Kuwait (country), nation in the Middle East, located at the northwestern tip of the Persian Gulf. Kuwait is a small, desert country, but it possesses a strategic stretch of Persian Gulf coastline and significant petroleum reserves. Kuwaiti citizens, who are Arab Muslims, make up less than half of the country’s population—most of the remainder are immigrant workers.

For many years Kuwait was a minor emirate whose economy centered on sea trade and especially pearl exports. The discovery of oil in the 20th century transformed all aspects of Kuwaiti society, and today the country has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. In 1990 neighboring Iraq invaded Kuwait, precipitating the 1991 Persian Gulf War, in which an international force expelled the Iraqis.