboos |
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| Sultan | Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, since 11 January 2020 — the fifteenth sultan of the Al Bu Said dynasty, the tenth of the line of Said bin Sultan; born 13 October 1954 at Muscat, the son of Sayyid Tariq bin Taimur, the prime minister of 1970–71 and the grandson of Sultan Taimur, and of Sayyida Shawana Al Busaidi, the graduate of the Foreign Service Programme of Pembroke College, Oxford, the undersecretary and secretary-general of the foreign ministry, the minister of heritage and culture of 2002–20, the chairman of the Vision 2040 committee, the football federation's president of 1983; named in the sealed envelope that Qaboos left in the palace of Bareeq Al Shatti, the will the family opened on 11 January 2020 within hours of the death rather than choose themselves, the cousin of the childless sultan sworn the same day; the sultan who gave up the finance and foreign portfolios his cousin held and named his son crown prince, who cut the debt from 68% to 36% of GDP, decreed the income tax and the tourism, hosted the Americans and the Iranians, and thanked the Iranian foreign minister at the palace on 25 April 2026 for the mediation of a war whose drones had killed his residents; "a friend and neighbour" to Tehran, an ally with bases to Washington, the target of Trump's aside of 28 May 2026 — "we'll blow it up" if Oman "doesn't behave" — over the toll talks; the husband of Sayyida Ahad bint Abdullah, the first sultan's wife to appear in public; the visits of 2022–25 to Tehran, Damascus and Cairo |
| Crown Prince | Sayyid Theyazin bin Haitham Al Said, the crown prince since 12 January 2021, the first in the country's history under the Basic Law's Article 7 of the day before — born 21 August 1990, the graduate of Oxford Brookes, the diplomat of the London embassy, the minister of culture, sports and youth since August 2020, "the third-most senior member" of the government in the BTI's reading; the succession fixed by primogeniture in place of the sealed letter of 2020; his brother Bilarab of the entrepreneurs' fund; the foreign minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi since 18 August 2020, the mediator of the Iran talks and the Houthi ceasefire, "this is not your war," his words to Washington of 28 February 2026; the finance minister Sultan bin Salim Al Habsi; the deputy prime ministers Fahd bin Mahmoud for the cabinet and Shihab bin Tariq for defense, the sultan's brother; the secretary-general of the Council of Ministers |
| The Iran war of 2026 | The mediator become the target — Oman the channel of the American–Iranian talks since the secret meetings of 2013 that made the nuclear deal of 2015, the host of the rounds of 12 April, 26 April and May 2025 at the Al Alam Palace and the Omani embassy in Rome that the Israeli war of June 2025 ended, of the indirect round of Muscat of 6 February 2026 and of the Geneva round of 26 February 2026 at the residence of the Omani ambassador where Al Busaidi shuttled between Witkoff and Araghchi, "a historic agreement within reach," Tehran said the day before; the American and Israeli strikes on Iran of 28 February 2026 that killed Khamenei and the generals, "active and serious negotiations have been undermined," Al Busaidi's dismay; the Iranian drones and missiles on the Gulf states from 1 March, on Oman the two drones of Duqm of 1 March and the tanker Skylight hit off Khasab with three dead, the tanker off Muscat of 2 March with one, the Duqm fuel tank of 3 March, the tug Mussafah 2 in the Omani waters of Hormuz on 6 March with four dead, the Salalah port's fuel tanks ablaze on 11 March and the port shut, the drone over Khasab of 12 March, the two dead of the Sohar industrial area of 13 March, the Salalah cranes of 28 March, the American A-10 shot down off Bukha on 3 April, the Bukha housing of 4 May, the ships of the strait of 5 May with five dead — 18 dead and 23 injured in all, the Indians the most of them; "not our choice," Araghchi said on 2 March, the units "acting independently," the General Staff's "friend and neighbour," Mojtaba Khamenei's "false flag" of 20 March; the American non-essential staff ordered out on 14 March; the American bases of Thumrait, Masirah and Duqm the reason; the ceasefire of 8 April; Araghchi