Hameed Al-Anazi
THE Kingdom’s population has increased to over 20 million. With expats, it has reached 31 million. According to the United Nations, it is expected that the Saudi population will reach 46 million by 2050, with 15 percent of it composed of senior citizens. Currently, only three percent of the population is elderly. The percentage of young men and women who have reached working age will rise to over 70 percent by 2035.
These percentages constitute a big challenge in terms of human development. Such huge population growth will be accompanied by increasing demands on healthcare, education and jobs. The Kingdom’s population over the past four decades has increased rapidly while the nation’s infrastructure has not seen the same development that could help the country meet the public service demands of an increasing population.
For example, although the number of students has increased yearly, not enough new schools have been constructed. The Ministry of Education has had to rent large buildings and turn them into schools to accommodate the large number of students. Because of the ministry’s lack of efficient plans and its poor planning, we now have over 7,000 buildings rented as schools. The same can be said about the increasing demand for healthcare services.
The growth of population requires future plans that take into consideration the requirements of such growth, such as education, job creation, etc. If population growth is not accompanied by sweeping developments in other sectors, our country will lag behind advanced countries. Education is the most important field that should be developed so that we can keep up with the demands of our increasing population.
In light of the current economic conditions and the slump in oil prices, it is important that we reconsider the methods of financing public services and of adapting to changes and challenges. The private and public sectors need to design plans so that they will be able to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population.
