Phone usage is the focus of the second in a five-part series we are producing this week based on data from the 2011 Sustainable Development Indicators report. The report was released earlier this month by the Qatar Statistics Authority and contains various social, economic and environmental indicators. We’ll bring you some of the most interesting findings. Read part one here.

Mobile phone usage in Qatar saw a more than five-fold increase in 10 years, from 28 lines per 100 people in 2001 to 161 in 2010.

That’s more than two and a half times the global average of 61, the 2011 Sustainable Development Indicators report states.

The increase is considered a strong indicator of Qatar’s economic development and can be attributed to the rising population, GDP and evolving business environment, the report states.

The opening up of the market in 2009, when Vodafone Qatar ended Qtel’s domestic monopoly, also played a role.

The number of fixed lines per 100 people, on the other hand, plummeted from 26 per 100 people in 2001 to 17 in 2010 – in large part due to expats’ preference for mobile phones, the report said.

As for the future, QSA predicts that more of us will be walking around with at lease two mobile phones each soon enough:

It is anticipated that rate of deployment of mobile cellular telephones will witness a remarkable increase during the coming years, due to increase of population, strategies developed by the State for developing the communication sector, and openness of the Qatari communication market.

This is despite the fact that mobile phone usage in Qatar took a dip for the first time ever last, according to data collected from researcher Business Monitor International.

Still, the group seems to agree that phone usage will overall continue to grow, forecasting that mobile penetration will reach 190% by 2015.”

Here’s QSA’s report:

Thoughts?