Arab youth name Qatar as their top ally among Arab nations

Qatar

Arab youth have said Qatar is the closest ally of their country among all Arab nations and one of five countries in the world they would most like to live in and their own to emulate.

Young Arabs were also asked for their views on the FIFA World Cup 2022. An overwhelming 87% said the event had galvanised the Arab world and enhanced Arab pride, while an equal percentage said events such as the FIFA World Cup and Expo 2020 Dubai have promoted greater understanding of the Arab world in general.

These findings make up some of the key insights of the landmark 15th annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey, unveiled today by ASDA’A BCW, the Middle East & North Africa’s leading communications consultancy, under the theme ‘Living a New Reality’. The annual survey is the largest study of its kind of the Arab world’s largest demographic, its over 200 million youth.

While the region’s youth say they consider all the GCC countries and Egypt strong allies of their country, Qatar was named as ‘a strong ally or somewhat of an ally’ by 92% of respondents, followed by Kuwait (91%), Egypt (89%), the UAE (88%) and Saudi Arabia (86%).

And when asked to choose their model nations, Arab youth named Qatar as one of the five countries in the world they would like to live in and their own to emulate. It is the first time Qatar has appeared in Arab youth’s top-five list of preferred nations since 2014, reflecting the feel-good factor generated by the FIFA World Cup 2022.

About one in four Arab youth (24%) named the UAE as the country they would most like to live in for the 12th consecutive year, followed by the US (19%), Canada (19%), Qatar (14%) and the United Kingdom (13%).

The UAE was also named the country most Arab youth want their own to be like, again for the 12th straight year. The UAE was identified by 22% of young Arab men and women overall, ahead of the US (19%), Canada (16%), Qatar (15%) and Saudi Arabia and the UK in joint fifth place (11%). This is the first time Saudi Arabia has been chosen as a country to emulate since 2017.

 

Sunil John, President, MENA, BCW and Founder of ASDA’A BCW, said: “Qatar’s many recent accomplishments, not least its successful hosting of the FIFA World Cup 2022, have earned the approval of young Arabs across the region. The country’s large-scale investment in infrastructure and rapid economic diversification are also undoubtedly factors behind its appearance on Arab youth’s top-five list of preferred nations – for the first time since 2014. These are positive trends which bode well for the sustainable development of the wider region.”

ASDA’A BCW commissioned SixthFactor Consulting, a leading research company, to conduct face-to-face interviews with 3,600 Arab citizens aged 18 to 24 in their home nations from March 27 to April 12, 2023. The largest sample in the survey’s history was equally divided between men and women in 53 cities across a total of 18 Arab states, including for the first time South Sudan. The interviews were deliberately conducted face to face rather than online to maximise their accuracy and to reflect the nuances of Arab youth opinion across the region as much as possible.