TRIVIA: What Your Qatari ID Number Means

Some of us working and living here in Qatar may have been wondering what the numbers on our Qatari ID mean. Are they just random set of numbers thought out by Qatari officials?

Well, wonder no more. Those numbers correspond to specific information about the holder that will allow government officials to determine your age and nationality by just looking at the number indicated on your ID.

What the Numbers in Your Qatari ID Stand For

Here’s how to read and understand your Qatar ID Number, commonly referred to in Arabic as IQAMA.

1st Digit:  2 means you were born in a year between 1900 to 1999; 3 means you were born in a year from 2000 onward.

2nd and 3rd Digits:  Last two numbers of your year of birth.

4th, 5th and 6th Digits:  ISO Country Code of where you’re from.

Last five digits:  Your sequence on the number of people from your country on the same birth year that entered Qatar.

For example, with ID number 27612405934; it means you were born in 1976, and you are the 5934th Canadian who was born in 1976 that were able to obtain Qatar Residency Permit.

For clearer visualization, refer to the illustration below:

Now that you have this information, you can determine one’s age and nationality just by looking at their Qatari ID number. Providing that you memorized the country code, that is.

Qatar uses the ISO 3166 for Numeric Country Codes.