received by the Sultan on 25 April; the Oman–Iran talks of May on a joint toll for the strait's ships that drew Trump's "blow up" of 28 May; the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding signed electronically by Trump at Versailles and Pezeshkian on the night of 17–18 June 2026 with Pakistan's premier as mediator, the 14 points of the 107-day war's end, the strait to reopen "instantly," the blockade to lift, Iran "to coordinate future maritime arrangements with Oman and other regional littoral states"; the strait closed again by Tehran in the summer over a "breach" of the memorandum and the offer of September to reopen it, the Saudis restarting the east–west pipeline, "the mediator has become a party to the dispute," the analysts; Oman's support of the memorandum restated with the Iranian delegation of 18 August 2026 |
| The Council of Oman | The Consultative Council — Majlis al-Shura — of 90 members elected for four years from the 61 wilayats by the Omanis over 21, the tenth term elected 29 October 2023 on a turnout of 66%, its powers of review and question won by the decree of 2011 after the protests, the legislative power the streets asked for and the Sultan withheld, "as unwilling as his predecessor," the BTI; the State Council — Majlis al-Dawla — of 86 appointed by the Sultan, the elders, the technocrats and the women; the two the Council of Oman that reviews the laws the ministers draft; the next election of the Consultative Council in October 2027; the municipal councils of the governorates of 2022 |
| The next election | The Consultative Council in October 2027; the municipal councils of 2026–27; no election of the executive |
| Qaboos and the Renaissance | Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the ruler of 23 July 1970 to 10 January 2020, fifty years less six months, the longest-reigning monarch of the Arab world — the Sandhurst officer who deposed his father Said bin Taimur in the British-backed coup of 1970 and found a country of three schools, one hospital and 10 km of paved road with the doors of Muscat locked at dusk; the Dhofar war against the Marxist rebels won by 1976 with the British SAS, the Shah's soldiers and the Jordanians and the roads and wells that won the hearts; the "Nahda," the Renaissance, of the oil money spent on the schools, the hospitals, the roads, the university of 1986 and the Grand Mosque, the neutrality between Iran and the Arabs, the mediation as a craft; the Basic Statute of 1996, the Shura of 1991, the protests of 2011 answered with jobs and the council's powers; the childless sultan, the sealed letter, the 18 November of his birthday the National Day still; buried at the Royal Cemetery of Muscat on the day he died |
| Legal system | Civil law of the French and Egyptian codes with the Islamic Sharia of the personal status and the Ibadi jurisprudence — the Supreme Court since 2001, the Administrative Court, the courts of the Sultan's judges; the death penalty on the books, the executions rare; the cybercrime law of 2011 and the penal code of 2018 of the "insult to the Sultan," the bloggers and the journalists jailed, the Azamn newspaper closed 2016; the Omani citizenship by the father; the "Omani Human Rights Commission"; the strict laws on the assembly and the parties; the tolerance of the faiths in the law and the practice; the trial of the Wadi Kabir attackers' network of 2024–25 |
| Local government | 11 governors of the Sultan's appointment and 61 walis of the wilayats; the municipal councils elected since 2012 with the advisory role, the last elected 25 December 2022; the Muscat Municipality and the Dhofar of the special status; the sheikhs of the tribes and the walis' majlis; the Ministry of Interior's hand over all |
| Defense | The Sultan's Armed Forces of about 45,000 — the Royal Army, the Royal Navy of the Khareef corvettes, the Royal Air Force of the F-16s and the Eurofighter Typhoons of 2017, the Royal Guard; the Sultan the supreme commander, Shihab bin Tariq the deputy for defense; the British of the two centuries, the Loan Service officers, the joint training base of Duqm of 2019 for the British carriers, the Thumrait and Masirah bases of the Americans by the agreement of 1980 and the Duqm and Salalah ports by the deal of 24 March 2019, the American A-10s of Musandam of the war of 2026; the Dhofar war of 1964–76 and the Jebel Akhdar war of 1954–59 the wars of the state, the peacekeepers few; the defense spending of about 5% of GDP, the highest share of the Gulf by some counts; the Cobra Warrior of the British exercises; no conscription |
