|
Kuwait
SOCIETY
Population: March 1992 estimate 1,175,000, of
whom 53 percent Kuwaiti; a decline from preinvasion population
of 2,155,000 (mid-1990 estimate), of whom 27 percent Kuwaiti.
Education: Free and compulsory to age fourteen
for all citizens and many foreigners from preschool through university.
Adult literacy rate 73 percent in 1990.
Health: National comprehensive health care system
extensive and continuing to expand and improve. Life expectancy
in 1990 seventy-two years for males and seventy-six for females.
Ethnic Groups: Most Kuwaitis are Arab. Foreign
population shifted from predominantly Arab to predominantly Asian
in 1980s. After 1990-91 Iraqi occupation, composition of foreign
population changed again, especially with exodus of about 370,000
of the 400,000 Palestinians.
Religion: Most Kuwaitis are Sunni Muslims. About
20 percent of citizens are Shia Muslims. Most foreigners are also
Muslims, the majority Sunni.
Data as of January 1993
|
