Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia: sluggish, near-stagnant growth, 1980–2025

An oil-dominated economy for most of the period, Saudi Arabia has pursued economic diversification under the Vision 2030 program launched in 2016 to reduce dependence on hydrocarbon revenue. Between 1980 and 2025, Saudi Arabia's GDP per capita grew from $27,206 to $34,537 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 0.5% — sluggish, near-stagnant growth. Annual GDP growth averaged 2.4% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 5.2 points, reflecting considerable volatility and periodic crises. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 1.0% to 2.6% of GDP (a notable increase), while services rose from 27.4% to 48.9% of GDP, underscoring a shift toward a services-driven economy. On human development, life expectancy rose from 62.4 to 79.0 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 10.0% to 83.9%, while the urban population share grew from 66.4% to 84.6%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions fell from 31.87 to 18.48 tonnes CO2e per person.