Kingdom's population more than 31 million

Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — Saudi Arabia's population reached 31,015,999 in 2015 of whom about a third were expatriates, the General Authority for Statistics has said, according to local press on Tuesday. On its Twitter account, the authority said the population increased by 1.62 percent while the density per square kilometer during the same year was 15,900. It said the Saudis were 20,774,906 while the expatriates were 10,241,093. According to official statistical figures released in January, the population were 30,770,000 by the end of 2014 with an increase of 2.6 percent over their number in 2013 which was 29,990,000. The figures released by the authority indicated a drop in the fertility of the Saudi women. The authority said the Saudi woman who used to give birth to 12-14 children in the past, is now delivering 5-6 children maximum. It said the new generation is inclined to have three to four children separated by long delivery periods. The authority also said about 30 years ago the girls used to marry when they were only 15 but now the marriage age has gone up to 25 years. The authority explained that it released the figures on the occasion of the World Population Day which was observed on July 11. Meanwhile, the GCC Center for Statistics said the population of the six member countries were 50 million by the end of 2014.