Qatar saw an influx of some 70,000 people last year, bringing its population up from 1.63 million at the end of 2010 to past 1.7 million by year-end 2011.

According to the Qatar Statistics Authority, the country actually hit the 1.7 million mark at the end of May 2011, and continues to grow.

Data shows that the population remains overwhelmingly male, though the number of women in the country increased by 6 percent in 2011, compared to 3.5 percent for men.

The Peninsula reports:

Of the 70,300 people who came over to Qatar last year, more than 42,500 were men, while the number of women was a little over 27,750, the QSA said. As for the overall population in 2011, more than 1.27 million were male, whereas only 436,562 were female, with the male-female ratio continuing to be highly tilted in favour of men.

In the year 2010, the size of the male population was 1.22 million, while that of the female was 408,808. It is important to note that the presence of larger numbers of men in the country is due to the employment of large numbers of low-income single workers, mainly in the construction and contracting sectors.

Well, that explains why the roads, hospitals and malls are more crowded than ever!