About the survey
EVIDENCE-BASED INSIGHTS INTO THE HOPES, ATTITUDES AND ASPIRATIONS OF OVER 200 MILLION ARAB YOUTH
WHY WE Do This?
The annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey, launched in 2008, is the largest survey of its kind of the Arab world’s largest demographic – its over 200 million youth.
The survey fills an important gap in the data and insights on this influential community. It informs governments, the private sector, multilateral institutions and academia on policymaking and future strategy.
We conduct the ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey every year for two reasons:
1. To deliver valuable insights on what defines the region – its youthful demographic - with tracking data to show what is changing on the ground
2. To provide the key findings of the survey on this website giving governments, the private sector and civil society across the world free access to key information to support policy-making and strategy development
To ensure the survey’s independence and credibility, we fund the survey entirely ourselves. Over the last 13 years, we have built a growing library of insights accessible to all.
2021 SURVEY METHODOLOGY
The 13th annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey 2021 was conducted by international research firm PSB Insights to explore attitudes among Arab youth across 50 cities and territories in 17 states in the Middle East and North Africa.
PSB Insights conducted 3,400 face-to-face interviews from June 6 to June 30, 2021. The interviews were completed in Arabic and English. The margin of error is +/-1.65% for the total sample and larger for sub-groups. Every country included is equally represented in the results of this survey.
REGIONS COVERED
The survey covers five Gulf Cooperation Council states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE), North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia), the Levant region (Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories, Syria) and Yemen.
It attempts to represent the main population centres of each country, not only the capital cities. Hence, respondents were drawn from Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah in the UAE; from Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam in Saudi Arabia; from the West Bank and Gaza in the Palestinian Territories; from Muscat and Batinah in Oman; from Beirut, Saida and Tripoli in Lebanon; from Tunis, Sfax and Soussa in Tunisia; from Baghdad, Irbil and Basrah in Iraq; and from Cairo, Alexandria, and Mansoura in Egypt.
Such a geographic spread provides a more accurate national picture of youth attitudes when analysed.
Special note:
For comparative purposes, data from the 2020 survey is used throughout this report. Interviews were conducted from January 19 to March 3 of that year, the period before the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the region.
This year's survey was conducted before Tunisia’s President Kais Saied dismissed the Prime Minister and suspended parliament in July 2021.
PSB Insights is a full-service strategic consultancy. We offer custom research and analytics-based solutions including, fast-turn, quantitative and qualitative that are underpinned by innovation and our strong legacy of custom design and hard to reach audiences. We create insights that give global brands, local businesses, and world leaders the confidence to make informed decisions. We are collaborative and act as strategic partners to help clients tackle the most difficult brand, business and communications issues. We collect all of the useful nuggets from various sources to go deeper and address the most difficult challenges, and find the WHY behind the data. We help keep data and insights at the heart of every decision. PSB is a member of the BCW Group of companies, which is part of WPP (NYSE: WPP), a creative transformation company. We create the Insights That Count.
17 Arab States & Territories
The largest study of its kind of the Arab world’s largest demographic - its over 200 million youth, covering 50 cities and territories in 17 states across the Middle East and North Africa
GCC Region
Population (mn) 1.75
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 77.6
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) 13.6
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 7.3
Internet users (mn) 1.71
Internet penetration 99%
Active social media users (mn) 1.5
Active social media penetration 87%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 2.22
Mobile phone penetration 128%
Bahrain
Population (mn) 4.33
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 208.3
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) 40
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 15.7
Internet users (mn) 4.26
Internet penetration 99%
Active social media users (mn) 4.25
Active social media penetration 98.8%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 5.72
Mobile phone penetration 110%
Kuwait
Population (mn) 5.22
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 139
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) 34.4
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 11.6
Internet users (mn) 4.92
Internet penetration 95%
Active social media users (mn) 4.14
Active social media penetration 80%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 5.72
Mobile phone penetration 110%
Oman
Population (mn) 35.34
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 1,705
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) 50
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 29.6
Internet users (mn) 33.58
Internet penetration 96%
Active social media users (mn) 27.8
Active social media penetration 79%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 39.5
Mobile phone penetration 112%
Saudi Arabia
Population (mn) 9.99
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 683.2
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) 30
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 7.2
Internet users (mn) 9.84
Internet penetration 99%
Active social media users (mn) 9.84
Active social media penetration 99%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 17.06
