Demography as a Military Constraint

The last official census in Saudi Arabia, conducted in September 1974, showed a population figure of slightly over seven million. The findings of another census in 1976 were never published. The 1974 census, however, does not carry much weight, as a growth rate as high as 3.6 per cent a year in the indigenous population would put the 1990 Saudi population as high as 13,000,000, an inconceivable figure. Foreign estimates vary widely, from a low of 7,000,000 to a high of 12,500,000 in 1988 and 15,000,000 in late 1990. The last official Saudi estimate in 1988 put the figure as high as 14,000,000. ¹