2025 Facts & Figures: MIDDLE EAST

NUMBER of residents expected to inhabit a new city (above) that EGYPT is building from scratch. Dubbed the “New Administrative Capital,” it’s located 30 miles east of Cairo. Egypt’s government says its goal is to bring relief to overcrowded Cairo, but critics argue that construction costs are diverting resources from other needs.

^{Source: The New York Times}

SAUDI ARABIA received $311 billion from oil exports in 2022, which is the most among members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Iraq took in the second most, with $131 billion, followed by the United Arab Emirates with $119 billion.

^{Source: Statista}

There are no rivers in OMAN, QATAR, and KUWAIT. Much of the Arabian Peninsula is characterized by arid terrain, with valleys and dry riverbeds that sporadically fill with water during periods of rainfall. Water is a scarce and precious resource in the region, and with the area’s rapid growth, demand for it is swiftly increasing.

^{Source: Maps of World}

Situated between ISRAEL and JORDAN, the Dead Sea (above) contains nearly 10 times more salt than regular seawater and is largely uninhabitable, thus earning its name. Its high salinity prevents fish and aquatic plants from living in it, though minuscule quantities of bacteria and microbial fungi make their home there.

^{Source: Britannica}

The Middle East is a region, not a continent. It’s mostly in Asia but includes Egypt in Africa and the small European section of Türkiye.

Rich in oil and predominantly Muslim, the Middle East is both strategically important and an area of great tension. To many people, the region is defined by the decades-long conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors. In 2020, the Trump administration proposed a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, but the Palestinians rejected it, saying it didn’t offer them a real country. The U.S. brokered peace deals between Israel and two Arab nations in 2020: the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

On October 7, 2023, armed members of Hamas—the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group controlling the Gaza strip—launched the largest attack on Israel in decades. Israel declared war and responded with massive retaliatory strikes on cities in the Gaza Strip.

The war in Gaza has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, including more than 1,500 Israelis and more than 42,000 Palestinians as of October 2024. Attacks on Israel from the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah led to Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon beginning in September 2024, stoking fears of a wider Middle East war.