Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, Country, Middle East, southwest Asia. It juts out into the Persian Gulf from the Arabian Peninsula's east coast. Area: 4,489 sq mi (11,627 sq km). Population: (2022 est.) 3,059,000. Capital: Doha. The majority of the population is Arab, with South Asian and Iranian minorities frequently working as migrant workers.
Languages: Arabic (official), English. Religion: Islam (official; majority Sunni); also Christian, Hindu. Currency: Qatari Rial. Qatar is mostly rocky, sandy and barren and consists of salt flats, deserts and arid plains. Largely due to exports of oil and natural gas, the per capita gross national product is one of the highest in the world.
The government owns all agricultural land and generates the majority of economic activity; the private sector trades and contracts on a limited scale. Qatar is a constitutional emirate with an advisory body, and the basis of its legislation is Islamic law. The Emir is the head of state and government, who is assisted by the prime minister.
It was partly controlled by Bahrain from the mid-18th to mid-19th centuries and then nominally part of the Ottoman Empire until World War I (1914–18). In 1916 it became a British protectorate. Oil was discovered in 1939, and Qatar quickly modernized. When the British protectorate ended in 1971, it declared independence. During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, Qatar served as a base for air strikes against Iraq.