Flag of Saudi Arabia
Location of Saudi Arabia on the globe

Saudi Arabia

SA

Western Asia

Saudi Arabia is home to 3 documented ethnic groups in Western Asia — led by Saudi Arab (~50%), Non Saudi Foreign (~42%), Bedouin Saudi (~8%). This page blends their phenotype and demographic data into one weighted reference: skin tone, facial features, hair texture and build, drawn from published census and ancestry sources.

Demographic Composition

Composition weights are derived from self-identification in published census and demographic surveys. Each row links to the source ethnic-group atlas page.

Ethnic groupWeightSource
Saudi ArabSaudi Arab50.0%General Authority for Statistics Saudi Arabia 2022 Census; Saudi citizens (~58%, ~18.8M+ of ~32.2M total) are predominantly ethnic Saudi Arab. Concentrated across all regions of Saudi Arabia. Predominantly Sunni Muslim (~85-90% of Saudi citizens are Sunni, predominantly the Hanbali madhhab — the religious-jurisprudential basis of the Saudi state-religious establishment) with substantial Twelver Shia minority (~10-15% of Saudi citizens, concentrated heavily in the Eastern Province around Qatif and Al-Ahsa), plus the smaller Ismaili Shia community of Najran, plus the Zaydi Shia community of southern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border
Non Saudi ForeignNon Saudi Foreign42.0%Saudi Arabia 2022 Census; non-Saudi foreign workers and residents (~42%, ~13.5M+); predominantly migrant-worker populations from India (~2.5M+), Bangladesh (~1.5M+), Pakistan (~1.4M+), Yemen (~1M+), Egypt (~1.5M+), the Philippines (~900,000+), Indonesia (~700,000+), Sri Lanka (~700,000+), Sudan (~500,000+), Syria, Nepal, Ethiopia, plus other source populations. Predominantly engaged in construction, hospitality, healthcare, domestic-helper, and broader service-sector employment
Bedouin SaudiBedouin Saudi8.0%Estimates; Saudi Bedouin (~8%, ~2.6M+); concentrated in desert zones throughout the country. Distinct from broader settled Saudi-Arab populations through tribal-pastoral cultural-political identity. Politically significant in the Saudi state-tribal-confederation system

Saudi Arabia Phenotype Profile

Saudi Arabia has a distinctive demographic structure with the substantial non-Saudi foreign-worker population (~42% of resident population) plus the Saudi citizen population (~58%) which is itself dominated by Saudi-Arab ethnic identification with the small Bedouin tribal-confederation sub-population (~8% of total). The country's demographic structure reflects approximately 1,500+ years of Arab-language-and-cultural consolidation on the Arabian Peninsula plus the post-1932 establishment of the modern Saudi state under the al-Saud royal family plus the post-1970s oil-economy-driven foreign-worker migration that has produced one of the highest foreign-resident-population shares of any large national population.

Genome-wide studies place Saudi Arabian populations as showing characteristic Arabian-Peninsula source-population ancestry. Skin tone Fitzpatrick III-V modal IV. Hair predominantly straight to wavy black. Eye color predominantly brown. Adult Saudi male mean stature approximately 168-172 cm.

A descriptive view, not a claim about individuals

This page shows a weighted aggregate of phenotype observations across the Saudi Arabia population, based on demographic composition from published census and ancestry sources. Phenotypes within any country are far more varied than the aggregate suggests; this is a descriptive reference, not a deterministic claim about any individual. For source-level detail on individual ethnic groups, see the constituent atlas pages linked below.

Methodology Notes

Composition weights are derived from the General Authority for Statistics Saudi Arabia 2022 Census. The 2022 Census reported total population of ~32.2M with substantial foreign-resident component. Caveats: (1) the kafala system creates demographic complexity for citizen-vs-resident enumeration; (2) the substantial foreign-worker population produces ongoing demographic flux; (3) the Saudi-Arab tribal identity is socially salient but is not enumerated separately in census instruments; (4) the religious-sectarian distribution (Sunni majority, Shia minorities) is not enumerated separately.

See full project methodology →

Primary Sources

  1. 1.General Authority for Statistics Saudi Arabia. Saudi Census 2022. Riyadh: GASTAT; 2023.
  2. 2.Vassiliev A. The History of Saudi Arabia. NYU Press; 2000.
  3. 3.Hertog S. Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats: Oil and the State in Saudi Arabia. Cornell University Press; 2010.
  4. 4.Lacroix S. Awakening Islam: The Politics of Religious Dissent in Contemporary Saudi Arabia. Harvard University Press; 2011.
  5. 5.Pampus KH. Saudi Arabia: Government, Society and the Gulf Crisis. Routledge; 1993.

Other countries in Western Asia

Aggregate phenotype references for neighbouring Western Asia nations, weighted by demographic composition.

Browse all Western Asiaethnic groups & countries →