13 Fun Facts about Qatar
We all know Qatar is the host of the Fifa World Cup 2022, but how much do you really know about Qatar? Find out more about this fascinating and controversial little country in the Middle East.
Qatar is about the same size as Yorkshire
It is the smallest country to ever have hosted the FIFA World Cup.
Until 1971, Britain controlled Qatar’s foreign policy
In 1916 Qatar signed a treaty with Britain to protect them from the Ottoman Empire in exchange for control over their foreign affairs and other rights, Qatar was made a British Protectorate.
Qatar has the world’s largest natural gas field
The South Pars(Persian )/North Dome field contains 1,800 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. For comparison; the UK produces 7.32 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year while the US produces 322 trillion cubic feet. The field contains enough gas to fill five hundred ten trillion LPG cars.
Qatar is the 4th richest country in the world
Qatar owns The Shard
London’s most iconic building and Western Europe’s largest skyscraper, the Shard is owned by Qatar, as well as large parts of Canary Wharf and other parts of the city.
Qatar has the second largest population of sea elephants
Only 15% of the population of Qatar are actually Qataris:
Country | Number | percent |
---|---|---|
India | 700,000 | 25.00% |
Bangladesh | 400,000 | 12.10% |
Nepal | 400,000 | 12.10% |
Qatar | 330,000 | 11.60% |
Egypt | 300,000 | 12.10% |
Philippines | 236,000 | 5.60% |
Pakistan | 180,000 | 4.80% |
Sri Lanka | 140,000 | 2.20% |
Sudan | 60,000 | 2.10% |
Syria | 54,000 | 1.72% |
Lebanon | 40,000 | 1.68% |
United States | 40,000 | 1.3%–1.50% |
Kenya | 30,000 | 1.10% |
Iran | 30,000 | 1.08% |
United Kingdom | 22,000 | 0.92% |
Qatar’s population is 2.6 million, with 330,000 of them Qatari citizens and 2.3 million migrant workers from other countries. 90% of Qatar’s population are migrant workers. Many of the workers for the construction of the World Cup stadiums were paid $1 an hour. Revealed: 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since World Cup awarded – The Guardian
Qatar’s population has increased 6,085% since 1960
From 47,383 in 1960 to 2.93 million in 2021. That’s like going from the size of the small town of Perth in Scotland to the size of Jamaica.
Qatar has the highest density of camels in the world
Qatar invented the robot jockey
They used to use small boys whose screams would make the camels go faster but in 2001 the first robots began to be used instead and now it’s all robots.
Qatar’s new $45B megacity, Lusail, has a state-of-the-art city-wide cooling system
It has four different district-cooling plants around the city and is one of the biggest in the world. Buildings around the city are cooled down after the exchange in temperature between the water and the air.
In 2010 Qatar recorded its hottest ever temperature of 48.1C
Qatar is the 9th hottest country in the world with an average temperature of 28C. The hottest temperature ever recorded in the world was 56.7C in 1913 in Death Valley, California.
Qatar has a 9.5 km2 Snow park with 17 snow guns producing real snow at -4C
Sources:
How Qatar Got So Rich – Business Insider India
Qatar – Encyclopaedia Britannica
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/qatar-population/
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/hottest-countries-in-the-world