Arab Population and Income Information

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Please see especially “U.N. Information on Palestinian Refugees” and “General Arab Population + Income Stats”

The Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz in the Preceding Section on “Participant Comments” traced the history of Israel-Palestine for the last 2,000 years – AND ENDED WITH THE OBSERVATION THAT MERE “COST EFFECTIVENESS” WOULD DICTATE THAT THE UNITED STATES OFFER TO MAKE EACH PALESTINIAN REFUGEE (WOMAN, MAN OR CHILD) A MILLIONAIRE ON CONDITION THAT S/HE USE THE MONEY TO LEAVE THE REFUGEE CAMPS AND GET A REAL LIFE!!! BECAUSE DECIDING (EVEN UNCONSCIOUSLY) TO LET THIS SITUATION FESTER FOR ANOTHER 60 YEARS WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY END SOONER IN A NUCLEAR BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON PRODUCING A WORLDWIDE “TWILIGHT OF THE HUMANS”!!!

The 9/28/2009 posting on “U.N. Information on Palestinian Refugees” takes a look at the United Nation’s own web site for the U.N. Relief and Agency Works which, since 1950, has registered the Palestinian refugees and run refugee camps for them. In 1950, there were only 750,000 Palestinian refugees. Today, they have multiplied to 4.6 million – with 1.3 million of that total living in the U.N. refugee camps in near-abject poverty and the remainder faring little better. The U.N. camps are located in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza.

The 10/4/2009 posting on “General Arab Population + Income Stats” estimates that to raise the standard-of-living of the 4.6 million Palestinian refugees to the level prevailing in the 12 countries in the Arab League whose economies are not primarily based on oil, would require annual underwriting of $6 billion/year.

HOWEVER, WHAT WAS INTENDED BY THE OFF-HAND THOUGHT OF MAKING PALESTINIAN REFUGEES MILLIONAIRES WAS TO DO MORE THAN SIMPLY GIVE THE PALESTINIANS A “COUNTRY” COMPRISING THE WEST BANK AND GAZA – WITH ALL THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEES CONTINUING TO LIVE IN POVERTY IN THE REFUGEE CAMPS!!!

Obviously what is needed is more than a “land for peace” deal – SOMEONE NEEDS TO DESIGN AN ECONOMIC PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE THE REFUGEES OUT OF THEIR CAMPS AND MAKE THEM PROSPEROUS!!!

The “first step” was the estimate of how much it would cost/year to simply raise the standard of living of the Palestinian refugees to the level prevailing in the other 12 non-oil Arab countries at $6 billion/year.

Now think about what could be accomplished if you took that amount of money for, say, 10 years and designed a real economic-development program for all 4.6 million Palestinian refugees – bringing all of them together in the New Palestine (or how many ever of them can be enticed to leave the refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria). AFTER ALL, $6 BILLION/YEAR FOR 10 YEARS IS ONLY 33% OF GIVING EGYPT $3 BILLION/YEAR OF FOREIGN ECONOMIC AID AND ISRAEL $3 BILLION/YEAR OF FOREIGN ECONOMIC AID BEGINNING IN 1979 WHEN THEY SIGNED THEIR PEACE AGREEMENT – AND WE ARE STILL GIVING BOTH CLOSE TO THAT 30 YEARS LATER!!!

As a “ball park” estimate of what would be required, let’s assume that half of the 4.6 million Palestinian refugees are minors and that what we should be doing is providing each of them with a good education that will equip them to compete successfully in the modern world, and let’s assume that the other half are adults who, with some basic training, could handle the jobs that would go with economic development – construction, irrigation, agriculture, manufacturing, etc. If a careful assessment were made about what the comparative strengths would be for the new country of Palestine (assuming appropriate education for minors and training for adults), it should be possible to get rid of the refugee camps and bring prosperity to the Palestinians.

Unfortunately, it does not appear that anyone is giving any thought to doing this!!! Instead, everyone appears to be taking the attitude toward the Palestinians – “You can have your own country if you stop bothering everyone else” – BUT THAT WON’T SOLVE THE REAL PROBLEM!!!
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johnkarls
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Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

Arab Population and Income Information

Post by johnkarls »

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Arab Population & Income Statistics – per http://www.cia.gov

THE OBJECTIVE IN ASSEMBLING THESE STATISTICS IS TO TRY TO ASCERTAIN HOW MUCH IT MIGHT COST/YEAR TO PROVIDE THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEES WITH THE SAME STANDARD OF LIVING THAT PREVAILS IN THE 22 ARAB COUNTRIES WHOSE ECONOMIES ARE NOT (OR NOT PREDOMINENTLY) OIL-BASED.

Unfortunately, the software for our bulletin board does NOT appear to permit up-loading spread-sheets. And the software does not even appear to permit while inputting word-processing files the tabs in order to create columns.

Therefore, what could have been presented as columns in one or two spread sheets will be presented below in a series of tables that have only the country name and only 1-2 statistics for each.

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Population of the 22 members of the Arab League (and, for informational purposes, Israel, the U.S. and the E.U.) follow below -- please note that the C.I.A. breaks out the West Bank and Gaza Strip separately since the Gaza Strip has not been occupied by Israel since 2005 – but together, as Palestine, they comprise a single Arab League member.