| Foreign policy | The neutrality of the "Switzerland of the Gulf" — the friend of Iran since the Shah's soldiers of Dhofar, the only Gulf state that kept the ties through the revolution and the wars, the channel of Washington and Tehran since 2013 and the sanctioned oil's route; the ally of Britain of the 1798 treaty, the "special relationship" of the officers and the Duqm base, and of the United States of the 1980 agreement and the bases; the Saudi and Emirati neighbors of the customs union quarrel and the Buraimi memory, the Qatar blockade of 2017–21 refused; Israel without normalization, the Abraham Accords declined in 2020 and the airspace opened to the Israeli flights in February 2023 and closed to them in the war; Yemen of the Houthi channel, the American–Houthi ceasefire of 6 May 2025 brokered at Muscat, the Saudi–Houthi talks; the Gulf Cooperation Council of the founders; India of the oldest trade and the comprehensive economic partnership concluded in 2025, China of the Duqm industrial park and the oil, Pakistan of the Islamabad memorandum; the strait its geography and its fate |
| United Nations | Member since 7 October 1971; the votes of the Arab consensus and the abstentions of the neutral; the mediation of the hostages of Iran, the American hikers of 2011 and the sailors since; the World Heritage delisting of 2007 the only one of a natural site |
| Other memberships | The Gulf Cooperation Council (1981), a founder; the Arab League (1971); the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; the Non-Aligned Movement; the WTO (2000); OPEC+ as a non-OPEC producer since 2016; the Indian Ocean Rim Association; the Islamabad Memorandum's maritime arrangements of 2026 with Iran and the littoral states |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$110 billion (2025, IMF) |
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| GDP per capita | About US$21,000 (2025) — about US$35,000 for the citizens by the citizens' count |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$42,000 (2025) |
| GDP growth | About 2% in 2025 and about 2.5% expected in 2026 on the oil price of the war, the average export price of US$81 a barrel in the first half of 2026 against the budget's US$60 and the US$74 of a year before, a surplus of up to US$3 billion in sight by the AGSI's count if the spending holds, the ports and the shipping the war's cost; inflation about 1%; the rial's peg; the unemployment of the young Omanis about 10%; the credit rating restored to investment grade by S&P in 2024 and Moody's in 2025 on the debt cut |
| Economy by sector | Industry about 55%, the oil and gas about a third of GDP and three-quarters of the revenue; services about 43%; agriculture and fishing about 2% |
| Currency | Omani rial (OMR) |
| Oil and gas | About a million barrels a day of oil, the Gulf's smaller producer and OPEC+'s partner since 2016, from the Fahud of 1962 and the Yibal, the Block 6 of Petroleum Development Oman of the state's 60%, Shell's 34% and TotalEnergies, the Block 61 of BP's Khazzan and Ghazeer tight gas, the Mukhaizna of Occidental of the heaviest oil; the exports to China of 90% of the crude; the Oman LNG of Qalhat of 11.4 million tons a year and the Marsa LNG bunkering; the Duqm refinery of 2023 of 230,000 barrels a day with Kuwait, the Sohar refinery; the reserves of 5 billion barrels for 15 years; the OQ of the state; the Mina Al Fahal terminal of Muscat of the drone claim of 5 June 2026 and the Duqm and Salalah of the strikes |
| Vision 2040 and the new economy | The plan of Haitham's committee of 2019 for the country after the oil — the Duqm special economic zone of 2,000 km² with the Chinese industrial park, the dry dock and the refinery; the green hydrogen of the Hyport Duqm and the eight blocks auctioned in 2023–25, the target of a million tons a year by 2030, the largest program of the Middle East by the plans, the ammonia for Europe and Asia; the Sohar port and freezone of the aluminum, the steel and the polysilicon; the mines of the copper of Sohar and the gypsum; the logistics of the three ports at the crossroads the war put in doubt; the tourism of 4 million visitors of 2024, the Muscat cruise ships, the khareef of Salalah, the mountains and the desert, the Iran war of 2026 the hit to the year; the Omani Investment Authority of US$50 billion; the income tax of 2028; the VAT of 5% since April 2021 |
