Kuwait publishes no yearly count of work permits issued. What it publishes is a stock: 1,832,522 non Kuwaiti employees on the register at the end of 2025, domestic staff left out, 3.9 percent more than a year before. Of the five Gulf registers it grew the least from 2020 to 2025, 15.5 percent against 66.7 in Saudi Arabia. No dated instrument we located changes the rules, so their direction is holding, and no rule caps new hires. EY, Vialto and Deloitte reported an exit permit, approved by the employer, to leave Kuwait from 1 July 2025. Our model of replacement demand, not a count, gives about 723,000 new work permits in 2026, domestic staff included (between 447,000 and 1,100,000). For 2027 the range is too wide for a yearly number: the direction is flat. After that the line is held flat, a stated assumption and a rule of the method, not a finding about the market: the register and a working age growing about 0.8 percent a year point above it, the war of 2026 below it.
Observed
Non Kuwaiti employees on the register in 2025, a stock
1,832,522
Our estimate
Modelled demand a year in 2031, held flat, a stated assumption, not a count
723,000
Our estimate
Direction of the rules and the register
The rulesHolding
The register, 2025Rising
Projection of the source
More people aged 15 to 64 in 2041 than in 2026
491,000
Workforce Migration Report 2026, Kuwait3
4.9 million people, 27 percent more than in 2015
Kuwait has 4,865,298 people, 1,030,724 more than in 2015 but fewer than in 2024. Births outnumber deaths by about 42,000 a year, while net migration swings widely: minus 168,379 in 2020, plus 368,560 in 2022. Output per head, 32,312 US dollars, is more than twice the world average, but from 2021 to 2025 the economy grew 8.1 percent against 20.0 percent worldwide.
People living in Kuwait in 2025, mid year
4,865,298
26.9 percent more than in 2015. People aged 65 and over were 3.2 percent of the population in 2025.
GDP in 2025, billion US dollars at current prices
157.2
At current prices and exchange rates.
GDP per head in 2025
32,312dollars
224 percent of the world average of 14,406 US dollars in 2025.
Real growth in 2025
2.7%
The World Bank's figure; the IMF's April 2026 outlook gives 3.5 percent. Against 2.9 percent across the world. Over 2021 to 2025 the economy grew 8.1 percent in all, the world grew 20.0 percent (our estimate from the yearly rates).
People aged 15 and over in work, 2025
71.8%
Against 58.1 percent across the world. ILO estimate.
Three dates that frame hiring
21 February 2010Law 6 on private sector labour.
5 June 2017A minimum wage of 75 dinars.
28 November 2024A new residence law for foreigners.
Sources: World Bank, World Development Indicators (population, GDP, GDP per head, growth, and the ILO estimate of employment), retrieved 27 September 2026. Population is the mid year estimate. Key dates: Kuwait Al Youm, issue 963 of 21 February 2010 (Law 6 of 2010); ministerial decision of 5 June 2017, as reported by the Kuwait News Agency; Amiri Diwan, Decree-Law 114 of 2024, 28 November 2024; retrieved 27 September 2026.
Workforce Migration Report 2026, Kuwait4
More births than deaths, migration swings year to year
Births exceed deaths by about 42,000 a year, while net migration swings far wider
In 2023, the last year the UN estimates, births minus deaths came to +42,568 and net migration to +50,008. Years marked * are the UN's projection.
Births minus deathsNet migration
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (net migration and crude birth and death rates from UN World Population Prospects 2024, whose estimates end in 2023; 2024 and 2025 are its projection), retrieved 27 September 2026. Births minus deaths is our arithmetic on the crude rates. Not yet published: births minus deaths for 2025*.
About 5.68 million people by 2041 on the World Bank's projection
Estimated to 2025, then the World Bank's projection in the lighter line.
Source: World Bank, SP.POP.TOTL (World Development Indicators); World Bank, population projection based on UN World Population Prospects 2024; retrieved 27 September 2026.
The share aged 65 and over rises from 3.2 to 5.3 percent by 2041
0 to 1415 to 6465 and over
Source: World Bank, population estimates and projections, retrieved 27 September 2026.
