Distillers Country guides / Qatar
Qatar
A one-page guide to Qatar for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Doha
- Official languages
- Arabic
- Currency
- Qatari riyal (QAR)
- Time zone
- UTC+3
- Area
- 11,637 km²
People
- Population
- 3.0 million (2025)
- Population growth
- 3.9% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 99.4%
- Aged under 15
- 15.0%
- Aged 65 and over
- 1.7%
- Life expectancy
- 82.5 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$215.6 billion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$72,525 (2025)
- Economic growth
- 2.9% (2025)
- Inflation
- 1.3% (2024)
Climate
Flat dry desert with year-round sun. Mild winters (January average about 18.5 C) and very hot summers often reaching 40 C; rainfall about 70 mm a year, mostly October-March.
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Restricted
- Legal drinking age
- Prohibited for Muslims; 21 for non-Muslims
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 1.3 litres of pure alcohol (2022-2024 average (WHO estimate for 2024))
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); World Bank indicators (population, area, GDP, GDP per capita, growth, inflation); WHO Global Health Observatory, indicator SA_0000001688; UN Comtrade public API (HS 2208); Wikipedia: Legal drinking age; Wikipedia: Qatar; US Commerce - Qatar import tariffs. Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.