Middle East and North Africa: facts and figures

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The Middle East and North Africa region comprises the Arab states of Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya,Mauritania,Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, plus the Islamic State of Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Pakistan, and the West Bank and Gaza.

Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates formed the Gulf Cooperation Council in the early 1980s and launched a customs union in January 2003, with plans to establish a monetary union by January 1, 2010.

The region's 24 countries and territories, which are grouped together here for analytical purposes only, hold about 7.7 percent of the world's population. Its GDP is approximately $2 trillion (measured at purchasing power parity exchange rates) or 4.3 percent of world GDP, also measured at purchasing power parity exchange rates.

About 75 percent of the world's proven reserves of crude oil are located in the region, and the GDPs of the oil-exporting...