157.2 billion US dollars in 2025, and the IMF forecast to 2031
Billion US dollars, 2025 pricesIMF forecast
Real growth under each year: observed to 2025 (World Bank), the IMF forecast after. Sources: World Bank, NY.GDP.MKTP.CD (2025); IMF, World Economic Outlook April 2026; Werklist calculation; retrieved 27 September 2026.
ContentsThe countryWhere the market is nowThe outlookMethod and sourcesWorkforce Migration Report 2026, KuwaitRequest
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Non Kuwaiti employees on the register: 1,832,522 in 2025, 1,764,288 in 2024; a stock, not permits issued in a year.
Source: Central Statistical Bureau, Labour Market Information System, Table 1, employees by nationality at 31 December, 2019 to 2025; retrieved 27 September 2026. A stock at a date, not permits issued in a year.
Kuwait publishes no yearly count of work permits. This page shows the register of non Kuwaiti employees at 31 December, domestic staff left out: a stock, not a yearly flow, so each change is net of those who left.
What the register counts: a stock
Kuwait publishes no yearly count of the work permits the Public Authority for Manpower issues under article 10 of Law 6 of 2010. Its closest count is the year end stock of non Kuwaiti employees in the labour market database of the Central Statistical Bureau, domestic staff left out.
This is a stock at 31 December, not a flow of new permits: it counts every non Kuwaiti employee holding an active registration (public and private sector), with domestic staff left out, so it cannot be compared with the first residence permits for work Eurostat counts and a yearly change in it is net of exits.
The bureau builds the register from the records of the Public Authority for Civil Information, the Public Authority for Manpower and the Civil Service Commission.
Source: Central Statistical Bureau, Labour Market Information System, Table 1, employees by nationality at 31 December, 2019 to 2025; retrieved 27 September 2026. A stock at a date, not permits issued in a year.
Workforce Migration Report 2026, Kuwait6
Kuwait's register grew the least in the Gulf from 2020 to 2025
Migrants for every 100 residents, a count of people: Kuwait, the UAE and the Gulf
The UN's count of migrants at mid year, people with their families and not permits, divided by the World Bank's population, one definition for every Gulf state: stocks, not yearly flows. The UAE is the state closest to Kuwait on this measure; the third line takes Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain together.
Sources: United Nations Population Division, International Migrant Stock 2024, Table 1 (migrants at mid year), retrieved 25 September 2026; World Bank, SP.POP.TOTL (population at mid year), retrieved 27 September 2026. Werklist calculation.
Foreign employees on each Gulf register, 2020 and 2025
Stocks at a date, not permits, and each register counts its own way: Saudi Arabia and Kuwait leave domestic staff out, Qatar counts the private sector, Bahrain active work permits. Bahrain alone also publishes new work permits: 129,149 in 2025, 19.7 percent of its stock.
2020
2025
Change
Saudi Arabia
6,353,687
10,589,566
+66.7%
Qatar
1,209,612
1,957,633
+61.8%
Oman
1,429,052
1,816,185
+27.1%
Bahrain
535,022
654,672
+22.4%
Kuwait
1,586,494
1,832,522
+15.5%
UAE
not published
not published
Sources: General Authority for Statistics, Saudi Arabia (social insurance register at the end of Q4, subscribers instead of subscriptions from 2023); Ministry of Labour, Qatar, open data portal; National Centre for Statistics and Information, Oman; Labour Market Regulatory Authority, Bahrain (active work permits at the end of Q4, new work permits); Central Statistical Bureau, Kuwait (31 December); retrieved 27 September 2026. Werklist calculation.
From 2020 to 2025 Kuwait's register of non Kuwaiti employees rose 15.5 percent, the least of the five Gulf registers; Saudi Arabia's rose 66.7 percent and Qatar's 61.8. Measured from 2019, before the pandemic, Kuwait is up 5.4 percent. Counted as people, there were 67.9 migrants for every 100 residents of Kuwait in 2024, against 74.2 in the UAE and 50.3 across the six Gulf states.
