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The GCC Statistical Centre’s report for 2025 placed the combined remittances sent by workers from the six member states at the top of the global ranking with a total of approximately $161 billion. This marked a 13.6 percent rise on 2024, equivalent to an additional $19 billion, and represented the highest annual figure in the centre’s six-year data series. The increase came as non-oil economic activities in infrastructure, services and industry continued to attract expatriate labor, the centre stated in its assessment.
Country-level details in the report showed the United Arab Emirates accounting for the largest share at $62.1 billion, followed by Saudi Arabia with $58 billion that reflected the bloc’s highest growth rate of 26.9 percent and contributed $12.3 billion to the net rise. Kuwait saw remittances climb 18.2 percent to $16.7 billion while Qatar recorded $11.9 billion, Oman $9.5 billion and Bahrain $2.5 billion, the only decline at 4.3 percent. Together the UAE and Saudi Arabia made up 74.8 percent of the GCC total, according to the centre’s breakdown.
The centre compared the GCC performance with other major economies, noting that the United States sent $107 billion, Switzerland $43 billion, Germany $27 billion and France $21 billion in worker remittances. Statista data shows that migrant workers constitute more than 70 percent of the GCC workforce, underpinning the scale of these cross-border transfers. This demographic reality, combined with ongoing economic diversification, has sustained the upward trajectory in outflows.
Historical figures compiled by the centre traced remittances from $110 billion in 2020 to $127 billion in 2021, $132 billion in 2022, $128 billion in 2023, $142 billion in 2024 and the peak last year. The 2025 outcome therefore delivered a cumulative gain of nearly 46 percent over the half-decade. The centre’s earlier data for 2023 had put the total at $131.5 billion, confirming the recovery that followed.
GCC Statistical Centre compilations have consistently ranked the bloc among the world’s leading sources of remittances, second only to the United States in many prior assessments. The latest report underscores how labor mobility remains integral to the Gulf’s growth model across multiple sectors.
