133,483
Students in schools
That puts Rustaq at 4 of 11 on the official table.
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Rustaq · Topic file
Can Rustaq carry stronger schools, clinics and everyday services?
The story is not only about investment. It is also about whether families can build their lives — schooling, healthcare, daily services — without having to default back to Muscat. For Rustaq, the honest read comes down to students in schools and hospital beds.
415
Hospital beds
That puts Rustaq at 5 of 11 on the official table.
The numbers
Where Rustaq stands today, chart by chart
Students in schools
Total students in schools by governorate in the 2025/2026 academic year.
NCSI Statistical Year Book 2026, Schools, Classrooms, Students and Teachers by Governorate (grand total table).
Hospital beds
Total government and private hospital beds by governorate in 2025.
NCSI Statistical Year Book 2026, No. Of Government & Private Sectors Hospitals & Health Units Distributed by Governorates and Number of Bed.
The trend over time
How Rustaq got here
Students in schools
How many children the governorate's schools are actually carrying each academic year — the simplest stand-in for how much pressure the local education system is under.
2024/25 and 2025/26 totals from the Schools, Classrooms, Students and Teachers by Governorate tables in Statistical Year Books 2025 and 2026.
These are academic-year counts, not calendar years.
Hospital beds
Hospital beds in the governorate, public and private combined. A blunt but useful read on how deep the local health system actually is.
2024 and 2025 values from Table 2-17, Statistical Year Books 2025 and 2026. Totals here cover government and private hospital beds only — health-centre beds are not added in.
Reading the charts
What the latest tables are really saying
- Rustaq is showing 133,483 on students in schools. That puts Rustaq at 4 of 11 on the official table.
- Rustaq is showing 415 on hospital beds. That puts Rustaq at 5 of 11 on the official table.
- The MOHUP strategy is explicit about balance: coastal and inland growth, stronger regional hubs around Rustaq and Barka, Khazaen as a logistics and jobs platform, and a heritage corridor that ties tourism to inland settlements. A bigger regional role also means stronger schools and clinics closer to where people actually live.
Why this file matters
The strategy Rustaq is being measured against
Whether schools and hospitals are keeping up — the simplest read on whether people can build a life here.
The MOHUP strategy is explicit about balance: coastal and inland growth, stronger regional hubs around Rustaq and Barka, Khazaen as a logistics and jobs platform, and a heritage corridor that ties tourism to inland settlements.
- Growth is supposed to be shared between the coastal belt and the inland settlements near the Hajar Mountains.
- Khazaen is framed as a significant employment location because of its links to Muscat and Sohar.
- Tourism is tied to heritage corridors and adaptive reuse rather than only to resort-style coastal development.
Related topic files
Five more ways into the Al Batinah South execution map
These linked files cover the other live tests in the same governorate, so the numbers on capital, jobs, services, tourism, utilities, and urban buildout can be read together instead of in isolation.
Al Batinah South topic file
Capital deployment
How much money is actually being committed, and whether the property market is picking up the signal.
Al Batinah South topic file
Urban buildout and housing
Population, permits and whether the place is actually being built fast enough for the role it has been handed.
Al Batinah South topic file
Jobs and enterprise
The jobs and businesses that show whether the governorate has a working economy, or just a project list.
Al Batinah South topic file
Tourism and place economy
Hotels, occupancy, and whether the place is becoming a real destination or just adding rooms.
Al Batinah South topic file
Infrastructure and utilities
Roads, water and the quiet base layer that usually decides whether any of the rest of it actually works.