Workforce Migration Report 2026, Kuwait7
Nepal nearly doubled on Kuwait's register since 2019
Non Kuwaiti employees on the register by citizenship, 2019 to 2025
A stock at 31 December, domestic staff left out, not permits issued in a year. From 2019 to 2025 the register rose 5.4 percent: Nepal rose 93.0 percent and Bangladesh 13.5 percent, while Egypt fell 9.6 percent and the Philippines 18.9 percent.
The sourcing centres of WerklistOther origins
Source: Central Statistical Bureau, Kuwait, Labour Market Information System, the ten largest citizenships of employees at 31 December, 2019 to 2025 (lmis.csb.gov.kw), retrieved 27 September 2026. A stock, domestic staff left out; Sri Lanka is inside other origins before 2022.
Of the seven sourcing centres of Werklist, four are on the register at the end of 2025: India 578,922 employees (31.6 percent), Bangladesh 205,592 (11.2), Nepal 107,721 (5.9) and the Philippines 62,233 (3.4), together 954,468 or 52.1 percent. Vietnam, Indonesia and Uzbekistan are not reported: the bureau names only the ten largest citizenships, of which eight are shown here and two are inside other origins.
Citizenship
2019
2023
2024
2025
Share 2025
India
574,388
535,083
573,869
578,922
31.6%
Egypt
517,492
476,866
476,151
467,869
25.5%
Bangladesh
181,103
179,800
192,996
205,592
11.2%
Nepal
55,826
80,313
93,896
107,721
5.9%
Syria
62,715
64,482
65,985
76,199
4.2%
Pakistan
77,958
68,594
68,946
73,903
4.0%
Philippines
76,763
65,333
62,988
62,233
3.4%
Sri Lanka
not reported
25,561
31,055
30,975
1.7%
Other origins
192,239
182,926
198,402
229,108
12.5%
All origins
1,738,484
1,678,958
1,764,288
1,832,522
100.0%
Source: Central Statistical Bureau, Kuwait, Labour Market Information System, the ten largest citizenships of employees at 31 December, 2019 to 2025 (lmis.csb.gov.kw), retrieved 27 September 2026. A stock, domestic staff left out; Sri Lanka is inside other origins before 2022.
Workforce Migration Report 2026, Kuwait8
Two laws set the rules, and the working age is still rising
The rules as they stand on 27 September 2026
Permit
An employer may employ a foreign national only when the competent authority has authorised that employment; a refusal must state its reasons.
Fare home
An employer who recruits from abroad without a real need for the job bears the cost of the return home.
100 days
Probation may last at most 100 working days, and only once with the same employer.
3 months
Either side may end a contract of unlimited term with written notice of at least three months for monthly paid staff.
75 dinars
The minimum wage in the private and oil sectors is 75 dinars a month, about 245 US dollars, set by a ministerial decision of 5 June 2017.
5 years
Under the residence law of November 2024, an ordinary residence permit runs for at most five years.
Reported
EY, Vialto and Deloitte wrote in June 2025 that from 1 July 2025 a private sector employee from abroad needs an exit permit approved by the employer to leave; the decision was not read at its source.
Sources: Law 6 of 2010, Kuwait Al Youm issue 963 of 21 February 2010, articles 10, 32, 44 and 63 (English text of the Public Authority for Manpower, Internet Archive copy of 17 January 2025); ministerial decision of 5 June 2017, as reported by the Kuwait News Agency; Amiri Diwan on Decree-Law 114 of 2024, 28 November 2024; EY, Vialto and Deloitte alerts of June 2025 on an exit permit from 1 July 2025 (the decision of the Public Authority for Manpower not read at its source); World Bank, PA.NUS.FCRF (0.3065 dinars per dollar, 2025). Retrieved 27 September 2026.
About 491,000 more people aged 15 to 64 by 2041
The World Bank's projection gives 3,897,594 in 2026 and 4,388,170 in 2041, a rise of 12.6 percent.
Source: World Bank, population estimates and projections (SP.POP.1564.TO, based on UN World Population Prospects 2024), retrieved 27 September 2026.
