Study of the current and expected status of economic welfare in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia until 2030

Despite the strength of the economy and the huge natural resources, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ranked last in economic welfare compared to the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and therefore this study targeted the current and expected status of economic welfare in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This study relied on calculating welfare indicators to achieve its objectives, in addition to using econometric analysis to study the factors determining the level of economic welfare during the period 2000-2023. The most important results are the following: (1) The degree of economic well-being according to the Legatum Prosperity Index increased from 54.9 in 2013 to 58.4 in 2023. Its ranking among 167 countries also increased from 90 in 2013 to 79 in 2023. (2) Economic well-being is linked to the fairness of income or spending distribution among families, which led to a decrease in the value of the Gini index from 51.3% in 2007 to 45.9% in 2013, and then to 32.0% in 2023, (3) A 10% increase in each of the Human Development Index, the ratio of foreign direct investment to GDP, and the domestic investment rate leads to an increase in the level of economic welfare by rates of 14.01%, 0.6%, and 1.06%, respectively,(4) In light of the mechanisms for implementing Saudi Vision 2030, the level of economic welfare is expected to increase according to the Kakawani Index from 80.39 in 2023 to 89.40 in 2030, i.e. the level of economic welfare is expected to increase by a rate of 11.21%.