Many individuals and businesses around the world were glad to see 2009 come to an end.  The economic downturn made itself felt in almost every nation, and in the Middle East a large number of young people experienced financial uncertainty for the first time.

The research for the First Annual ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey was carried out in September 2008, just before the recession made a significant impact in the region, and in the Gulf in particular.

Fieldwork for the second study took place in October 2009, in a year which saw Barack Obama visit Cairo to make his first address to the Arab world; swine flu become a global concern; elections in Lebanon and Iran, and cancelled polls in Afghanistan; the much-publicised threat of default at the UAE-based consortium Dubai World; the first Formula One Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi; and the completion of the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa.

Based on the year’s events and the serious economic issues in particular, it could easily be imagined that the region’s youth would be less optimistic about their future, and perhaps more cynical about the state of their respective nations. However, the findings of the Second ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey suggest that the opposite is true. 

The resilience and optimism of youth in the region shines through. Despite feeling a little more insecure about their jobs and having a little less money in their pockets, young respondents overall felt more optimistic than they did a year ago about the direction their countries were moving in. And those who took part in the survey were keen to stress the importance of the notion of global citizenship – a far cry from the insular and extremist picture of Arab youth that is too often used as the shorthand stereotype.  

With two thirds of the population in the region under the age of 24, according to United Nations and World Bank data, these misperceptions have a direct impact on the lives of millions of people. The findings set out in this survey go some way to redressing these myths with evidence.

Methodology

Based on the response to the First Annual ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey – undertaken with 1,500 young people aged 18 to 24 in six Arab countries, as well as 300 Western youth in Germany, the UK and the US – ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller took the decision to make its second survey the single largest piece of publicly available research on the habits and hopes of the region’s young people. Working with research partners Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates (PSB), a methodology was developed and new markets selected to help uncover even greater insights into the behaviour and aspirations of this little analysed yet hugely influential group.

Whereas the 2008 research was carried out online in six Arab nations, the research for the second survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 2,000 young people in nine countries: the six Gulf Cooperation Council states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) plus Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. 

The respondents were selected to provide an accurate reflection of each country’s demographic, geographic, and socio-economic mix. The 2,000 respondents included 300 young people from Saudi Arabia; 300 from the UAE; 250 from Egypt; 200 each from Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman and Qatar; and 150 from Bahrain.

The entire sample was weighted to include 20 per cent of respondents from the AB socio-economic group; 35 per cent from C1 and 45 per cent from C2. The gender split of the survey was 60:40 male to female.

All those taking part were young Arabs, and were either citizens of each country, or a mix of nationals and expatriates according to the demographic mix in each market surveyed. This meant that respondents in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Oman were all Arab nationals; in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, respondents were 75 per cent nationals and 25 per cent expatriates; and in Qatar and the UAE, there was a 50:50 split between both groups.

The geographic location of respondents was also taken into account by research specialists PSB when developing the fieldwork methodology – with 40 per cent of Saudi Arabian respondents living in Jeddah, another 40 per cent in Riyadh, and 20 per cent based in Dammam, for example.

In the same way, UAE respondents were drawn from three of the country’s emirates: Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah; Kuwait’s youth from four distinct regions: Kuwait City, Al Hawalli, Al Ahmadi, and Al Farwaniya; Lebanese youth from East and West Beirut, and from Tripoli; and so on across each country. When analysed, this geographic spread provides a more accurate national picture than findings based solely on the responses of those living in capital cities.