Unemployment in 2025, against 4.8 percent across the world
2.2%
Under half the world rate: few people in Kuwait are looking for work.
World Bank, SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS (ILO estimate), retrieved 27 September 2026
Non Kuwaiti employees added to the register from end 2021 to end 2025
380,190
After a fall of 286,152 from 2019 to 2021, the register has grown four years running.
Central Statistical Bureau, Labour Market Information System, our arithmetic, retrieved 27 September 2026
Employees from India on the register at the end of 2025
578,922
31.6 percent of non Kuwaiti employees; Egypt 467,869, Bangladesh 205,592, Nepal 107,721.
Central Statistical Bureau, Labour Market Information System, ten largest citizenships at 31 December 2025, retrieved 27 September 2026
Workforce Migration Report 2026, Kuwait9
Modelled demand: about 723,000 in 2026, then held flat
Kuwait publishes no count of new work permits, so this page shows a model: the foreign workforce of end 2025, 2,749,000 with domestic staff, divided by a stay of 3.8 years. For 2027 the range is too wide for a yearly number, and the direction is flat. The line is held flat at the 2026 base, a stated assumption: the register has no yearly history of new work permits to give a trend. The war of 2026 is left out: no source sizes its effect.
Modelled demand in 2026, not a count
723,000
between 447,000 and 1,100,000
Modelled demand a year in 2031, held flat, a stated assumption
723,000
the 2026 base held, not a forecast
Direction of the rules and of the register
The rulesHolding
The register, 2025Rising
Modelled demand in 2027: flat; the range is too wide for a yearly number
About 723,000 in 2026 on our model, then held flat to 2041, a stated assumption
The card at the left lists the register to 2025, a stock of non Kuwaiti employees at a date, domestic staff left out. The plot shows our model of new work permits for 2026, domestic staff included, with its range; the two count different things. For 2027 the range is too wide for a yearly number (the direction is flat); from 2027 the line holds the 2026 base, a stated assumption. No peers' line is drawn: at 185.5 modelled work permits a year per 1,000 people aged 15 to 64 in 2026, Kuwait is above 109.7, the median of the Gulf peers with a rate (Bahrain 104.0, counted; Oman 115.4, modelled). The model is 1.8 times the rate of Bahrain, the only peer with a count. The UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia publish no count.
Observed register, a stockOur model, 2026Its rangeHeld flat, a stated assumption
Source: Werklist model of replacement demand: the foreign workforce at the end of 2025 (2,749,000, Central Statistical Bureau, domestic staff included) divided by an average stay of 3.8 years, set against Bahrain's ratio of new work permits to its stock, 2019 to 2025 (Labour Market Regulatory Authority); for 2027 a direction only (flat), the range being too wide for a yearly number; from 2027 the 2026 base held flat, a stated assumption; the range from our back test on Eurostat first residence permits for work, not tested on this register; register: Central Statistical Bureau, Labour Market Information System; retrieved 27 September 2026. Rounded to three significant figures; the table gives the line in 2031, 2036 and 2041 only.
Workforce Migration Report 2026, Kuwait10
The rules hold, the register still grows, the model is held flat
Where each count is heading
Kuwait publishes no count of new work permits, so foreign hiring gets two directions, the rules and the volume, beside the model of the page before.
Foreign hiringrules holdingvolume flat from 2027
No dated instrument we located changes the rules, and no rule caps new hires. The register rose four years running, by 3.9 percent in 2025; our model of new work permits is flat from 2027, where the range is too wide for a yearly number.
Non Kuwaiti employees on the register, a stockrising
1,832,522 at the end of 2025, a stock at a date, 3.9 percent more than a year before; 1,845,811 at 31 March 2026.
Populationrising
4.87 million in 2025, 5.18 million in 2031, 5.43 million in 2036, on the World Bank's projection.
