ABSTRACT
The assessment of the social welfare policy in Qatar is possible with proper demographic statistics. The demographic structure of the population, foreign and national, of Qatar in 1970. Two striking features can be noted immediately. The first is the swollen number of foreigners between the ages of 20 and 59 the expatriate labour force who represent around 64.5 per cent of the total foreign community. The second fact is the large number of Qataris below fifteen years of age who alone constitute 52 per cent of the local population. It is this characteristic of Qatari society, shared by most Arab societies that are a major contributor to the shortage of manpower. The acute shortage of native Qatari manpower is sharpened by its inherent lack of the requisite skills for the new economy. The majority of the Qataris have always been urban dwellers, so the present expansion is not due to rural-urban migration.
