"Since the discovery of oil, the political entities of the Persian Gulf have
transformed themselves from desert sheikhdoms into modern states. The process
was accompanied by rapid population growth. During the last 50 years, the
population of the current Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states: Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, grew from 4 million
in 1950 to 33.4 million in 2004, thus recording one of the highest rates of
population growth in the world."(...