Population: March 1992 estimate 1,175,000, of whom 53 percent Kuwaiti a decline from preinvasion population of 2,155,000 (mid-1990 estimate), of whom 27 percent Kuwaiti.

Education: Free and compulsory to age fourteen for all citizens and many foreigners from preschool through university. Adult literacy rate 73 percent in 1990.

Health: National comprehensive health care system extensive and continuing to expand and improve. Life expectancy in 1990 seventy-two years for males and seventy-six for females.

Ethnic Groups: Most Kuwaitis are Arab. Foreign population shifted from predominantly Arab to predominantly Asian in 1980s. After 1990-91 Iraqi occupation, composition of foreign population changed again, especially with exodus of about 370,000 of the 400,000 Palestinians.

Religion: Most Kuwaitis are Sunni Muslims. About 20 percent of citizens are Shia Muslims. Most foreigners are also Muslims, the majority Sunni.

Data as of January 1993