2026 Facts & Figures: MIDDLE EAST

PERCENTAGE of the population in the UNITED ARAB EMIRATES that’s composed of immigrants. The U.A.E. relies heavily on immigrant workers to support its rapid urbanization and large-scale construction projects, including skyscrapers, luxury real estate, and shopping malls. These developments require a massive labor force, which is often supplied by migrant workers from nations including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

^{Source: Idaho State University}

In many Middle Eastern nations, the workweek runs from Sunday to Thursday, with Friday and Saturday as the weekend. This schedule aligns with Friday as the Islamic holy day, which is considered a day of prayer and rest. Countries such as BAHRAIN, KUWAIT, OMAN, QATAR, and SAUDI ARABIA follow the Sunday-to-Thursday workweek.

^{Source: BBC}

The SUEZ CANAL (above) changed global trade forever. Opened in 1869, it connected the Mediterranean and Red seas, creating a shortcut between Europe and Asia that saved ships more than 4,000 miles of travel per trip. The project, led by French developer Ferdinand de Lesseps, took 10 years to complete and depended on tens of thousands of Egyptian workers. The opening was a major event, drawing crowds and royalty. Although de Lesseps got most of the credit, the idea for a canal in Egypt had existed for thousands of years.

^{Source: Smithsonian}

OMAN is making history with the Middle East’s first spaceport—a site built to handle rockets of all sizes. After a test launch in December 2024, the spaceport was preparing for five more launches in 2025 and is expected to be fully operational by 2030, positioning Oman as a rising player in the region’s space industry.

^{Source: i24NEWS44}

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 first 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 1,600 Israelis and more than 60,000 Palestinians as of September 2025. 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.