Mobile phone penetration 171%
United Arab Emirates
The Levant
Population (mn) 10.27
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 109.3
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) NS
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 37.3
Internet users (mn) 6.84
Internet penetration 66.8%
Active social media users (mn) 6.3
Active social media penetration 62%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 8
Mobile phone penetration 78%
Jordan
Population (mn) 41.18
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 413.32
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) 43
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 25.2
Internet users (mn) 30.5
Internet penetration 75%
Active social media users (mn) 25
Active social media penetration 61.4%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 40
Mobile phone penetration 98.3%
Iraq
Population (mn) 6.77
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 33.4
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) NS
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 17.1
Internet users (mn) 5.35
Internet penetration 78%
Active social media users (mn) 4.1
Active social media penetration 60%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 4.65
Mobile phone penetration 68%
Lebanon
Population (mn) 5.22
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 29.6*
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) NS
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 40.2*
Internet users (mn) 3.25
Internet penetration 64%
Active social media users (mn) 2.7
Active social media penetration 54%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 4.33
Mobile phone penetration 86%
Palestinian Territories
Population (mn) 18.28
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 67.1
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) NA
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 20.8
Internet users (mn) 8.5
Internet penetration 46.5%
Active social media users (mn) 8.5
Active social media penetration 46.5%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 14.31
Mobile phone penetration 82%
Syria
Population (mn) 30.49
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 64
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) 25*
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 24.2
Internet users (mn) 7.9
Internet penetration 25.9%
Active social media users (mn) 3.5
Active social media penetration 11.5%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 17.82
Mobile phone penetration 60%
Yemen
North Africa
Population (mn) 44.62
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 514.75
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) 20
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 29.7
Internet users (mn) 22.7
Internet penetration 52%
Active social media users (mn) 22
Active social media penetration 51%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 49.48
Mobile phone penetration 114%
Algeria
Population (mn) 104.26
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 1,346.23
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) NS
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 26.5
Internet users (mn) 59.2
Internet penetration 57%
Active social media users (mn) 49
Active social media penetration 47%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 95.75
Mobile phone penetration 92%
Egypt
Population (mn) 6.96
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 92
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) 60
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 49.5
Internet users (mn) 3.19
Internet penetration 46.2%
Active social media users (mn) 6
Active social media penetration 86.8%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 11.62
Mobile phone penetration 168%
Libya
Population (mn) 37.34
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 291.5
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) NS
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 22.3
Internet users (mn) 27.62
Internet penetration 74.4%
Active social media users (mn) 22
Active social media penetration 59%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 43.47
Mobile phone penetration 117%
Morocco
Population (mn) 44.9
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 185.7
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) NS
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 32.1
Internet users (mn) 13.7
Internet penetration 30.9%
Active social media users (mn) 1.3
Active social media penetration 2.9%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 33.74
Mobile phone penetration 76%
Sudan
Population (mn) 11.94
GDP PPP (US$ bn - 2021 est.) 127.3
Contribution of oil to GDP (%) NS
Youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment (% of total labour force) 35.8
Internet users (mn) 7.55
Internet penetration 64%
Active social media users (mn) 7.3
Active social media penetration 62%
Mobile subscriptions (mn) 17.77
Mobile phone penetration 151%
Tunisia
Sources
Population: http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/
GDP: International Monetary Fund - shorturl.at/gDHV7; 2021 Index of Economic Freedom for Syria (https://www.heritage.org/index/country/syria); The World Bank – Economic Update for Lebanon (https://bit.ly/3BAYWts)
Share of oil in GDP: OPEC (www.opec.org); Bahrain (Bahrain Economic Quarterly Report 2021); Oman (Central Bank of Oman Annual Report 2019); Qatar (BNP Paribas, Economic Research, 2nd Quarter 2021); Iraq (World Bank Group – Iraq Economic Monitor, Fall 2020); Yemen (The World FactBook)
Youth unemployment: (2019 estimate by ILO): The World Bank - https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/sl.uem.1524.zs; Palestine Territories (ILO report 2021)
Internet users & penetration; social media users and mobile usage (as of Jan, 2021): DataReportal (https://datareportal.com); estimate of social media reach in Sudan, Syria and Yemen only considers Facebook users based on data by http://www.internetworldstats.com; all figures for Lebanon, Palestinian Territories and Yemen are as of Jan/Feb 2020