Health in Qatar

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Life expectancy in Qatar Life expectancy by WBG -Qatar.png
Life expectancy in Qatar

Health in Qatar has undergone significant improvement in the last several decades as a result of substantial investments in healthcare by the government. [1] Child mortalities have been reduced by over fifty percent since the 1990s. [1] Qatar's healthcare spending per capita is the highest in the Gulf Cooperation Council, standing at $1827 in 2024. [2] The country's progress in health is hampered by exceedingly high rates of obesity, diabetes and genetic disorders. [3]

Contents

Currently, health coverage is nationwide. [1] In 2023, the infant mortality rate was 4.9 per 1,000 live births, [4] and life expectancy was 82.7 years. [5]

The population

As of 2025, the population of 3.1 million is 76.8% male, and 88.4% are expatriates, with only about 360,000 Qatari citizens. [6] The overall average income is about $76,700 per annum in 2024. [7]

Health concerns

Obesity and thinness

Historically, obesity has been a significant public health issue in Qatar. In 1980, it was the fourth most obese nation in the world, with 43% of adults being obese. [8] A 2024 report ranked Qatar 17th globally in terms of adult obesity rates in 2022, but still with a rate of 44%. It also found that Qatar had among the highest rates of combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults in the world, and the highest in the Middle East and north Africa region for men. [9]

A 2023 report showed that in the academic year 2019-2020 49.3% of children 5-14 were overweight or obese (with 27.7% being obese and 21.6% overweight), an increase from the 44% measured in the academic year 2016-2017. While rates of obesity rose for both citizen and non-citizen children in Qatar, the increase was more dramatic among Qatari citizen children, of whom 53.8% were overweight or obese (with 20.1% being obese and 33.7% overweight). [10] The 2024 report also found that Qatari school-age boys had the highest combined prevalence of obesity and unhealthy thinness in the world, tied with Chile. [9]

One reason for the obesity trend is the lack of exercise and car-centric urban designs which are unfriendly to pedestrians. Other reasons mentioned by experts for high rates of obesity were genetic predispositions common in Gulf populations, cultural norms that favor calorie-dense diets, junk food ads targeting children, and disrupted sleeping patterns, which are common among Gulf youth "due to erratic bedtimes and screen overuse". [11]

Diabetes

The country has among the highest rates of obesity, diabetes and genetic disorders in the world. [12] It has the highest rate of obesity among boys in the MENA region. [13]

As of 2024, 24.6% of the adult population in Qatar are estimated to have diabetes, with an estimated 46.4% being undiagnosed. [14] The government has launched numerous campaigns and initiatives to combat the rise in diabetes; the establishment of the Qatar Diabetes Association being one of its most notable initiatives. [15]

Birth defects

According to March of Dimes's global report on birth defects published in 2006, Qatar ranked in the top 20 countries globally for the number of birth defects per 1,000 births. The rate stands at 73.4 per 10,000 live births. [16] According to March of Dimes, Qatar ranked 16th globally for the number of birth defects per 1,000 births; [12] this is in part due to the high degree of consanguinity in marriages. [17] [18]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Sillitoe, Paul (2014). Sustainable Development: An Appraisal from the Gulf Region. Berghahn Books. p. 102. ISBN   978-1782383710.
  2. ↑ "Qatar's 2015 healthcare expenditure worth $5.2bn". Arabian Business. 13 July 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  3. ↑ "The Richest, Fattest Nation on Earth (It's Not the United States)". The Atlantic. 16 November 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  4. ↑ World Bank (2025-04-16). "Infant Mortality Rate for Qatar". FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Retrieved 2025-11-10.
  5. ↑ World Bank (2025-04-16). "Life Expectancy at Birth, Total for Qatar". FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Retrieved 2025-11-10.
  6. ↑ GLOBAL MEDIA INSIGHT (2025-05-26). "Qatar Population Statistics 2025 [Infographics]". Official GMI Blog. Retrieved 2025-11-10.
  7. ↑ "Average income around the world". Worlddata.info. Retrieved 2025-11-10.
  8. ↑ Lesley Walker (9 June 2014). "Study: Qatar's weight problem dates back three decades". Doha News. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  9. 1 2 Phelps, Nowell H.; Singleton, Rosie K.; Zhou, Bin; Heap, Rachel A.; Mishra, Anu; Bennett, James E.; Paciorek, Christopher J.; Lhoste, Victor PF; Carrillo-Larco, Rodrigo M.; Stevens, Gretchen A.; Rodriguez-Martinez, Andrea; Bixby, Honor; Bentham, James; Cesare, Mariachiara Di; Danaei, Goodarz (2024-03-16). "Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults". The Lancet. 403 (10431): 1027–1050. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(23)02750-2. ISSN   0140-6736. PMID   38432237.
  10. ↑ Al-Kohji S, El Akoum M, Al-Naimi MM, Al-Mohannadi AS, Al-Musalmani FA, Maalouf S. Childhood Obesity in Qatar: national policy proposal through multisectoral approaches. WISH and MOPH (2023). ISBN: 978-1-913991-34-0
  11. ↑ Babassa, Nassima (2025-02-10). "Qatar's obesity crisis: A call to action beyond Sports Day". Doha News | Qatar. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
  12. 1 2 "The Richest, Fattest Nation on Earth (It's Not the United States)". The Atlantic. 16 November 2011. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  13. ↑ Slackman, Michael (26 April 2010). "Privilege Pulls Qatar Toward Unhealthy Choices". New York Times.
  14. ↑ "Qatar". Diabetes Atlas. Archived from the original on 2025-04-27. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
  15. ↑ "Diabetes". Qatar e-Government. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  16. ↑ "Qatar 'has one of highest birth defect rates'". Zawya. 17 January 2015. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  17. ↑ Al-Dewik, Nader; Samara, Muthanna; Younes, Salma; Al-jurf, Rana; Nasrallah, Gheyath; Al-Obaidly, Sawsan; Salama, Husam; Olukade, Tawa; Hammuda, Sara; Marlow, Neil; Ismail, Mohamed; Abu Nada, Taghreed; Qoronfleh, M. Walid; Thomas, Binny; Abdoh, Ghassan (2023-02-07). "Prevalence, predictors, and outcomes of major congenital anomalies: A population-based register study". Scientific Reports. 13 (1): 2198. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-27935-3. ISSN   2045-2322.
  18. ↑ Almasri, Muna; Al-Sulaiti, Khalifa; Sayegh, Dana Al; Sharma, Omna; Jerbi, Aya El; Al-Riyami, Zakariya; Sarada, Padma Kumari; Gupta, Samir; Al-Saloos, Hesham (2023-08-25), Epidemiology of Congenital Heart Disease in Qatar: Preliminary findings from the Sidra Medicine Cardiac Registry, medRxiv, doi:10.1101/2023.08.24.23294593 , retrieved 2025-11-09
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