| Farming and the sea | The dates of 8 million palms, the largest crop, the khalas and the fardh; the limes of the interior, the Omani lime of the Gulf's kitchens; the roses of the Jebel Akhdar for the rosewater, the pomegranates and the walnuts; the frankincense of Dhofar of a few hundred tons; the fish of 800,000 tons of the two seas, the tuna, the kingfish and the sardines, the fisheries the Vision's hope; the camels and the goats of the Bedu; the water of the aflaj and the desalination; the food imported by four-fifths |
| Trade | Exports of about US$60 billion, the oil and gas at two-thirds, the LNG, the refined products, the aluminum, the fertilizer, the steel and the fish — to China at 40%, India, Japan, South Korea, the Emirates and Saudi Arabia; imports of the machinery, the cars, the food and the gold from the Emirates, China and India; the Strait of Hormuz's closure of 2026 that stopped the Gulf's tankers and left Oman's own ports of Muscat, Sohar, Duqm and Salalah outside the strait the region's doors; the free trade agreement with the United States of 2009 |
| Public finances | Public debt of about US$38 billion, about 36% of GDP, down from the 68% of the pandemic year of 2020, the sultan's "conservative financial management," the bonds bought back; the budget of about 11 billion rials for 2026 on the US$60 oil price; the fuel subsidies cut since 2016; the VAT of 2021 and the income tax of 2028; the sovereign fund of US$50 billion; the pensions merged in the social protection of 2023; the wages of the public sector of a third of the spending |
| Income classification | High income (World Bank) |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airports | Muscat International Airport at Seeb, the terminal of 2018 built for 20 million passengers and used by about 13 million, the hub of Oman Air; Salalah International of the khareef flights and the Indian expatriates; Duqm of the zone; Sohar; the Musandam strip of Khasab; the Masirah and Thumrait air bases of the Americans; the airspace closed to the Israelis in the war |
|---|---|
| Airline | Oman Air, the national carrier of 1993, the Boeing 787s and 737s to London, Frankfurt, Bangkok and the Indian cities, the member of Oneworld since June 2025, the losses of the pandemic years and the restructuring, the routes of the war of 2026 cut and restored; SalamAir, the low-cost carrier of 2017; the Gulf Air of old |
| Main ports | Salalah, the container transshipment port of APM Terminals on the Arabian Sea, 4 million containers a year, the drones of March 2026 and the fuel tanks burned; Sohar, the industrial port of 2004 with Rotterdam that took the cargo of Muscat; Duqm, the port of 2021–23 of the zone, the dry dock and the refinery, the American access of 2019 and the strikes of 2026; Sultan Qaboos Port of Muscat of the cruise ships; the Khasab of Musandam of the Iranian smugglers' speedboats; the Mina Al Fahal oil terminal; the ports outside the strait that the war made the Gulf's alternative |
| Railways | None yet — the Hafeet Rail of 2024–27, the 303 km line from Sohar to the Emirates' Al Ain and Abu Dhabi's network, the first railway of the country, the Oman–Etihad Rail company of the two states, the freight of 2027 and the passengers after; the Oman National Railway of 2,135 km of the plans of 2013 shelved with the oil price; the Salalah–Duqm line of the hopes |
| Roads | About 60,000 km (37,000 mi), about 30,000 paved and the best of the peninsula — the Batinah Expressway of 2017 from Muscat to the Emirates, the Muscat Expressway, the road to Salalah of 1,000 km through the desert, the Adam–Haima–Thumrait, the road to Saudi Arabia of 2021 across the Empty Quarter, the Jebel Akhdar road of the checkpoint for the four-wheel drives, the Musandam coast road cut into the cliffs; the driving on the right; the 1.7 million cars; the Mwasalat buses of the capital and the Salalah route; the dhows of Sur and the ferries of Musandam |
