REGION COUNTRIES
West Asia Fertile Crescent
a subregion of Asia,
bounded on the west by
the Mediterranean Sea,
the Sinai Peninsula, and
the Red Sea and on the Southwest Asia
south and southeast by
the Indian Ocean and
the Persian Gulf. The
region reaches
the Caspian Sea and
the Black Sea to the
north. Southwest Asia is
often, but not
always, coterminous wit
h the Middle East; the
latter is a more variable
term that often includes
parts of
the African continent,
while the term
“Southwest Asia” is
restricted to the
continent of Asia.
DEMOGRAPHY ISSUES TRENDS
 The average rate of  Overpopulation  The Palestinian frustration: The
population growth in the Arab - West Asia is ranked 4 in Asia population-wise. The Palestinians are quite frustrated
1. Lebanon region is about 3% per year, population of West Asia is equivalent to 3.59% of by the inflexibility of Israel to
2. Syria and fertility rates are high. the total word population. vacate the occupied territories.
3. Old Palestine  The population aged 15 years They accuse America for its
or under accounts for 48% of  Poverty military and economic support
the total population in most - Fertility rate is high and the rate of economically to Israel which makes Israel
countries. active population is low ranging from 22% to 32% stubborn in its occupation
1. Saudi Arabia  The rate of economically of the total. policy. The Palestinians are
2. Oman active population is very low, - Unemployment rate is high and income is low. The angry with Arab states,
3. Two Yemen ranging from 22% to 32% of unemployment rate in several countries in the especially Egypt, which use
4. Iraq the total. region ranges from 11-15% but the actual rate is them as a bargaining chip in its
5. Iran  Infant mortality rates range greater than 20%. dealings with Israel. They
6. Qatar from 60/1000 to 200/1000. - India estimates that about 70% of the 10 million consider none of the Arab
7. Afghanistan  Illiteracy rates average around Indians in this region are blue-collar workers, with states as really interested in the
8. Armenia 47% of the total number of the remainder in white collar jobs. Indian blue-collar solution of their problem. Many
9. Azerbaijan males aged 15 and above, workers, especially from Rajasthan and Uttar of the Palestinians disapprove
10. Bahrain and exceeded 70% among Pradesh, are competing with Nepalis, Pakistanis Yasser Arafaťs dealing with
11. Cyprus women. and Bangladeshis working as mechanics, King Hussein and Hosni
12. Gaza Strip  Special attention is being plumbers, janitors and drivers besides as helps in Mubarak of Egypt.
13. Georgia, Iran given girls' education. The restaurants and small businesses.
(Islamic Republic of) proportion of girls aged 6-24  Islamic resurgence: Before the
14. Israel enrolled at various educational  Malnutrition advent of the Iranian revolution
15. Jordan levels rose from about 14.3% - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United in 1979, Islam was generally
16. Kuwait in 1960 to about 25% in 1975. Nations estimates that a total of 25 million people is regarded as a non-political
17. Lebanon  Female illiteracy rates in Arab under-nourished in the Western Asia region and entity. But the revolution in Iran
18. Syrian countries are among the injected new blood in the veins
climate change may further amplify the food and
19. Arab Republic highest in the world. of Islam. It has re- emerged as
20. Turkey  Negative attitudes toward resource situation. a force in the arena of the world
21. United Arab working women continue to be politics. The resurgent Islam
Emirates the major obstacle and  Child Labor impinges other ideologies such
22. West Bank contributes to high fertility. - More than 2.8 million children in Syria were forced as socialism, capitalism or Arab
 Demographic profiles are out of school since pro-democracy protests erupted nationalism, and challenges
given for Kuwait, Qatar, in 2011 and a civil war ensued. ‘Child labor is being super powers domination in the
Yemen, and United Arab used as a coping mechanism after exhausting Islamic countries. America,
Emirates. In the United Arab other strategies such as reducing food mainly because of its special
Emirates the most prominent consumption, spending savings and accumulating relationship with Israel, is the
feature of the age-sex
structure is the relatively large
number of males between the
ages of 20 and 40. The total
fertility rate and the gross
reproduction rate for the entire
population in 1975 were
estimated to be about 5.9 and
2.9 respectively. Between
1968 and 1975 the population
of the United Arab Emirates
grew from 180,226 to
557,887, yielding an annual
growth of 14.6%.
debt. main target of radical Islam. So
- There are massive movements of people into are the pro-American regimes
Europe from Syria and its neighboring countries in the area.
desperate for work and livelihood so they’ll do
anything.  Climate Change
 Resources - Climate change is a real
- The challenge of providing livelihood and issue in West Asia as it
necessities for their population is a real issue hinders the countries’
because of their geography and fragile ecosystem. ability to provide the needs
- West Asia region is characterized as a region that of the population and not to
has extremely scarce water resources with per mention the countries have
capita Renewable Water Resources of 1,215m3 very limited natural
year−1 compared to world average of 23,803m3 resources compared to
year−1. Being predominantly located within the arid their neighboring regions.
and semi-arid regions these countries have - 2010 was the warmest year
experienced severe drought since 1980s. In fact, on record in West Asia.
drought is a very old phenomenon, but it has The Saharan / Arabian
become prominent since the middle of the twentieth region was 2.22 °C above
century. normal, 0.89 °C above the
- Extreme climatic conditions, over grazing, loss of previous record and the
biodiversity, over fishing, unsustainable cropping, largest annual anomaly
salt accumulation and pollution are the major ever recorded for any
challenges faced by the region. subregion outside the
- In West Asia, the problem of food insecurity Arctic.
persists at the household or national level. Some - Climate change is likely to
West Asian countries (e.g., Afghanistan, Armenia, affect crop agriculture
Yemen, Syria and Jordan) have no petrol reserves through changes in
and are poor compared with the other Guld temperature, precipitation,
countries which have petrol to buy food. extreme climate events and
 Land Degradation raising sea levels.
- The ecosystems within this region have undergone
some of the most significant land use changes over  Demand for Oil / How the
the past centuries which have led to serious region reacted to the Pandemic
degradation of these ecosystems including - Demand for oil has all but
desertification, soil salinization, and loss of organic dried up as nations shut
soil. borders and enforced
- Excessive use of irrigation water for crops, lockdowns, sending prices
overgrazing of livestock, illegal and excessive plummeting and dealing a
fuelwood collection and charcoal production, blow to West Asian
conversion of forests, rangelands and croplands for economies, which are
unplanned urban expansion, ecotourism dependent in varying
 development and infrastructure development. degrees on oil revenues.
- According to the
International Monetary
Fund, the Middle East and
Central Asia region is
projected to record minus
2.8% growth in 2020.

