1. Saudi Arabia in
1 Minute
a quick overview of the kingdom today

2. Saudi Arabia Flag, image by erjkprunczyk, image retrieved from Flickr, used under CC license.

3. Governance
● The Saud Family rule the country with a
monopoly on power.
● Political parties are banned.

4. Governance
● Governance is in the form of authoritarian
monarchy with strict adherence to Islamic
(Sharia) law.
● Saudi Arabia follows an ultra-conservative
branch of Sunni Islam, translated to English
as Wahhabism.

5. Geography
● Saudi Arabia is home to two of Islam’s most
holiest sites: Mecca and Medina.
7am at Mecca. image by marviikad, image retrieved from Flickr, used under CC license.

6. Economy
● Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest producer
and exporter of petroleum.

7. Media
● Saudi Arabia has a heavily censored and
state-dominated press.
● Authorities use the press to educate the
public, communicate government views and
promote national unity.

8. Internet
● The kingdom has a severely rigorous, yet
highly consistent and transparent Internet
filtering regime.
● In 2012, approximately half of the Saudi
population were Internet users.

9. Block page of filtered webpage. image by Curtis Palmer, image retrieved from Flickr, used under CC license.

10. Demographics
● Approximately 70% of the population are
under 30 years old.
Saudi Arabia. image by Stefan Krasowski, image retrieved from Flickr, used under CC license.

11. National Psyche
● The kingdom strives for a balance between:
- old / new
- reform / traditions
- globalised progress / Islamist identity
This is the central tenet that is greatly
challenging Saudi Arabia in these changing
times.

12. Building in Riyadh. image by xsix, image retrieved from Flickr, used under CC license