- ISO 3166
SA- Primary locale
ar-SA- Currency
- SAR · Saudi Riyal
- Region
- EMEA · MENA · MENAP
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has 36.5M people, and 36.5M of them are online. Arabic is the most widely spoken language at 100%, one of 2 languages CLDR lists here. Arabic is official nationally. A product shipping here defaults to ar-SA.
At a glance
Each figure is drawn against the rest of the world, so a number means something before you have any other market to compare it with.
People online
36.5M
0%world median 81%100%
100% of 36.5M people use the internet, per the World Bank's 2024 figure. CLDR population multiplied by that share, so read it as an estimate rather than a headcount.
Income per person
$34,537
Higher than 77% of 213 territories
GDP per capita in current US dollars, World Bank Open Data, most recent reported year. A rough guide to what people can spend, not what your product will earn.
Can pay online
79%
0%world median 71%100%
Adults aged 15 and over holding a bank or mobile-money account, World Bank Global Findex 2024. Below half means a card-only checkout excludes most of the market.
Languages
2
Arabic 100% · Najdi Arabic 3%
Languages CLDR records here with a share of 0.1% or more. 1 of them is official nationally.
English proficiency
404
Very lowVery high
Very low proficiency on the EF EPI 2025 scale. The sample is self-selected online test takers, so treat it as colour for a discussion. It never enters any score on this site.
Adult literacy
87%
0%world median 95%100%
Share of adults who can read, as recorded in CLDR territory data. Low literacy shifts a product toward icons, audio, and video before it shifts toward another language.
What people speak
Shares count first and second languages, so they sum past 100% and one bilingual person is counted twice.
Most spoken in Saudi Arabia
share of 36.5M people
- Arabicofficial100%36.5M
- Najdi Arabic3%1.1M
Filled bars are nationally official languages. Every bar is drawn against the largest language rather than against 100%, so a 1% language stays visible.
One country understates a language. CLDR records diaspora too, so a language usually reaches further than any single page shows. The language profiles show each one's full footprint.
What you would ship
Configuration for day one, computed live with Intl.* against ar-SA, the dominant locale for this market.
Plural categories
6
Translator catalog must define all categories. Engineering must use Intl.PluralRules.
Script family
Arabic
Bundle a Noto-class webfont that covers this script. OS defaults vary.
Reading direction
Right-to-left
Use logical CSS properties (padding-inline-start, etc.). Wrap interpolated LTR with <bdi> or FSI/PDI.
Date
٢١ أبريل ٢٠٢٦
Short: ٢١/٤/٢٠٢٦
Time
٦:٣٠ م
Week starts Sun
Currency
١٬٢٣٤٫٥٦ ر.س.
1,234.56 in SAR · Saudi Riyal
The engineering behind the flags: Bidirectional text: why the dollar sign wanders in an RTL string · RTL layouts: what flips and what doesn't · Font fallback: why the OS picks the wrong glyphs for this script · Plural rules: why each category needs its own translation