If half of pay is sent home monthly, costs would be QR 966 a year in elementary jobs

The official figure for 2025 is 4.7%, which is the average total cost (fees plus exchange-rate margin) of sending USD 200 from Qatar as a percentage of the amount sent, taken as a simple average over providers and destination countries, so a cheaper provider can cost less than the average and a dearer one more. The series is published by Qatar's National Planning Council as SDG indicator 10.c.1, with the UN SDG metadata naming the World Bank's Remittance Prices Worldwide database as the compiler, and it holds 11 published years from 2011 to 2025, with a high of 5.99% in 2015, a low of 3.28% in 2022 and then 4.2%, 4.21% and 4.7% in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

The scenario is an illustration, not a measured behaviour: a worker sends half of a month's pay home every month. All riyal figures below are nominal 2025 amounts, and the pay levels are group averages.

Elementary occupations averaged QR 3,427 a month in 2025. Half of that, QR 1,713, is about USD 470 at the QR 3.64 peg. At the 4.7% average cost, one transfer would cost QR 81 and a year of monthly transfers QR 966.

Service and sales workers averaged QR 7,288 a month. Half, QR 3,644, is USD 1,000, about five times the USD 200 on which the 4.7% was measured. One transfer would cost QR 171 and a year of monthly transfers QR 2,055.

These are the amounts the same percentage would give, not measured costs.

Of the 11 published years, 2022 is the lowest at 3.28%, and 2015 is the highest at 5.99%. After 2022 the average rose to 4.2% in 2023, 4.21% in 2024 and 4.7% in 2025, a rise of 1.42 percentage points from the low. Against the 2015 peak, the 2025 figure is 1.29 percentage points lower. In 2020 the average was 4.87%, and in 2021 it was 3.49%.

In the scenario, if the same percentage applied and the cost were the 2022 level of 3.28% rather than 4.7%, the yearly cost would be QR 292 lower at elementary pay and QR 621 lower at service and sales pay. These are nominal riyal amounts for the scenario's monthly transfers. They are not measured spending, and the percentages themselves are not adjusted for inflation.

The 4.7% is a simple average over providers and destination countries. It hides cheaper and dearer options, so the cost of any one transfer can be lower or higher. The data has no breakdown by destination country.

The series has no published value for 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016. Changes between 2011 and 2015, and between 2015 and 2017, therefore span years with no figure.

The percentage was measured on USD 200 transfers. The scenario applies it to USD 470 and USD 1,000 monthly amounts, which is an assumption. Larger transfers usually cost a smaller share, so the riyal figures of QR 966 and QR 2,055 a year may overstate what such transfers would cost.

The half-of-pay-every-month pattern is a scenario chosen for illustration. It is not a measured behaviour of workers in Qatar. The pay levels come from the National Planning Council occupation table, as 2025 group averages.