Kuwait

Kuwait is a small country in Asia.

It is very hot and dry. It is next to the sea. The capital city is also called Kuwait.

Kuwait is a small country in the northwest corner of the Persian Gulf, a little bigger than the U.S. state of Hawaii. Most of it is desert, one of the driest on Earth, but its coast has Kuwait Bay, a deep, sheltered harbor.

In the 1700s, families from the Arabian desert started a trading post on the bay. The name Kuwait comes from a word meaning a small fort. Today, most people live in and around Kuwait City, the capital. About 4.9 million people lived in Kuwait in 2025.

Kuwait is a small emirate between Iraq and Saudi Arabia in a section of one of the driest, least hospitable deserts on Earth, slightly larger than Hawaii. Its shore includes Kuwait Bay, a deep harbor where Bedouin from the interior founded a trading post in the 18th century; the name derives from the Arabic diminutive of the Hindustani kut, fort.

Since the Al Sabah family established a sheikhdom in 1756, Kuwait's fortunes have been linked to foreign commerce, and the fort grew into Kuwait City, a metropolis of skyscrapers, apartment blocks and mosques that holds most of the population, making Kuwait one of the world's most urbanized countries. The World Bank put the population at 4,865,298 in 2025; about two-thirds are expatriate workers, now mostly from South and Southeast Asia.

Kuwait City has tall towers and busy streets.

Long ago, it was a small town with a mud wall. Today, its old gates still stand. Little islands lie out in the sea.

Kuwait City grew from a small trading town by the sea. From 1918 to 1954 a mud wall curved around the old town, and when the city grew, the wall was taken down but its gates were kept to remember the early years.

The Kuwait Towers hold water tanks and a restaurant with a turning viewing deck. The Seif Palace, first built in 1910, is known for its Islamic architecture. Sadu House is a museum where people learn Bedouin weaving. Out in the bay, the island of Failaka has had people living on it since prehistoric times.

The old town of Kuwait, only about 13 km², faced a sheltered harbor and was bounded on the landward side from 1918 to 1954 by a semicircular mud wall; its typical dwelling was the courtyard house. After the oil boom the wall was demolished, its gates preserved, and planners laid out new suburbs. Kuwaiti citizens now live at low density across the suburbs, while many non-Kuwaitis live in apartments in the old city and in Hawalli and Al-Salimiyyah.

The Kuwait Towers contain two water reservoirs and a restaurant with a revolving viewing platform. The Seif Palace, built in 1910 and much renovated, is an official residence of the ruling family. The National Museum was looted and burned during the Iraqi occupation and has only partly reopened, raising the importance of the private Tareq Rajab Museum. Of Kuwait's nine islands, Bubiyan and Al-Warbah are the largest and are uninhabited, while Failaka, near the entrance of Kuwait Bay, has been populated since prehistoric times.

Kuwait is a flat, sandy desert.

Summers are very, very hot. It rains a little in winter. Then the desert can turn green for a short time.

Kuwait is mostly flat or gently rolling desert, with a few low hills. It has no rivers or lakes that last all year. After winter rains, low places in the desert fill with water, and long ago Bedouin herders brought their camels there to drink.

Summer days are usually about 44 °C and can get even hotter. Only 25 to 180 millimeters of rain fall in a year, mostly from October to April. If enough rain falls, the desert turns green from mid-March to April. In June and July, a wind called the shamal whips up sandstorms.

Kuwait's relief is flat or gently undulating, broken by low hills and shallow depressions, rising from sea level in the east to the western corner; the Al-Zawr Escarpment on the northwestern shore of Kuwait Bay reaches 145 m. There is no permanent surface water: wadis are short and end in interior basins, which fill after winter rain and were once key watering places for Bedouin camel herds. True soils scarcely exist, and salinity is high.

Between April and September daytime temperatures ordinarily reach 44 °C and occasionally approach 54 °C; winter is milder, with occasional frost inland but never on the coast. Annual rainfall is 25–180 mm, chiefly from October to April, though a cloudburst can bring more than 50 mm in a day. The northwesterly shamal of June and July raises dramatic sandstorms. Britannica notes that the Persian Gulf War destroyed much of the desert's hard surface crust, increasing wind-blown sand and the number of dunes.

Few big animals can live in Kuwait's hot desert.

Foxes and lizards find ways to survive. Small bushes grow in the sand. Salt-loving plants grow by the sea.

Kuwait's harsh climate means only a few mammals live there, such as the occasional fox. Lizards do better: the monitor lizard and the plant-eating dab lizard live in the desert. This sand cat was photographed in Kuwait.

Most plants are scrub and low bushes, with grass that sprouts only in spring. Along the marshy coast grow halophytes, plants that can live in salty ground. Around Kuwait City, a new green belt is watered by irrigation, and crops grow at oases such as Al-Jahra, where there is water.

Britannica notes that the harsh climate allows only a few mammals, such as the occasional fox, and lists among reptiles the rare, venomous sand viper (Cerastes vipera) and the monitor and vegetarian dab lizards (Uromastix). The photo shows a sand cat recorded in Kuwait.

Vegetation is mostly scrub and low bushes with ephemeral spring grass, and halophytes grow on the coastal marshes; cultivation and irrigation are found only in the new green belt of Kuwait City and in oases such as Al-Jahra at the western end of Kuwait Bay. If rainfall is enough, the desert greens from mid-March to the end of April.

About 4.9 million people live in Kuwait.

People speak Arabic, and many speak English too. Many people come from other countries to work. Rice with fish or meat is a favorite meal.

About two out of every three people in Kuwait are workers from other countries, many from South and Southeast Asia. Arabic is the official language, English is taught in public schools, and Hindi, Urdu and Persian are widely spoken too.

A traditional meal is spiced rice topped with meat, fish or shellfish from the Gulf, and fava-bean ful, falafel and hummus are everyday foods. Many men meet regularly at a diwaniyyah, a get-together for talking and refreshments. Bedouin weaving on a loom called a sadu is still taught, and camel and horse racing and soccer are popular.

Kuwaiti citizens, defined as those able to prove Kuwaiti ancestry before 1920, are a minority; about two-thirds of residents are expatriate workers, formerly from other Arab states but now mostly from South and Southeast Asia, without citizenship rights. Arabic is the official language, with Kuwaitis speaking Gulf Arabic and learning Modern Standard Arabic at school; English is the second language in public schools. Citizens are almost entirely Muslim, mostly Sunni, with about one-third Shi'a.

The diwaniyyah, a regular gathering usually in a tent or separate room, is central to traditional social life. Ful, falafel and hummus are staples, and the traditional meal is spiced rice with meat, fish or Gulf shellfish. Bedouin sadu weaving is kept alive at Sadu House. Camel and horse racing remain popular, and football and golf are widely played; Kuwait first competed at the Summer Olympics in 1968.