Iconic Qatar: the pearl of the Persian Gulf 3:12
(CNN Spanish) --
The futuristic city of Doha, the capital of Qatar, is located on the shores of the Persian Gulf and stretches to the east of the desert peninsula, projecting the image of a forest of tall modern skyscrapers and cutting-edge technology. .
But it was not always like this.
At the time of its independence, in 1971, barely 120,000 people lived in Qatar, while today the figure amounts to almost three million.
This is what the streets of Qatar look like before the start of the World Cup
It was a very different Qatar, with small towns in the middle of the desert and a capital that was just beginning to grow.
But thanks to oil and gas, the country began a true transformation in the second half of the 20th century that has been accentuated in recent decades.
Qatar paints itself in World Cup colors weeks after the initial whistle 0:42
This is how Qatar went from being a small and poor pearl producer to an energy powerhouse known for its futuristic capital.
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The growth of the population of Qatar
1,186,023 people currently live in Doha, that is, approximately one third of the country's total, set at 2,985,029 people —mostly migrant workers—, according to official statistics.
But if you count its surroundings, which include towns in Al Rayyan, Al Wakra, Al Daayen and Umm Slal, the population amounts to more than 2.5 million, that is, almost 85% of the country's total concentrated in this coastal region.
Qatar's population growth has exploded in recent decades.
Ten years ago the country's population reached 1,836,676 people, instead of almost three million today.
And in 2002, two decades ago, it was barely 640,872.
A group of men sit on the street outside Doha, the capital of Qatar, in September 1953. (Credit: Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
While in 1971, at the time of its independence from the United Kingdom, there were barely 120,000 people in Qatar.
The importance of oil and gas
At the beginning of the 20th century, Qatar was a poor territory, dedicated mainly to the collection and cultivation of pearls, and their trade.
But Qatar's first oil wells were discovered in 1939, and exploitation began in 1949.
In the decades that followed, especially from the 1950s and 1960s, the country began to grow precipitously on the back of these revenues, with much of its current wealth coming from the South Pars-North Dome Natural Gas Field, located in the Persian Gulf. and shared with Iran.
A poster of Cameroonian goalkeeper Andre Onana adorns a building in the Qatari capital Doha on August 16, 2022, ahead of the soccer World Cup.
(Credit: MUSTAFA ABUMUNES/AFP via Getty Images)
Following independence and the nationalization of oil—Qatar Petroleum is the current state-owned company—in the 1970s, Qatar's per capita income became among the highest in the world.
And today Qatar's real GDP per capita is about $93,500, according to World Bank data.
Thus, it would be the sixth richest country in the world, behind Liechtenstein, Monaco, Luxembourg, Singapore, and Ireland, according to the CIA World Factbook.
Doha, city of the future
The capital of Qatar is the most notable symbol of this exponential growth in wealth and population: in the center of Doha, tall skyscrapers, modern in design and equipped with high technology, mark the pace of the city.
A metro system under the desert in Qatar 1:12
Some of the world's leading architects -- like Chinese-American Ieoh Ming Pei, who designed the Museum of Islamic Art -- have been hired by Qatari firms in recent years to shape today's Doha, which incorporates sustainability into its designs.
Msheireb Properties, for example, was behind the development of Doha's new downtown, an investment valued at US$5.5 billion that sought to reduce the city's carbon footprint by keeping the number of cars to a minimum and using microclimatic effects to keep the city cool. cooler environment.
With an economy based on oil and gas extraction, however, Qatar still has a long way to go in environmental stewardship: the country has one of the largest per capita carbon footprints in the world.
Underground, in addition, the Doha metro circulates: an advanced transport system without drivers that opened in 2019 but is still under construction within the framework of an ambitious regional project.
With reporting from CNN's Eoin McSweeney
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