Muscat: Oman’s population touched 4,378,632 as of Saturday, according to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The number of Omanis stood at 2,404,156, who constitute 54.8 per cent of the total population, while the number of expatriates stood at 1,983,476.
The majority of population resides in the capital governorate of Muscat — more than 1.3 million, according to the centre. It is followed by North Batinah governorate which has more than 700,000 people.
The number of expatriates has significantly increased in the past five years, reaching 43 per cent in the middle of 2015, compared to 29 per cent in 2010 and 38.9 per cent in 2011.
Oman continues to build mega infrastructure projects, which often require hiring expatriate manpower.
The NCSI figures showed that the number of expatriate workers in Oman is 1,714,522 at present, compared to 1,631,560 in August last year.
Preparatory school certificate-holders constitute the majority of expatriate workers in the sultanate while holders of bachelor and master’s degrees and PhDs have decreased.
The majority of expatriate workers are Indian (674,894), an increase of 0.7 per cent, including 37,291 women. There are 580,300 Bangladeshis in the country now, an increase of 1.7 per cent, including 27,000 women.
Meanwhile, 265 expatriate workers were deported and 253 others were arrested this week for violating the labour law, according to the Ministry of Manpower.
