Qatar Map

Qatar occupies a flat, thumb-shaped peninsula, roughly 160 km from north to south, that juts out from the Arabian mainland into the Gulf. Its only land border is a short desert frontier with Saudi Arabia across the base of the peninsula. Bahrain lies off the west coast and the United Arab Emirates to the south-east. The country covers 11,586 square kilometers and has about 3.1 million residents (UN World Population Prospects, 2025 estimate). The 2020 census counted 2,846,118. Most residents are foreign workers, many from South Asia, the Philippines and other Arab countries. Qatar does not publish a breakdown by nationality, but citizens are commonly estimated at only around one resident in ten.

A low desert peninsula

Qatar is a limestone plain, and nowhere is it high: the highest point, Qurayn Abu al Bawl in the south-west, is only 103 meters above sea level. The south is the sandiest part, with salt flats (sabkha) and the dunes around Khor Al Adaid, the "Inland Sea". This tidal inlet on the Saudi border is ringed by dunes and is on Qatar's tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage status. The north is rocky, with mangroves at Al Thakhira near Al Khor. There are no rivers. Groundwater has been heavily drawn down, and almost all drinking water now comes from desalination.

The climate is hot desert. From June to September daytime highs regularly pass 40°C, and the coast is humid. Rainfall averages well under 100 mm a year and falls mostly in winter. November to March is the comfortable season, which is why the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the first held in the Middle East, was moved to November and December.

Municipalities and where people live

Qatar has eight municipalities (baladiyat): Doha, Al Rayyan, Al Wakrah, Al Khor, Al Shamal, Al Daayen, Umm Salal and Al Shahaniya. In the 2020 census, Doha municipality had 1.19 million people and Al Rayyan 0.83 million. Together they hold about 71% of the population in one continuous urban area on the east coast and the land just inland from it. Al Wakrah came next with 265,000, while Al Shamal, at the northern tip, had fewer than 17,000.

• Doha: the capital and main port, with the West Bay towers, the restored Souq Waqif, I. M. Pei's Museum of Islamic Art (2008) and Jean Nouvel's National Museum of Qatar (2019) along the Corniche
• Al Rayyan: the sprawling municipality west of Doha, home to Education City and its branch campuses of foreign universities
• Lusail: a planned city on the coast north of Doha whose stadium hosted the 2022 World Cup final
• Al Wakrah: an old fishing and pearling town south of Doha, now joined to the capital's suburbs
• Al Khor: a northern harbour town near Al Bayt Stadium, where the 2022 tournament opened
• Ras Laffan: an industrial city on the north-east coast where gas from the North Field is liquefied and loaded onto tankers
• Dukhan: on the west coast, where oil was struck in 1940; exports began in 1949
• Al Zubarah: an abandoned 18th-19th-century pearling and trading town on the north-west coast, and Qatar's only UNESCO World Heritage Site (2013)

Gas and the economy

Offshore lies the North Field, the world's largest natural gas field, which continues under Iranian waters as South Pars. It gives Qatar the third-largest proven gas reserves after Russia and Iran. For many years Qatar was the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The United States overtook it in 2023, and expansion projects at the North Field aim to raise Qatar's capacity sharply by the end of the decade. Gas wealth puts GDP per capita at about US$72,500 (World Bank, 2025), among the highest in the world. Citizens pay no income tax. The state also funds Qatar Airways, based at Hamad International Airport (opened 2014), and the Al Jazeera network, founded in 1996. The Doha Metro opened in 2019.

History behind the map

The Al Thani family rose to lead the peninsula in the mid-19th century. Qatar became a British protected state under a treaty of 1916 and became independent on 3 September 1971, choosing not to join the new UAE federation. A long dispute with Bahrain was settled by the International Court of Justice in 2001: the Hawar Islands off Qatar's west coast went to Bahrain, and Zubarah and Janan Island to Qatar. From June 2017 to January 2021, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar and closed the Abu Samra land crossing. The blockade ended with the Al-Ula declaration. Qatar is a hereditary emirate, ruled since 2013 by Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Doha has become a frequent venue for mediation, hosting the 2020 US-Taliban agreement and talks on Gaza.