5 things to know about Qatar, the 2022 World Cup hosts

2. It’s tiny
Qatar is 
half the size of
 the state of New Hampshire. The
country’s 4,466 square miles encompass a peninsula
surrounded by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Bahrain.
World Cup logistics this year reflect Qatar’s small size—
all of its World Cup stadiums are within 21 miles of its
capital’s city center. Over the last decade, Qatar has made
big 
investments
 in infrastructure to help its World Cup
visitors (and its own citizens) get around. The country is
about halfway through a long-term transportation plan
that includes a new metro system, improvements to its
national bus and taxi fleet, and miles of new highway.
3. It’s diverse
Don’t be fooled by its diminutive size: People of many
ethnic, lingual, and cultural backgrounds live in Qatar.
Though the nation’s official language is Arabic, English
is also commonly used, and Malayam, Urdu, Hindi,
Farsi, and other South and Southeast Asian languages
can also be heard.
(
How Egypt plans to build a new capital in the desert
.)
Islam is also not its only religion: the nation is home to a
sizeable number of members of religious 
minorities
,

---

including Buddhists, Hindus, Egyptian Copts, and
followers of the Bahá’í faith.
The country’s diversity is due to the migrants that make
up 94 percent of Qatar’s workforce. An 
estimated
seven
of 10 Qataris emigrated from countries like India,
Pakistan, Nepal, and Iran. The majority of them work in
trades or in unskilled jobs.
Qatar has touted its diversity throughout its World Cup
bid, but the nation has faced sharp criticism for its human
rights record. Workers’ rights groups 
report
 that
construction workers who built the World Cup stadiums,
most of them migrants, have faced discrimination, abuse,
and wage theft. And an investigation by 
The Guardian
found
 that 6,500 migrant workers have died since Qatar
was chosen to host the tournament.