Qatar records 77.5% total-population male circumcision prevalence (Morris 2016 model), the lowest of the Gulf Cooperation Council states — not because Qatari nationals circumcise less, but because Qatar has the world's most extreme expatriate-to-national ratio. Roughly 90% of Qatar's approximately 2.8 million residents are non-nationals, predominantly South Asian (Indian, Nepalese, Bangladeshi) and Southeast Asian (Filipino) workers who are largely Hindu, Christian, or Buddhist. Among Qatari nationals — who are Muslim to essentially 100% — circumcision is near-universal.
Qatar records 77.5% total-population male circumcision prevalence in the Morris 2016 global model — the lowest figure among Gulf Cooperation Council states — yet this is primarily a demographic artefact. Qatar has the most extreme expatriate-to-national population ratio of any country: approximately 90% of its roughly 2.8 million residents are non-nationals. Qatari nationals number approximately 280,000-350,000, or roughly 10% of the resident population. Among nationals, who are Muslim to effectively 100%, circumcision (khitan) is near-universal, practised as an established religious and cultural obligation.
The expatriate majority is predominantly South Asian — large communities of Indian, Nepalese, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and Sri Lankan workers, many of whom are Hindu, Sikh, or Christian — along with significant Filipino (Christian), Indonesian (Muslim), and African populations. Non-Muslim workers from this expatriate majority do not routinely circumcise, which pulls the total-population figure substantially below the near-universal national rate. The ~77.5% figure thus overstates how "non-universal" circumcision is in Qatar from a cultural and religious standpoint.
Qatar is predominantly Hanbali Sunni Muslim, with historical Wahhabi influence from the Qatar-Saudi religious axis. The Hanbali school treats circumcision as wajib (obligatory). Circumcision is typically performed in childhood, around age seven, in Qatar's medicalised Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) health system. No Qatari statute, emiri decree, or ministerial regulation specifically governs non-therapeutic male circumcision.
Qatar has a concentrated HIV epidemic, with general-population prevalence below 0.1% (UNAIDS). Mandatory HIV testing for work visas and deportation of HIV-positive non-nationals distorts surveillance data. Qatar is not a WHO VMMC priority country. No Qatar-specific circumcision complication or mortality series was identified in the research literature.
