The population of the Middle East almost tripled between 1970 and 2010, with an estimated 2010 population of about 350 million. There's some disagreement as to whether Egypt is part of the "Middle East." (The CIA World Factbook doesn't include Egypt.) But, if it is, Egypt has the highest population of Middle Eastern countries with 77,545,232 people and a growth rate 2.03%. The Middle East country with the highest population growth rate is the United Arab Emirates, with a 3.69% growth rate — also the highest in the world, tied with Burundi — closely followed by Kuwait with 3.55%.
More Middle East Facts:
- The average population growth rate in the world as a whole is 1.13%. In 2010, the estimated world population is 6.8 billion.
- There are more people in the Middle East than in the U.S. and Canada combined, 342,704,563.
- Turkey has the largest economy in terms of Gross Domestic Product, at around $795 billion US Dollars (USD), followed by Saudi Arabia, at about $468 billion USD.