Sources: World Bank, population estimates and projections (SP.POP.1564.TO, based on UN World Population Prospects 2024); IMF, World Economic Outlook April 2026; retrieved 27 September 2026. Law 6 of 2010; Decree-Law 114 of 2024; Central Statistical Bureau, Labour Market Information System, 2019 to 2025 and 31 March 2026; retrieved 27 September 2026.
What stands beside the held line
None of these enters the line. The register and the working age point above it, the war of 2026 below it.
People aged 15 to 6412.6 percent more by 2041
3.90 million in 2026 and 4.39 million in 2041 on the World Bank's projection, about 32,700 more a year.
Net migration, 202350,008 more arrived
All residents, the UN estimate of the latest year.
Economic growth, realminus 0.6 percent in 2026
The IMF's April 2026 outlook, made during the war in the Middle East: minus 1.5 percent in 2024, 3.5 in 2025 (the World Bank gives 2.7), then 2.8 in 2027.
Work permits a year per 1,000 people aged 15 to 64185.5 in 2026, modelled
Above 109.7, the median of the Gulf peers with a rate: Bahrain 104.0, counted, and Oman 115.4, modelled. It is 1.8 times the rate of Bahrain, the only peer with a count.
Sources: World Bank projections and SM.POP.NETM (UN WPP 2024); IMF, World Economic Outlook April 2026; Labour Market Regulatory Authority, Bahrain; retrieved 27 September 2026.
What could change this
Three changes sit outside our model. Each could move the numbers on this page and the one before.
The residence law of 2024 in force
Decree-Law 114 of 28 November 2024 replaced the residence law of 1959 and punishes trading in residence permits. How strictly it is applied could slow or reshape new hiring. It is law now.
A new minimum wage
Article 63 of the labour law asks for a minimum wage decision at least every five years. The last we located, of June 2017, set 75 dinars; a higher floor would raise the cost of the lowest paid jobs.
The war in the Middle East
The IMF's April 2026 outlook, made during the war, puts growth at minus 0.6 percent in 2026. Its effect on hiring is not yet measured: the register still rose 0.7 percent in the first quarter of 2026, to 1,845,811.
Workforce Migration Report 2026, Kuwait11
How to read this report
What the register counts
Kuwait publishes no yearly count of the work permits the Public Authority for Manpower issues. The closest national count is the year end stock of non Kuwaiti employees in the integrated labour market database of the Central Statistical Bureau, which excludes domestic staff. It is a stock at a date, not a count of permits issued in a year.
What the range means
The 2026 model has a low and a high end from our back test on Eurostat first residence permits for work: this register has no history of new work permits to test. For 2027 the range is too wide for a yearly number, so 2027 gets a direction, flat; from 2027 the line is held flat, a stated assumption. Observed numbers are solid lines, modelled ones dashed.
How the model is made
The model divides the foreign workforce at the end of 2025, 2,749,000 with domestic staff, by an average stay of 3.8 years: about 723,000 new work permits in 2026. No Kuwaiti source publishes the stay; Bahrain's new work permits equalled 20 to 30 percent of its stock a year from 2019 to 2025, a stay of 3.3 to 5.1 years. It is then held flat.
Numbers, dates and words
Past counts are printed exactly; estimates are rounded to three significant figures. Dinars are converted at 0.3065 per US dollar, the World Bank's official rate for 2025. No count of work permits is published, so the register counts employees, a stock of people; the UN's migrants on page 6 are people too. Work permits appear only in the labelled model.
Sources
Every source retrieved 27 September 2026. The site of the Public Authority for Manpower and the news agency refuse our network, so their pages were read in copies in the Internet Archive. Photographs from Pexels are used under the Pexels licence.
