The question
Where do people live in Saudi Arabia? How many people live in each region and each major city?
The figure
According to GASTAT’s Saudi Census 2022, Saudi Arabia’s population was 32,175,224.
49.2% of them live in five cities: Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah, Madinah and Dammam. Riyadh alone has 6,924,566 people, 21.5% of Saudi Arabia’s population: more than one in five.
Next comes Jeddah with 3,712,917 people (11.5%), then Makkah with 2,385,509 (7.4%).
The ten largest cities by population
The ten largest of the 60 cities on our site, by population, Census 2022
| City | Population | Share of Saudi Arabia’s population | Non-Saudis among its residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Riyadh | 6,924,566 | 21.5% | 52.2% |
| Jeddah | 3,712,917 | 11.5% | 54.3% |
| Makkah | 2,385,509 | 7.4% | 55.5% |
| Madinah | 1,411,599 | 4.4% | 41.5% |
| Dammam | 1,386,166 | 4.3% | 51.1% |
| Tabuk | 594,350 | 1.8% | 27.6% |
| Buraidah | 571,169 | 1.8% | 35.3% |
| Taif | 563,282 | 1.8% | 32.5% |
| Khamis Mushait | 535,065 | 1.7% | 39.4% |
| Hail | 448,623 | 1.4% | 35.1% |
Regions
Across the 13 administrative regions, the Riyadh, Makkah and Eastern Province regions hold 67.6% of the population, and the other 10 regions 32.4%.
Riyadh Region is the largest, with 8,591,748 people (26.7%). The smallest is Al-Baha Region, with 339,174 people (1.1%). So Riyadh Region is more than 25 times the size of Al-Baha.
Who lives there also differs between regions: non-Saudis are 41.6% of Saudi Arabia’s population; their highest share is in Riyadh Region, 48.3%, and their lowest in Al-Baha Region, 25.9%.
What this means for your decision
The question this reading helps with: if you are choosing between two cities or regions for a business that serves the people living around it, such as a grocery, a pharmacy or a nursery, how many people live in each?
Population is the starting point for that question. The difference between a major city and a mid-sized one can be several-fold, so do not compare two cities as if they had the same number of people you could serve.
Know who lives around you too, not only how many: the make-up of the population differs from one region to another, and it is part of the picture of whom you serve.
The reading says how many people live where; it does not say how many of them will become your customers. It shows where to look more closely, and the decision and its responsibility are yours.
An analytical reading, not financial advice; the decision and its responsibility are yours.
Limits of the figure
- The census is a snapshot of 2022. GASTAT estimates Saudi Arabia’s population in 2024 at 35,300,280, 9.7% more than the census. GASTAT does not publish an annual estimate for each city, and cities may have grown at different rates.
- A “city” in the census is the city itself, not the whole governorate; for example, Riyadh Governorate has more people than Riyadh city.
- We ranked the largest cities among the 60 cities that have pages on our site. They are home to 77.2% of Saudi Arabia’s population, and 22.8% live outside them.
- The figures count everyone resident in Saudi Arabia, Saudis and non-Saudis, and do not distinguish by age here. Anyone who needs a particular age group should refer to GASTAT’s own tables.
- The census counts people where they live, not where they work or shop. A city that many people come to for work or a visit has more people in it by day than its residents.
- We retrieved the census figures from GASTAT on 29 September 2026 (18 Rabi' al-Akhir 1448 AH). The calculation of percentages and shares is ours and is not an official statistic.
Source: General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), Saudi Arabia, the official source of the original data. DataPulse organised the data and made calculations on it (such as percentage changes and regrouping). This processing and its results are ours; they are not an official statistic issued by GASTAT and do not imply its endorsement. Reuse terms: GASTAT data use policy. We do not use GASTAT’s logo or marks.
The source statement in Arabic (the Arabic text governs; the English above is a summary)
المصدر: الهيئة العامة للإحصاء (المملكة العربية السعودية) — تعداد السعودية 2022 (السكان حسب المنطقة والمحافظة والمدينة والجنسية)، وهي المصدر الرسمي للبيانات الأصلية. أجرت «نبض البيانات» على البيانات تنظيمًا وحسابًا (مثل: حساب نسب التغيّر وإعادة التجميع). هذه المعالجة والنتائج من إعدادنا وليست إحصاءً رسميًا صادرًا عن الهيئة، ولا تعني تزكية منها.
شروط إعادة الاستخدام: سياسة استخدام بيانات الهيئة. لا نستخدم شعار الهيئة ولا علاماتها.
وتقدير 2024: الهيئة العامة للإحصاء، قاعدة البيانات الإحصائية (إجمالي السكان). جلبنا أرقام التعداد 29 سبتمبر 2026 (18 ربيع الآخر 1448).
Full official figures: Population by region and city · City pages · All insights(Arabic)
Translated from the Arabic reading; the Arabic text is the original. The original reading(Arabic)