| The strait | The Strait of Hormuz, 39 km at the narrowest between Musandam and Iran's Qeshm, the inbound and outbound lanes of 3 km in Omani waters, 20 million barrels a day of the world's oil and a fifth of its LNG in the years before the war; the closure of March 2026 by Tehran and the American blockade of the Iranian ports answered, the tankers hit in Omani waters, the reopening of the memorandum of June, the closure again and the offer of September; the toll Iran means to charge and the "arrangements with Oman" the memorandum promised; the Khasab and the Bukha of the Musandam frontline |
History in dates
| c. 100,000 BC | The stone tools of Aybut Al Auwal in Dhofar — among the oldest human traces outside Africa |
|---|---|
| c. 3000 BC | Magan — the copper to Sumer; the tombs of Bat |
| c. 500 BC | The aflaj of the Persians |
| 630 | Islam — the Prophet's letter to the kings of Oman |
| 751 | The first Ibadi imam, Julanda bin Masud |
| 1507 | Albuquerque takes Muscat, the Portuguese to 1650 |
| 1650 | The Portuguese expelled, 26 January — Sultan bin Saif |
| 1698 | Mombasa taken — the empire of East Africa |
| 1744 | Ahmad bin Said — the Al Bu Said dynasty |
| 1798 | The treaty with Britain, 12 October |
| 1832 | Said bin Sultan moves the capital to Zanzibar |
| 1861 | The empire split — Muscat and Zanzibar |
| 1913 | The Imamate revived in the interior |
| 1920 | The Treaty of Seeb, 25 September — the coast and the interior |
| 1932 | Said bin Taimur sultan, 10 February |
| 1954 | The Jebel Akhdar war, to 1959 — the imamate ends |
| 1962 | Oil found at Fahud |
| 1964 | The Dhofar rebellion begins, to 1976 |
| 1967 | The first oil exports |
| 1970 | Qaboos deposes his father, 23 July; the flag, 17 December |
| 1971 | The United Nations, 7 October |
| 1976 | The Dhofar war won |
| 1981 | The Gulf Cooperation Council, 25 May |
| 1996 | The Basic Statute, 6 November |
| 2007 | Gonu, 6 June — 50 dead; the Oryx Sanctuary delisted, 28 June |
| 2011 | The protests of Sohar, February; the Shura's powers, October |
| 2013 | The secret American–Iranian talks at Muscat |
| 2020 | Qaboos dies, 10 January; Haitham, 11 January |
| 2021 | The Basic Law, 11 January; the Crown Prince, 12 January; Shaheen, 3 October |
| 2023 | The Shura election, 29 October; the Duqm refinery |
| 2024 | The floods, 14–16 April — 21 dead; the Wadi Kabir attack, 15 July |
| 2025 | The Iran talks at Muscat, 12 April; the Houthi ceasefire, 6 May; the income tax law, 22 June |
| 2026 | The Muscat round, 6 February; Geneva, 26 February; the war, 28 February; the strikes on Oman, 1 March; Salalah burns, 11 March; the A-10, 3 April; the ceasefire, 8 April; Araghchi at the palace, 25 April; Trump's threat, 28 May; the Islamabad Memorandum, 17–18 June; the strait closed and offered again, September |
Records & firsts
| The oldest independent state of the Arab world | Since 1650 |
|---|---|
| The oldest treaty with Britain in the Gulf | 12 October 1798 |
| The third-most valuable currency unit | One rial, US$2.60 |
| The longest-reigning modern Arab ruler | Qaboos, 1970–2020 |
| The first World Heritage site delisted | The Oryx Sanctuary, 2007 |
| The only Ibadi-majority state | The third branch of Islam |
| The only monsoon of Arabia | The khareef of Dhofar |
| The largest exporter of gypsum | Oman |
| The oldest copper trade | Magan, 3000 BC |
| The first opera house of the Gulf | Muscat, 2011 |
| The first income tax of the Gulf | 1 January 2028 |
| The first crown prince of Oman | 12 January 2021 |
| The mediator struck | 18 dead, 2026 |
| A co-manager of Hormuz by treaty | The Islamabad Memorandum, 2026 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Oman?
The Sultanate of Oman — Saltanat Uman — the state of the Al Bu Said dynasty that has ruled since Ahmad bin Said of 1744, the oldest independent state of the Arab world, never a colony, an empire once that ruled Zanzibar and the East African coast from Muscat and then from Zanzibar itself until the two halves parted in 1861, the "Sultanate of Muscat and Oman" of the British treaties until Sultan Qaboos renamed it in 1970 on the day he deposed his father. The name is ancient — Omana in Pliny and Ptolemy, Mazun to the Persians, Magan to the Sumerians who bought its copper — and its people are the Ibadis, the third branch of Islam, whose imams ruled the interior until 1959.
