State of Kuwait
Western Asia
Gulf · Opulent · Modern
Kuwait (officially State of Kuwait) is a country located in Western Asia. Its capital city is Kuwait City, with other major cities including Al Ahmadi and Hawalli. With a population of approximately 4.3M, the main language spoken is Arabic. The country covers an area of 17,818 km². The official currency is the Kuwaiti dinar (د.ك). Traffic drives on the right side.
Kuwait sits atop the world's sixth-largest proven oil reserves — the Burgan oil field discovered in 1938 is the world's second-largest conventional oil field and has been producing continuously ever since.
Kuwait City serves as the political, cultural and economic heart of Kuwait, positioned in Western Asia. As the seat of government and often the most populous city, it concentrates the country's main institutions, universities and cultural landmarks. Beyond the capital, major cities include Al Ahmadi, Hawalli, Salmiya — each a hub of regional culture, economy and history. Kuwait City's skyline of the Kuwait Towers — three towers whose distinctive spheres were built in 1979 to hold and distribute water but serve as the country's visual symbol — represents a capital that was almost entirely destroyed by Iraqi occupation in 1990-91 and rebuilt with petroleum revenues in a reconstruction that prioritised air-conditioned modern infrastructure over historical preservation.
With a population of approximately 4.3M, Kuwait is a vibrant society with a rich mix of traditions and communities. The official language is Arabic, which reflects the country's cultural heritage and connects it with a wide international community. Internationally, Kuwait is reached via the dialling code +965. Kuwaiti nationals constitute only 30% of the country's 4.3 million population, with the remaining 70% being migrant workers whose labour built and maintains the petroleum economy but who receive no citizenship rights despite decades of residence — a demographic structure creating a society of intense legal inequality that the kafala sponsorship system maintains despite international human rights criticism.
Kuwait spans 17,818 km², in the Western Asia subregion of Asia. Geographically centred around 29.5°N, 45.8°E, the country offers a diverse range of landscapes shaped by its location, climate and geology. Road traffic follows the right-hand rule, in line with surrounding Asia convention.
The official currency is the Kuwaiti dinar (د.ك), used for everyday transactions and commerce throughout the country. Kuwait's economy is shaped by its geography, natural resources and trade relationships. Business and daily life operate under UTC+03:00, aligning the country with its regional neighbours.
Football holds a special place in the heart of Kuwait's national identity. Football is Kuwait's primary sport, with the national team's 1982 World Cup appearance being the country's most celebrated achievement — the match against France in which a Kuwaiti official walked onto the pitch to protest a disallowed goal after a French player claimed to hear a whistle remains one of the World Cup's most extraordinary incidents — but falconry, maintained as a living cultural practice, is the traditional sport with the deepest cultural roots.
The highest point in Kuwait is Unnamed high point, rising to 306 metres above sea level. Kuwait Bay creates a 70-kilometre inland extension of the Persian Gulf whose shallow waters warm rapidly in summer to temperatures exceeding 36°C — an extreme marine environment that has produced a unique hot-water ecosystem adapted to conditions that would kill most of the world's marine species, while the desert interior supports Arabian oryx and sand gazelle reintroduction programmes.