 Unity and Cohesion

- Compared to other countries, most of the countries that belong in West Asia are fairly new. Some are just formed back in the early to mid-1900s. Therefore, every country wants to be their own man which
is normal but it may result to little to no assistance.
 Government
- Every country uses different government types, while it is normal, as stated in the previous issue it may create a barrier on reacting and dealing with international disputes.
- Absolute Monarchy, Constitutional Monarchy, Presidential Republic, Parliamentary Republic are some of the government types that are used in this region.
 International Conflicts
- West Asia is unpredictable, the inter-state problems will leave marks with how they relate to distant countries.
- Cyprus Issue, Arab-Israel conflict, Factional conflict in Lebanon and Iran-Iraq war are some of the dissension that happened in West Asia.
DEMOGRAPHY
 The current population of Western Asia is
282,299,542 as of Monday, February 15,
2021, based on the latest United Nations
estimates.
 Western Asia population is equivalent to
3.59% of the total world population.
 Western Asia ranks number 4 in Asia
among subregions ranked by Population.
 The population density in Western Asia is
58 per Km2 (151 people per mi2).
 The total land area is 4,805,058 Km2
(1,855,243 sq. miles)
 72.8 % of the population is urban
(203,541,263 people in 2019).
 The median age in Western Asia is

28.2years.