KUWAIT: Kuwait’s population grew by 5 percent from 4.988 million to 5.237 million last year, but the number of Kuwaiti citizens dropped by 5,000. A report by the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) released on Wednesday showed the population of Kuwaitis at the end of last year stood at 1.563 million compared to 1.68 million the previous year.
The percentage of Kuwaitis to the total population dropped from 31.4 percent at the end of 2024 to 29.85 percent at the end of last year, according to the PACI report. On the other hand, the number of expats grew by 7.3 percent from 3.42 million to 3.67 million, making up 71.5 percent of the total population.
Indians continue to dominate expat numbers, advancing to 1.059 million at the end of last year from 1.008 million a year ago, according to the report. The Indian community makes up 20 percent of Kuwait’s total population and 29 percent of all expats. They form 40.1 percent of all domestic helpers or 343,000 persons. They are followed by Egyptians with 667,000, forming 18 percent of expats. Bangladeshis come in third place with 324,000 and Filipinos in fourth with 226,000, the report shows.
Of the expat numbers, 856,000 are domestic helpers, who increased by 4 percent last year from 823,000 helpers. They form 16 percent of the total population and 27 percent of the total workforce in
Kuwait, the report said. Kuwait’s workforce without domestic helpers reached 2.356 million at the end of 2025, of whom 527,000 or 22 percent work in the government and 1.83 million or 78 percent work in the private sector, according to the report.
Three-quarters of the government’s workforce are Kuwaitis, while Kuwaiti citizens make up just 3.7 percent of the private sector workforce. The total Kuwaiti workforce has reached 450,000. Indians make up 30.8 percent of private sector employees, followed by Egyptians with 23.9 percent. Indians also make up 33.9 percent of the entire expat workforce, the report showed.
