Asia
To which language should you translate to localize in Qatar?
Introduction
Language
Official language
Arabic
T-index
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.
Actual languages
English
Minority Languages
Farsi, Urdu, Malayalan and Sinhalese, Tagalog
English
Very Low proficiency (EF) – scored 79 out of 112 countries/regions in the world – 5/12 in the Middle East
Demography
Capital: Doha
Currency: Qatari Riyal
Population: 2.93 m
Population density: 255/km2
Economy
GDP: 179.57 billion USD (2021)
GDP per capita: 61,276.0 USD (2021)
Exports: $47.2B (2020)
Statistics
Internet users: 99% penetration, 2.93 million
Unemployment rate: 0.3% (2021)
Urbanisation: 94.14% (2018)
Literacy: 43% (2020)
Conventions
Numbering system
Arabic numerals are not used
Date format: dd-mm-yyyy
Time: 24h time system
Country code: 00974
Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal
Facts and data
Economy
Imports
$26.8 (2020). Turbo-jets, turbo-propellers and other gas turbines ($1.81B), Motor cars and other motor vehicles; principally designed for the transport of… ($1.31B), Aircraft (e.g. helicopters, aeroplanes); spacecraft (including satellites) ($1.14B), Jewellery articles and parts thereof, of precious metal or of metal clad ($1.01B), and Light-vessels, fire-floats, dredgers, floating cranes, other vessels ($814M), importing mostly from China ($3.32B), United States ($2.99B), United Kingdom ($2.04B), Germany ($1.79B), and France ($1.7B).
Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of age)
• 6% have an account with a financial institution
• 32% have a credit card
Ease of doing business
It is easy to conduct business (rated 68.7 out of 100) ranked 7th out of 8 North African and Western Asian countries and 77th out of 190 countries worldwide (2020, World Bank)
Exports
$47.2 billion (2020). Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons ($22.2B), Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals; crude ($9.89B), Petroleum oils and oils from bituminous minerals, not crude; ($6.14B), Polymers of ethylene, in primary forms ($1.56B), and Fertilizers; mineral or chemical, nitrogenous ($1.15B), exporting mostly to Japan ($8.09B), India ($7.25B), China ($7.09B), South Korea ($6.02B), and Singapore ($2.83B).
Global Innovation Index
Ranked 7th out of 19 Northern African and Western Asian countries, 68th out of 132 worldwide.
The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.
Economic freedom
Moderately free (rated 67.7 out of 100) ranked 3rd out of 14 Middle Eastern countries and ranked 44th out of 186 countries worldwide (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal)
Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal
Service imports (2018)
Source: OEC
Service exports (2018)
Source: OEC
Most complex products by PCI
Product Complexity Index measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters
Source: OEC
Most specialised products by RCA Index
Specialisation is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage, an index that takes the ratio between Qatar observed and expected exports in each product
Source: OEC
Export Opportunities by Relatedness
Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product, the barchart show only products that Qatar is not specialized in
Source: OEC

T-index
Reach most of the online purchasing power
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.
Try it nowMedia
Media language
Arabic, English
Information channels
Influential pan-Arab and international TV broadcaster Al-Jazeera has raised Qatar’s media profile. The Doha-based operation is owned by the Qatar government. Its main Arabic network is a leading pan-Arab TV news station. The broadcaster operates Al-Jazeera English and Bosnia-based Al-Jazeera Balkans. Al-Jazeera Arabic can be outspoken on subjects deemed as sensitive in the region. But the Qatari media observe strict self-censorship on domestic coverage and avoid criticising the state or government. “The government, the royal family and Islam are off limits to reporters”, says Reporters Without Borders. Domestic audiences are catered for by state-run TV and radio. The large expatriate population has access to media from their various home countries. Qatar has daily newspapers in Arabic and English. The main titles have links to the ruling family and there is little or no critical reporting of domestic or foreign policy affairs. BBC World Service radio in Arabic, France’s Arabic-language Monte Carlo Doualiya and Radio Sawa from the US broadcast on FM in Doha. Qatar has one of the highest internet penetration rates in the Middle East. There were 2.6 million internet users by the end of 2017 – around 98% of the population (InternetWorldStats.com).The top social networks are Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and Instagram. Authorities filter political criticism, material deemed offensive to Islam, pornographic content and online privacy resources.
Television
Al-Jazeera – influential pan-Arab and international satellite broadcaster, financed by the Qatar government
Qatar TV – state-run; operates main Arabic service, Koran channel, English channel, satellite
The Press
Al-Watan (The Homeland) – privately-owned, pro-government daily
Al-Rayah (The Banner) – privately-owned, pro-government daily
Al-Sharq (The East) – privately-owned, pro-government daily
Al-Arab – privately-owned, pro-government daily
Gulf Times– – English-language, sister paper of Al-Rayah
The Peninsula – English-language, sister paper of Al-Sharq
Qatar Tribune – English-language, sister paper of Al-Watan
Radio
Qatar Media Corporation (QMC) – state-run, programming in Arabic, English, French, Urdu
News agency
Qatar News Agency – state-run, in English
Qatar Day – portal, in English
Media data source: BBC
Internet Data
Internet users
99% penetration, 2.93 million
Share of web traffic by device
66.07% mobile phones, 32.5% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.34% tablet devices and 0.03% other devices
Median speed of mobile Internet connection
97.90 Mbps
Median speed of fixed Internet connection
64.16 Mbps
Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 151.8%
Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 91.5%
Most popular web search engines
Google (97.33%), Bing (2.02%), Yahoo (0.28%), Yandex (0.14%), Petal search (0.12%) DuckduckGo (0.07%)
Most used social media
Facebook (77.23%), Twitter (7.29%), Instagram (5.72%), YouTube (4.8%), Pinterest (3.6%), Linkedin (0.62%)
Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter
Social statistics
Life expectancy
80 yrs (2020)
Unemployment
0.3% (2021)
Average age of the population
32.3 yrs (2019)
Literacy
93.18% (2018)
Healthcare expenditure
2.91% of GDP (2019)
Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF
The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com
Languages research
Languages in Qatar

Ethnicities in Qatar


Is Arabic the only right language to do business in Qatar?
The T-Index – the index implemented by Imminent and designed to guide companies in choosing the best languages and the best markets to target – should provide a quick answer to this question. However, when discussing Qatar, more analysis is necessary from a demographic standpoint to reveal that the economic data – which indicates promising growth – is not enough on its own to offer a comprehensive overview of the country from a linguistic perspective.
Discover moreThe geographical distribution of languages that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.com
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