Around 88% of the Qatar population is made up of expats. In early 2017, Qatar’s total population was 2.6 million, with foreigners making up a vast majority of Qatar’s population. Only 313,000 of the population (12%) were Qatari citizens, while the remaining 2.3 million (88%) were expatriates.

The combined number of South Asians by themselves represents over 1.5 million people (60%) of Qatar’s population. Among these, Indians are the largest community, numbering 650,000 in 2017, followed by 350,000 Nepalis, 280,000 Bangladeshis, 145,000 Sri Lankans, and 125,000 Pakistanis. 

Indian expats are the largest in numbers and make up around 25% of the Qatar population and approx population of Indians in Qatar as of 2024 is 7.5 Lakh. The majority of these originate from the  Indian states of Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.

Traditionally Kerala was sending the most people to Qatar, however, according to the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Uttar Pradesh has taken that title away since at least 2011. This seems to be part of the general trend in which the northern states are emerging as the leading areas of Indian unskilled and semi-skilled emigration to Qatar. Between 2011 and 2018 the main sending states of Indian labor to Qatar were as follows in decreasing order: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana since data does not exist for this State prior to its founding in 2014).

Professionals like engineers, doctors, chartered accountants, scientists, software experts, management consultants, architects, skilled workers like technicians and nurses, semi-skilled workers, retail traders, and businessmen mainly constitute the Indian community. The regions with significant Indian populations are

• Doha
• Al Wakrah
• Al Khor
• Al Rayyan