By Ramesh Mathew
Staff Reporter
Qatar's population has fallen for the second successive month as per records released by the Ministry of Development and Statistics on its website on Sunday.
Compared to the figures on December 31, 2014, there was a fall of almost 11,000 in the latest count.
While on December 31, there were 2,235,431 people in the country, the latest figures showed the number of people fell to 2,224,583.
It is interesting to note there is a marginal rise of over 7000 in the number of males in January compared to the previous month's figures. While there were 1,686,228 men on December 31, the number shot up to 1,693,455. The total population in December was 2,235,431, which was lower than the previous month's total of 2,269,672.
The number of women fell by over 18,000 compared to the December 31 figures. There were 549,203 females in the country at the end of 2014. As per the latest figures, there are only 531,128 females in Qatar. It is presumed that a number of Qatari families are away from the country owing to the spring vacation of their children at local schools. That would effectively mean that the migration of the expatriate workforce to the country continued in January as is shown in the latest figures on the number of males.
The country's all-time highest population was recorded on November 30, when there were 2,269,672 people in Qatar, according to the ministry's statistics. While there were 1,697,727 males, there were 571,945 females on that date, it was revealed.
The total population, as per the ministry statistics, contained only those who are within the country and not those who are residents, but are outside the country on the last day of every month.
However, it is expected that the population would shoot up to an all-time high in the next two months, based on figures in the previous years.