Central Statistical Bureau, Labour Market Information System: Table 1, employees by nationality (Kuwaiti and non Kuwaiti) at 31 December, 2019 to 2025; the ten largest citizenships of employees at 31 December 2019 to 2025 and 31 March 2026. lmis.csb.gov.kw/IntegratedDataView.aspx
World Bank, World Development Indicators and population estimates and projections (population, age, births, deaths, net migration, GDP, employment, unemployment, official exchange rate PA.NUS.FCRF). data.worldbank.org
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook, April 2026, real GDP growth. imf.org/external/datamapper
Public Authority for Manpower, Law 6 of 2010 concerning labour in the private sector, Kuwait Al Youm issue 963 of 21 February 2010, English text, Internet Archive copy of 17 January 2025. manpower.gov.kw
Amiri Diwan, Decree-Law 114 of 2024 on the residence of foreigners, notice of 28 November 2024. da.gov.kw
Kuwait News Agency, Ministerial decision on the minimum wage in the private and oil sectors, 5 June 2017, Internet Archive copy. kuna.net.kw
Gulf national registers, General Authority for Statistics, Saudi Arabia, register based labour market statistics Q1 2026; National Centre for Statistics and Information, Oman; Labour Market Regulatory Authority, Bahrain, Labour Market Indicators 2025 Q4 (new work permits and active work permits); Ministry of Labour, Qatar, open data portal. stats.gov.sa, data.gov.om, blmi.lmra.gov.bh, data.gov.qa
United Nations Population Division, International Migrant Stock 2024, Table 1, migrants at mid year, retrieved 25 September 2026. un.org/development/desa/pd
EY, Vialto and Deloitte, Alerts of June 2025 reporting an exit permit from 1 July 2025 as a decision of the Public Authority for Manpower, found through a web search; the decision itself was not read at its source. vialtopartners.com
Photographs and flags
Pexels: Kuwait City at night, Optical Chemist (cover); Liberation Tower at night, Optical Chemist (page 3 and back cover); Kuwait City from the sea, Frans van Heerden; a marina in Kuwait City, Nour Qaloush; towers of Kuwait City under cloud, Optical Chemist; a road into Kuwait City, Tayssir Kadamany. Flags: circle-flags by HatScripts, MIT licence.
Workforce Migration Report 2026, Kuwait
werklist.com
What this report answers
What does Kuwait publish about foreign workers, and what does it leave out?
No yearly count of work permits issued. Kuwait publishes a stock: 1,832,522 non Kuwaiti employees on the register at the end of 2025, domestic staff left out, 3.9% more than a year before.
How fast has the foreign workforce grown since 2020?
The register fell to 1,452,332 in 2021 and has grown four years running since, by 380,190 employees to the end of 2025, though by less each year: 15.5% above 2020 in all.
How does it compare with the other Gulf registers?
Of the five Gulf registers Kuwait's grew the least from 2020 to 2025, 15.5%, against 66.7% in Saudi Arabia and 61.8% in Qatar. In 2024 there were 67.9 migrants for every 100 residents of Kuwait, against 74.2 in the UAE.
Which rules apply to employers who hire from abroad?
An employer may employ a foreign national only once the authority has authorised it, probation lasts at most 100 working days, and the minimum wage in the private and oil sectors is 75 dinars a month. Since 1 July 2025 leaving Kuwait needs an exit permit approved by the employer.
What is the direction of foreign hiring?
The rules are holding: no dated instrument we located changes them, and no rule caps new hires. The register still rose 3.9% in 2025. Our model gives about 723,000 new work permits in 2026, domestic staff included; for 2027 the direction is flat, and after it the line is held flat, a stated assumption.
How is the estimate made, and what are its limits?
Kuwait publishes no count of new work permits, so we model replacement demand: the foreign workforce of end 2025, 2,749,000 with domestic staff, divided by a stay of 3.8 years gives about 723,000 in 2026, between 447,000 and 1,100,000. It is a model, not a count.
The full report answers each question with its figures, charts and sources. Request the full report
Photographs: Kuwait City at night by Optical Chemist (Pexels); Liberation Tower at night by Optical Chemist (Pexels); Kuwait City from the sea by Frans van Heerden (Pexels); A marina in Kuwait City by Nour Qaloush (Pexels); Towers of Kuwait City under cloud by Optical Chemist (Pexels); A road into Kuwait City by Tayssir Kadamany (Pexels); Liberation Tower at night by Optical Chemist (Pexels).
India
Egypt
Bangladesh
Nepal
Syria
Pakistan
Philippines
Sri Lanka