Qatar’s population put at 1.79mn

Qatar’s population grew by around six per cent to reach 1.972 million at the end of April compared with the same month of 2011. Official data showed the number of males stood at 1.327 million and females at just above 456,000. The population at the end of April this year was around 18,580 higher than in the previous month, showed the figures by Qatar’s Statistics Centre. The report gave no breakdown for nationalities but expatriates are believed to account for more than 80 per cent of the total population. Qatar is the richest nation in terms of GDP per capita thanks to its soaring LNG exports from the giant North Sea field, the world’s largest reservoir of natural gas, with reserves of around 25 trillion cubic metres. Its LNG output capacity has topped 77 million tonnes per year.