Rank out of 238 Countries in the World – Country – Population

16 – Egypt – 83,082,869
30 – Sudan – 41,087,825
36 – Morocco – 34,859,364
37 – Algeria – 34,178,188
41 – Iraq – 28,945,633
42 – Saudi Arabia – 28,686,633
49 – Yemen – 23,822,783
58 – Syria – 20,178,485
77 – Tunisia – 10,486,339
84 – Somalia – 9,832,017
105 – Jordan – 6,342,948
106 – Libya – 6,310,434
116 – United Arab Emirates – 4,798,491
127 – Lebanon – 4,017,095
134 – Oman – 3,418,085
136 – Mauritania – 3,129,486
140 – Kuwait – 2,691,158
159 – Qatar – 833,285
162 – Comoros – 752,438
163 – Bahrain – 727,785
169 – Djibouti – 516,055

141 – West Bank – 2,461,267
150 – Gaza Strip – 1,551,859

98 – Israel – 7,233,701

4 – United States – 307,212,123
3 – European Union – 491,582,852


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Country – Oil Production in barrels/day – Oil Production in barrels/year/person

Qatar – 1,125,000 – 492.8
Kuwait – 2,613,000 – 354.4
United Arab Emirates – 2,948,000 – 224.2
Saudi Arabia – 9,200,000 – 117.1
Libya – 1,845,000 – 106.7
Oman – 758,600 – 81.0
Iraq – 2,420,000 – 30.6
Bahrain – 48,610 – 24.4
Algeria – 2,173,000 – 23.2

Syria – 381,600 – 6.9
Yemen – 320,600 – 4.9
Sudan – 466,100 – 4.1
Tunisia – 86,210 – 3.0
Egypt – 664,000 – 2.9
Mauritania – 14,990 – 1.7
Morocco – 3,746 – 0.3
Somalia – 0 – 0.0
Jordan – 0 – 0.0
Lebanon – 0 – 0.0
Comoros – 0 – 0.0
Djibouti – 0 – 0.0

Palestine – 0 – 0.0

Israel – 5,966 – 0.3

United States – 8,457,000 – 10.0
European Union – 2,676,000 – 2.0

It should be noted that all of the countries in the first group, except Oman and Bahrain, are members of the Organization of Oil-Exporting Countries (“OPEC”) and, of course, no Arab countries in the second group are OPEC members. As can be seen in the next section, the Arab countries in the first group enjoy a comparatively-high standard of living because of their oil production.


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Country – Per Capita Gross Domestic Product (Purchasing-Price Parity) in U.S. Dollars

Editorial Note: “Purchasing-Price Parity” adjusts for foreign-exchange rates and local prices – for example, assume that there have always been people on Mars, and that the Martians have a standard of living that, in real terms (food, shelter, clothing, etc.), is twice the standard of living in the United States, but that no earthlings want to import anything from Mars while the Chief Martian wants a new Ferrari every year!!! Since no earthlings want to import anything from Mars but the Chief Martian wants enough Euros every year to buy her new Ferrari, the price of Euros in terms of the Martian currency is infinite and the Martian currency in terms of Euros is zero!!!

However, it would be silly to say that the Martian standard of living is zero because Martian currency is worth zero in terms of Euros (and, accordingly, in terms of U.S. dollars as well)!!!

That is why the Martian Gross Domestic Product Per Capital would be listed in terms of “Purchasing-Price Parity” as double, in real terms, the U.S. amount of $46,900/year = $93,800/year – even though the Martian standard of living in terms of currency-exchange-rates would be zero!!!

Qatar – 118,000
Kuwait – 57,400
United Arab Emirates – 39,900
Saudi Arabia – 20,500
Libya – 14,400
Oman – 20,200
Iraq – 3,700
Bahrain – 37,300
Algeria – 6,900

Syria – 5,000
Yemen – 2,400
Sudan – 2,200
Tunisia – 7,900
Egypt – 5,400
Mauritania – 2,100
Morocco – 4,000
Somalia – 600
Jordan – 5,100
Lebanon – 11,100
Comoros – 1,000
Djibouti – 3,700

Palestine – 2,900

Israel – 28,300

United States – 46,900
European Union – 33,700

The weighted (by population) average for the non-oil group of Arab countries = $4,176/year per capita

One simple-minded “ball park” estimate of what might be required each year to simply put all 4.6 million Palestinian refugees on a par with residents of the non-oil group of Arab countries, would be to subtract from the $4,176/year per capita for that group of countries the $2,900/year per capita for Palestine (using the amount for all residents of Gaza and the West Bank, not just refugees, as a proxy for the standard of living for all Palestinian refugees including those living in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) and multiply it by the 4.6 million Palestinian refugees.

The result is $5.6 billion/year.

Although using the $2,900/year per capita “standard of living” for all Palestinians may be a somewhat-high estimate for the refugees, it is also true that “going the other way” is the fact that we are dealing with “purchasing-price parity” (“PPP”) figures which ignore official exchange rates – the PPP figures for oil countries are fairly realistic because their economies are based on oil and its worldwide price, whereas the PPP figures for the non-oil countries are more than double what it would take in terms of U.S. dollars to produce the same “standard of living” in terms of local prices.
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