page_title: Doha
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Doha / Economy
caption_attribution_description: Doha City, UNCTAD XIII
context_page_description: Doha is the capital and most populous city of the State of Qatar. It has a population of 956,460. The city is located on the coast of the Persian Gulf in the east of the country, North of Al Wakrah and South of Al Khor. It is Qatar's fastest growing city, with over 80% of the nation's population living in Doha or its surrounding suburbs, and it is political and economic center of the country.
  Doha was founded in the 1820s as an offshoot of Al Bidda. It was officially declared as the country's capital in 1971, when Qatar gained independence from being a British Protectorate. As the commercial capital of Qatar and one of the emergent financial centers in the Middle East, Doha is considered a beta-level global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Doha accommodates Education City, an area devoted to research and education; Hamad Medical City, an Hamad Medical Corporation administrative area of medical care which includes Hamad General Hospital, Heart Hospital, Women's Wellness and Research Center and Qatar Rehabilitation Institute as well as a number of specialty clinics and support infrastructure.
context_section_description: Doha is the economic center of Qatar. The city is the headquarters of numerous domestic and international organizations, including the country's largest oil and gas companies, Qatar Petroleum, Qatargas and RasGas. Doha's economy is built primarily on the revenue the country has made from its oil and natural gas industries. Doha was included in Fortune's 15 best new cities for business in 2011.
  Beginning in the late 20th century, the government launched numerous initiatives to diversify the country's economy in order to decrease its dependence on oil and gas resources. Doha International Airport was constructed in a bid to solidify the city's diversification into the tourism industry. This was replaced by Hamad International Airport in 2014. The new airport is almost twice the size of the former and features two of the longest runways in the world. Thirty-nine new hotels were under construction in the city in 2011.
  As a result of Doha's rapid population boom and increased housing demands, real estate prices rose significantly through 2014. Real estate prices experienced a further spike after Qatar won the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Al Asmakh, a Qatari real estate firm, released a report in 2014 which revealed substantial increases in real estate prices following a peak in 2008. Prices increased 5 to 10% in the first quarter of 2014 from the end of 2013. A 2015 study conducted by Numbeo, a crowd-sourced database, named Doha as the 10th most expensive city to live in globally. This rate of growth led to the development of planned communities in and around the city. Although the fall in oil prices since 2014 and a diplomatic crisis with Qatar's neighbors slowed growth in the city's population, government spending was increased to maintain the growth in real estate in metropolitan Doha.
  Expatriate workers remitted $60bn between 2006 and 2012, with 54 percent of the workers' remittances of $60bn routed to Asian countries, followed by Arab nations that accounted for nearly half that volume (28 percent). India was the top destination of the remittances, followed by the Philippines, while the US, Egypt and the neighbouring UAE followed. Remittances in 2014 totaled $11.2 billion, amounting to 5.3% of Qatar's GDP.
caption: West Bay serves as the commercial district of Doha and houses offices of many local and global companies.
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