KUWAIT CITY, 19 February — The Planning Ministry announced yesterday that Kuwait’s population was 2.243 million at the end of June 2001, up from 2.217 million the previous year, KUNA news agency reported yesterday.

A report issued by the ministry said Kuwaiti nationals represented 855,333, or 40 percent, of the population, up from 842,000 in 2000, while expatriates made up 1.387 million by mid-2001.

An official report in March 2000 said the number of Kuwaitis would exceed one million in 2007 at the current growth rate.

According to yesterday’s statistics, the Kuwaiti workforce numbered 238,220, including 153,150 males. About 93 percent of the Kuwaiti workforce are employed by the government.

Bidoon, or stateless people, numbered 113,645 by mid-2001, the ministry said.

Of the expatriate workers, non-Kuwaiti Arabs numbered 507,377 while non-Arabs numbered 766,725, the report said.

According to previous statistics, Kuwait’s foreign population comprises, among other nationalities, around 295,000 Indians, 274,000 Egyptians, 157,000 Bangladeshis, 101,000 Pakistanis and 100,000 Sri Lankans.

About 300,000 of foreign workers in Kuwait are employed as domestic helps, coming mostly from Asia.

Britons, other Europeans, and North Americans make up less than 20,000 of the population.

60% of UAE nationals overweight

Sixty percent of UAE nationals are overweight, with one in five suffering from obesity, a senior health official revealed yesterday.

Some 40 percent are overweight, and 20 percent obese, he said citing a survey, which found 37 percent of the population enjoying normal weight, with 3 percent being underweight.

Obesity is noticeably higher in women than in men, the study found.

Dr. Ahmad Al-Hashemi, director of Dubai Medical District, blamed the sedentary lifestyle, with people exercising less and eating more, for the alarming figures.

“We hardly move or exercise these days, and largely depend on easy means of transportation. Excessive reliance on housemaids, too, make women very lazy; some do not even bother to fetch a glass of water and ask the maid to do that,” Dr. Hashemi told Gulf News daily on the sidelines of a seminar in Sharjah.