Components and Public Health Impact of Population Growth in the Arab World

Abstract

The Arab world, which consists of the 22 member states of the Arab League, is undergoing a rapid transition in demographics, including fertility, mortality, and migration. Comprising a distinctive geographic region spread across West Asia and North East Africa and unified by the Arabic language, these states share common values and characteristics despite having diverse economic and political conditions. The demographic lag (high fertility and low mortality) that characterizes the Arab world is unique, but the present trend of declining fertility, combined with the relatively low mortality, brings about significant changes in its population size. This research aimed to: (i) assess the population growth in the Arab world over 3 time periods, (ii) explore its components, and (iii) understand its public health impact. Data from the International Data Base (IDB) of the U.S. Census Bureau for 3 time periods (1992, 2002, and 2012) in 21 countries of the Arab world were analyzed by dividing them into four geographic sectors, namely, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), West Asia, Maghreb, and the Nile Valley African Horn. The population of the Arab world has grown considerably due to both natural growth and migration. The immigration is pronounced, especially into resource-intensive GCC nations, not only from East Asian and Central African countries but also from resource-thrifty (limited-resource) Arab nations. The migrations within, as well as outside, the Arab world reveal an interesting demographic phenomenon that requires further research: migration flows and trends. However, the transformations in public health statistics related to mortality—the impact of demographic changes—depict a new era in the Arab world.

Adult mortality trends in Qatar, 1989-2015: National population versus migrants

“…The major contributor to Qatar’s total population growth has been the influx of healthy male migrant labor [ 1 ] to build Qatar’s workforce [ 2 , 3 ]. Consequently, Qatar’s total population increased rapidly reaching a population growth rate of 22% in 2005–2010 while it was <4% prior to 2000 [ 4 ]; with a resultant change in its age pyramid ( S1a and S1b Fig ).…”

Ageing and health in the Arab region: Challenges, opportunities and the way forward

“…In addition to the above, movements resulting from forced and voluntary migration and driven by economic and socio-political transitions exert strong influences on population structures. While this is very prominent in the Arab region, migration as a demographic phenomenon has rarely been studied (Abdul Salam et al, 2015). In 2015, there were 32 million international migrants in the Arab States, making up close to 8% of the population, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE hosting respectively the 4 th and the 5 th largest migrant populations in the world (ILO, 2015).…”

“…Knowledge transfer and translation need to be enhanced with closer links between academics with governmental agencies, the civil society and the private sector. Scholars call for cooperation among various stakeholders, including funding agencies and the public and private sectors, to produce a targeted and well-informed research agenda that is more responsive to emerging and context-specific needs of older adults in the region (Rizk et al, 2015;Abdul Salam et al, 2015;Khan et al 2017).…”

The Dominance of Food Supply in Changing Demographic Factors across Africa: A Model Using a Systems Identification Approach

“…Diet has also been seen as a key driver of demographic change (Schönfeldt and Hall 2012). Cultural change may be important in some areas (Salam et al 2015). Conflict has also been held responsible for population decline (Zhang et al 2007), with there being a much debated suggestion that an indirect climate role encouraging violence aggravates this link (e.g., Burke et al 2009;Buhaug 2010;Bernauer et al 2012;Theisen et al 2013).…”