Al Khor's recorded population fell by a third in two years — while Qatar's total rose
1 Observation
In the Qatar PSA population-and-labour-force series, Al Khor municipality's recorded population fell from 220,468 in 2020 to 142,962 in 2022 — a fall of -35.2% in two years. Over the same window, the sum of all eight official municipalities rose from 2,767,238 to 2,878,202 (+4.0%). The decline was not unique: Ash Shahaniyah recorded 227,291 → 164,048 (-27.8%), while Umm Salal grew +56.7% — the national total rose while the distribution across municipalities changed sharply. Why it changed is not in this table (see section 5).
2 Evidence
Recorded population of all eight official municipalities (PSA labour-force framework, persons):
| Municipality | 2020 | 2022 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Al Khor | 220,468 | 142,962 | -35.2% |
| Ash Shahaniyah | 227,291 | 164,048 | -27.8% |
| Al Wakrah | 354,042 | 273,052 | -22.9% |
| Doha | 1,101,183 | 1,214,706 | +10.3% |
| Al Rayyan | 684,117 | 811,442 | +18.6% |
| Ad Daayan | 69,468 | 98,482 | +41.8% |
| Umm Salal | 97,619 | 152,935 | +56.7% |
| Ash Shamal | 13,050 | 20,575 | +57.7% |
Al Khor's series continues 212,979 (2021) → 142,962 (2022) → 147,872 (2023): the 2023 value ticks up but remains a third below 2020.
3 Verification
- Against the original source. Open data.gov.qa, dataset population-and-labour-force-by-municipality (Qatar PSA). Filter Al Khor: 2020 = 220,468, 2022 = 142,962. Sum the eight municipalities per year for the totals.
- Against our warehouse. The same numbers sit in our open comparison layer:
GET /rest/v1/dim_qa_municipality?select=id,name&order=id GET /rest/v1/dim_qa_metric?select=id,code,name_en,source,source_url&id=eq.29 GET /rest/v1/fact_qa_observation?metric_id=eq.29&governorate_id=lte.8&select=governorate_id,year,value&order=governorate_id,yearArithmetic: (142,962 − 220,468) / 220,468 = -0.3516 → -35.2%; totals 2,767,238 → 2,878,202 = +0.0401 → +4.0%. - On the map. Open the live map, Qatar, population layer and switch the year between 2020 and 2022.
Every figure above was re-derived from the live database by the Evidence engine on 2026-07-09; the full check log ships with this issue (all 11 number checks and the 5-trap battery passed).
4 Official sources
https://www.data.gov.qa · https://www.psa.gov.qa. Qatar open data is published under CC BY 4.0; attribution: Qatar Planning and Statistics Authority. Our per-metric provenance: sky-mind.com/provenance.
5 What the data cannot tell us
- Why the population fell: the series does not distinguish departures of construction-project workers from household relocations or a change in survey framework (post-World-Cup demobilisation is context, not a claim supported by this table).
- This is the PSA labour-force framework population estimate, not a census enumeration; level differences vs census counts are possible.
- The series in the database covers only 2020-2023, so the decline cannot be placed against a longer pre-2020 trend.
- Whether the 2023 uptick to 147,872 is the start of a recovery or noise — one data point.
SkyMind (2026). Al Khor lost a third of its recorded population (SkyMind Evidence No. 007). SkyMind Regional Reference Database. https://sky-mind.com/evidence/007
@techreport{skymind_evidence_007,
author = {{SkyMind}},
title = {Al Khor lost a third of its recorded population},
institution = {SkyMind},
type = {SkyMind Evidence},
number = {007},
year = {2026},
url = {https://sky-mind.com/evidence/007}
}
Published 2026-07-09 · every number re-derived from official sources before publication · full lineage: provenance · revision log · dispute a number · data: SkyMind Regional Reference Database, doi:10.5281/zenodo.21388012