Covering nearly 757,000 square miles, Saudi Arabia is the largest country in area in the Middle East. At the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, it is on the Arabian Peninsula with the Red Sea to its west and the Persian Gulf to its east. Its access to the Indian Ocean to the south is blocked by Oman and Yemen. Saudi Arabia is also bordered by Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait on the north and Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on the east. It is separated from Egypt and the Sudan by the Red Sea on the west and from Bahrain and Iran by the Persian Gulf on the east.
Saudi Arabia's approximately 23.5 million people are about 90 percent Arab with an Afro-Asian minority of about 10 percent. There is an overall population growth of 4 percent per year. The influence of black Africa is evident along the Red Sea coast, where a black population is intermixed in Semitic stock.
Influences from Iran, Pakistan, and India are evident in eastern Saudi Arabia. Most of the country's citizens have generational roots established centuries ago. Approximately 78 percent of the population lives in the urban areas. Many ofthe rest, who live in rural areas, still practice a nomadic way of life, wandering through areas of the country and living off the land. However, agricultural production is severely limited by lack of water, increasing salinity of the soil, and the small sizes of average farms. About three-quarters of the country's food supply must be imported.
Because Saudi Arabia promotes joint international business ventures, large numbers of foreign workers live in the country. Saudi Arabia's most important natural resource is oil (including products produced from oil, such as natural gas and petroleum), which makes up about 85 percent of the country's income. The economy is primarily driven by government contracts, most of which are based upon the continuing growth and industrialization of the country. Therefore, the greatest need is for materials used in building construction, roads, and improving other parts of the infrastructure.
World History
