How Many Americans Live in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia's 2022 census did what no Gulf census had done before: it counted American residents by name among hundreds of nationalities. Its workforce tables suggest most are there as family rather than on Saudi payrolls.
The American Emigration Revue counts US citizensPeople holding United States citizenship, as counted by Saudi Arabia's own official records. A separate population from US-born residents; the two are never added. Definitions ›, US-born residentsPeople born in the United States living in Saudi Arabia, whatever citizenship they hold today. A separate population from US citizens; the two are never added. Definitions ›, naturalizations and long-term permits from official government sources, with every figure cited. This page sets out what Saudi Arabia publishes, what it does not, and how far the published record can be trusted.
Why Saudi Arabia's Records, Not Washington's
The ContextThe context every page needs: who counts Americans abroad, and who doesn't.
The United States publishes no count of its own citizens abroad. Its best federal figure, 3.3 million Americans worldwide, is a statistical model built to size the overseas electorate, and the same model said 4.4 million two years earlier. The Census Bureau decided in 1976 to exclude private Americans abroad from the decennial enumeration (overseas federal employees and military are still counted). What Washington publishes instead is fragments: Social Security checks mailed to foreign addresses, tax returns claiming foreign income, quarterly lists of people who gave up their citizenship. See what each federal source actually counts ›
So this project counts from the receiving side. Every figure on this page comes from records Saudi Arabia itself publishes, read under the same rules applied to every country in the project. Where Saudi Arabia publishes, it is counted and cited. Where it does not, the gap is shown rather than filled: no estimates, no models. How openly each country reports ›
How Saudi Arabia Counts Americans
The One CountOne "US presence," one official count. The other measures on this page answer different questions.
What the Research Found
The FindingsFindings from the Saudi Arabia research, drawn from the official record.
The Figures as Data
The EvidenceMachine-readable copy of the figures on this page, each with the year its source published it. Free to download and reuse with attribution.
| Figure | Value | Vintage | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| US citizens | 20,485 | — | GASTAT |
| Long-term residence permits | 6,141 | — | — |
| US visitor arrivals | 388,000 | 2024 | — |
Vintage is the year the publishing authority reported the figure. A dash means the year or publisher is not yet recorded in our dataset for that figure; the Sources and Datasets section below names every publisher behind this page. The free CSV covers the years shown to readers without an account.
How Far to Trust These Figures
The Publishing RecordWhat Saudi Arabia publishes, how often it publishes, and the sources behind every number on this page.
The gaps: Published only partially or as one-off estimates: resident US citizens, residence or work permits. Not published: US-born residents, annual arrivals, naturalizations: those gaps set the grade; they do not make the published figures wrong. What the partial figures can support: Permits, Citizens come as a one-off figure rather than a yearly series: good for a snapshot of today, not for reading a trend.
Every figure on this page comes from one of the publishers below. Links go to the authority and, where stable, straight to the dataset.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick AnswersEvery answer is drawn from the official record, from the same sources cited across this page.
Does Saudi Arabia recognize dual citizenship with the United States?
Where do the figures for Americans in Saudi Arabia come from?
News stories our newsroom has published about this country.
The full series, every year, every country
The public view shows a limited year window for each series. Researchers and journalists can request access to the complete annual record for every country in the project.