Oman had over 75,000 new babies in 2012

Oman recorded more than 75,000 new births in 2012 and only a tiny fraction of them were expatriates, official data showed on Tuesday.

The 75,461 new babies were nearly three per cent more than the new births recorded in the Gulf country in 2011, the government statistics centre said.

It said the new births in 2012 included 70,068 Omanis and 5,393 expatriates, mostly other Arabs and south Asians.

Oman, a non-Opec oil producer, has a population of around 3.5 million and nearly 35 per cent of them are foreigners.