Ahead of the World Youth Day 2020, which is on 12th August, the General Statistical Authority (GASTAT) has published the “Saudi Youth Study in Numbers.”
The comprehensive study that considers various factors like population, social, economic, education, health, cultural and recreational aspects reveals that more than two-thirds of the population in Saudi Arabia is under 35 years old.
In particular, 30.3% of the Kingdom’s population is between the age group of 0-14 years and 36.7% between 15-34 years. Only 33% of the population is over the age of 35.
The GASTAT statistics say that 27.6% are men and 26.2% are women in the 20-24 age group.
The percentage of young men and women who were never married in the 15-34 age group was 66.23%. In this age group, the number of unmarried women was 43.1% and 75.6% of men. Further, 34.3% of women are married, 1.27% are divorced and 0.5% of them are widows.
The study also analyzed the health summary of the population. The ratio of Saudi citizens between the ages of 15-34 who suffer from chronic diseases to the overall Saudi population was 5.5%, while the number of men was 5.8%, and women were 5.2%.
The study also suggested that Saudi women practice sports as a means to improve health, while men engage in them for recreation and physical fitness.
The study further revealed that the rate of illiteracy among Saudi nationals in the 15-34 age group fell dramatically, compared to the 2007-2017 decade. This positive change is largely due to the decrease in women’s illiteracy levels during this span.
With regard to employment, it reported that the number of young Saudis working (15-34 years) reached 1,489,520 employees in 2019 , representing around 47% of the total number of Saudi employees.
