According to the 1974 census, the Kingdom's population was just over 7 million. But, since then, by all accounts the population has grown dramatically. More recent estimates (by, for example, the World Bank, 1987) give a figure of above 11 million. The official estimate in 1987 was 13.6 million. Preliminary results of the 1992 census gave a figure for total population of 16.9 million, of which 12.3 million were Saudi nationals. In 2000, the Central Department of Statistics' Demographic Survey put the population of the Kingdom at 20.8 million.

Of the Saudi national population, 54.3% are male and 45.7% female. Currently, it is estimated that almost half the Saudi population is under the age of 20.

As an indication of the growth of urbanization, we quote the population figures for the city of Riyadh, capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In 1862 , the population (as estimated by W. Palgrave) was 7,500. One hundred years later it was 169,000 (Riyadh City Planning Office). By 1982, the estimate was 1.5 million; and by 1985, the figure exceeded 2 million. In 1999, it had reached 3.4 million and in 2000 it was 4.7 million.

Population :
26,417,599
note: includes 5,576,076 non-nationals (July 2005 est.)

Age structure :
0-14 years: 38.2% (male 5,149,960/female 4,952,138)
15-64 years: 59.4% (male 8,992,348/female 6,698,633)
65 years and over: 2.4% (male 334,694/female 289,826) (2005 est.)

Median age :
total: 21.28 years
male: 22.84 years
female: 19.28 years (2005 est.)

Population growth rate :
2.31% (2005 est.)

Birth rate :
29.56 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Death rate :
2.62 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)