What is the capital of Oman?
Muscat — Masqat, "the anchorage" or "the place of falling," the walled port between the mountains and the Gulf of Oman that the Portuguese held from 1507 to 1650 and whose two forts of Jalali and Mirani still guard the old harbor beside the Sultan's Al Alam Palace — a capital that is not one city but a governorate of about 1.5 million along 60 km of coast, Muttrah of the souq and the corniche, Ruwi of the offices, Qurum of the beaches, Seeb of the airport, the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque of 2001 with its 4,343 m² carpet, the Royal Opera House of 2011, the low white buildings of the law that forbids towers; the capital of the Iran talks of 2025 and February 2026. Salalah of Dhofar, the second city and the monsoon, Sohar of the port and the copper, Nizwa of the imams and the fort, Sur of the dhows, Duqm of the new port and the strikes of 2026 follow.
How big is Oman, and how many people live there?
About 309,500 km² (119,499 sq mi) — the size of Italy, a little smaller than New Mexico — at the southeastern corner of the Arabian peninsula, with the Emirates and Saudi Arabia to the west across the desert, Yemen to the southwest, a coast of 2,000 km on the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, and the Musandam exclave at the tip of the peninsula that holds the southern shore of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil passes. The statistics center counts about 5.4 million people in 2026, of whom about 3.1 million are Omani citizens and 2.3 million are expatriates, Indians and Bangladeshis the largest — the Omanis a young people of the tribes, the mountains and the coast, with the Baluchi, Zanzibari, Lawati and Dhofari strands of the country's Indian Ocean past.
What are the highest and lowest points of Oman?
Jabal Shams, "the mountain of the sun," 3,004 m (9,856 ft), the summit of the Jebel Akhdar, the "green mountain" of the Hajar range that walls the interior from the coast, with the "Grand Canyon of Arabia" of the Wadi Ghul at its foot and the terraces of the roses and pomegranates on its slopes; and the sea. The Hajar runs 700 km from Musandam to Ras al-Hadd, the Rub' al Khali, the Empty Quarter of the world's largest sand desert, fills the west, the Wahiba Sands the east, and Dhofar in the south is the only corner of Arabia that catches the Indian monsoon, the khareef of June to September that turns Salalah green; there are no rivers, only the wadis of the flash floods and the aflaj, the falaj channels of 2,500 years that UNESCO listed in 2006.
What currency does Oman use?
The Omani rial (ISO code OMR, ر.ع.), of 1,000 baisa — a rial worth 2.60 U.S. dollars, the third-most valuable currency unit in the world after the Kuwaiti dinar and the Bahraini dinar — issued by the Central Bank of Oman since 1974 and pegged to the dollar at 0.3845 rials since 1986, the rial Saidi of 1970 and the rial Omani of 1973 before it, the Maria Theresa thaler and the Indian rupee the money of the sultanate's older centuries. Clocks keep Gulf Standard Time, UTC+4, all year; Oman drives on the right, on the best roads of the peninsula.
Who governs Oman?
Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, the head of state and of government, the prime minister, the supreme commander and the source of all law, since 11 January 2020, when the sealed letter of his cousin Sultan Qaboos, who had ruled for fifty years, named him — an absolute monarch in the Omani manner of the councils and the consultation, with his son Theyazin as the first crown prince of the country's history under the Basic Law of 2021, the foreign minister Badr Al Busaidi the face of the mediations abroad, and a Consultative Council of 90 elected in October 2023 that advises and does not legislate, the demand of the streets of 2011 and 2021. The year of 2026 made the mediator a target: the sultanate that hosted the American and Iranian negotiators in February was hit from 1 March by the Iranian drones of the war that followed, 18 dead at its ports, threatened in May by the American president over the future of the Strait of Hormuz, and written in June into the Islamabad Memorandum as the strait's co-manager with Tehran. The next Consultative Council election is due in 2027.
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