The Gulf states are a group of six Arab countries that border the Persian Gulf. These countries are Kuwait, Iran (Persia), Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. These six countries form the members of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. Gulf States refers to the United States states along the Gulf of Mexico: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida. ... The Arab states include 22 countries spanning Asia and Africa. ... Map of the Persian Gulf. ... Persia can refer to: the Western name for Iran. ... Member states  Saudi Arabia  United Arab Emirates  Kuwait  Oman  Qatar  Bahrain The Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Gulf (Arabic: مجلس التعاون لدول الخليج), formerly named Gulf Cooperation Council (مجلس التعاون الخليجي) is a regional organization involving six Middle Eastern nations with the many economic and social objectives in mind. ...

It is useful to view the Persian Gulf states as a group because they share similar economies and a similar culture.

Economy

The Persian Gulf states all have significant revenues from oil and gas and have considerably small local populations. This has raised their respective per capita incomes to higher than those of its neighbours. To meet the labour shortages they host large numbers of temporary non-citizen economic migrants from South Asia and South East Asia (mostly the Philippines and Indonesia). In the past there were also significant numbers of immigrants from Jordan (mostly of Palestinian origin) and Egypt. The per capita income for a group of people may be defined as their total personal income, divided by the total population. ... Composite satellite image of the Indian subcontinent Map of South Asia. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... The term Palestinian has other usages, for which see definitions of Palestinian. ...

In addition, pearl diving and the pearl industry was the main economic activity of many of these countries (particularly Bahrain and Kuwait). The pearling industry collapsed in the 1930s after the development of cultured pearl methods. Pearl hunting refers to a now largely obsolete method of retreiving pearls from oysters. ... Nuclei from Toba Pearl Island, Japan A pearl is a hard, rounded object produced by certain mollusks, primarily oysters. ... A cultured pearl is a pearl created by a pearl farmer under controlled conditions. ...

Culture

The Persian Gulf states share a regional culture that is sometimes referred to "khaleeji culture". They all speak the the Gulf dialect of Arabic and share similar music styles (sawt, fijiri, etc), cuisine, dress, etc. Many people in the Persian Gulf states also trace their ancestry back to bedouin origins. Gulf Arabic or The Persian Gulf Arabic is a variety of the Arabic language spoken around both shores of the Persian Gulf, mainly in Kuwait, eastern Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and parts of Oman. ... Sawt (also spelled sout) is a kind of popular music found in the Persian Gulf area, especially in Kuwait and Bahrain. ... Bedouin resting at Mount Sinai Bedouin, derived from the Arabic badawi بدوي, a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and...

All of the Persian Gulf states are hereditary monarchies with little or no political representation. A hereditary monarchy is the most common style of monarchy and is the form that is used by almost all of the worlds existing monarchies. ... In politics, representation describes how residents of a country are empowered in the government. ...

See also

• Persian Gulf states
• Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf

The Arabian Gulf States, also called the Gulf States (which may cause a confusion with the Gulf States of the United States, which are those along the Gulf of Mexico), are the countries in Southwest Asia or the Middle East which border the Arabian Gulf. ... Member states  Saudi Arabia  United Arab Emirates  Kuwait  Oman  Qatar  Bahrain The Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Gulf (Arabic: مجلس التعاون لدول الخليج), formerly named Gulf Cooperation Council (مجلس التعاون الخليجي) is a regional organization involving six Middle Eastern nations with the many economic and social objectives in mind. ...

Further reading

• J. E. Peterson (1998), The Arab Gulf States: Steps Toward Political Participation, ISBN 0275928810
• F. Gregory, III Gause (1994), Oil Monarchies: Domestic and Security Challenges in the Arab Gulf States, ISBN 0876091516
• Atif A. Kubursi (1984), Oil, Industrialization and Development in the Arab Gulf States, ISBN 0709915667
• Gordon Robison (1996), Lonely Planet: Arab Gulf States, ISBN 086442390X