As of 2023, Saudi Arabia has a population of about 37 million people which makes it only the sixth most populated country in the Arab world behind Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Sudan, and Egypt.
But the vast majority of Saudi Arabia's 37 million people today live in one of the most bizarre population patterns that you've probably ever seen.
About 80% of every resident in the country lives within just one of these two narrow straight lines, one running directly along the country's West Coast by the Red Sea and the other running directly across the center of the country between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
Outside of these two lines, the rest of the country for the most part is basically completely empty, with some of the most sparsely populated areas that can be found anywhere on the planet, with a handful of notable exceptions that remain nearby to the lines nonetheless.
So how does this weird situation in Saudi Arabia actually come to be?
First of all, it's extremely important for you to understand that Saudi Arabia's territory is absolutely massive and probably a lot bigger than you think it is.
The country is the 12th largest in the entire world and if you placed it sideways over Europe, it would cover up nearly everything between Paris, Kyiv, and Albania.
For an American context, Saudi Arabia would cover this huge area stretching from New York City to Oklahoma City to Wichita and even down into Northern Florida.
It's a really really big area and even with 37 million people who live there now it's still a pretty sparsely populated country overall but the whole 37 million people thing there is an incredibly recent development.
For nearly all of human history until the late 20th century, the population of the country was only a tiny fraction of what it is today because Saudi Arabia encompasses one of the least hospitable and most dangerous environments to humankind that can be found anywhere on our planet.
