91,026
Students in schools
That puts Salalah at 5 of 11 on the official table.
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Salalah · Topic file
Can Salalah 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 Salalah, the honest read comes down to students in schools and hospital beds.
813
Hospital beds
That puts Salalah at 2 of 11 on the official table.
The numbers
Where Salalah 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 Salalah 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
- Salalah is showing 91,026 on students in schools. That puts Salalah at 5 of 11 on the official table.
- Salalah is showing 813 on hospital beds. That puts Salalah at 2 of 11 on the official table.
- The MOHUP strategy frames Dhofar around a balanced economy: Salalah as a gateway city, high-tech activity around the port, free zone and airport, food-security production in the Najd, and a tourism identity anchored in place rather than just seasonality. A bigger regional role also means stronger schools and clinics closer to where people actually live.
Why this file matters
The strategy Salalah 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 frames Dhofar around a balanced economy: Salalah as a gateway city, high-tech activity around the port, free zone and airport, food-security production in the Najd, and a tourism identity anchored in place rather than just seasonality.
- Salalah is intended to operate as a national gateway city with a more coordinated urban hierarchy across the governorate.
- The official plan ties Dhofar's growth to high-tech industries near the port, airport and free zone as well as to Najd agriculture.
- Tourism is supposed to strengthen regional distinctiveness, not function as a narrow seasonal spike.
Related topic files
Five more ways into the Dhofar 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.
Dhofar topic file
Capital deployment
How much money is actually being committed, and whether the property market is picking up the signal.
Dhofar 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.
Dhofar topic file
Jobs and enterprise
The jobs and businesses that show whether the governorate has a working economy, or just a project list.
Dhofar topic file
Tourism and place economy
Hotels, occupancy, and whether the place is becoming a real destination or just adding rooms.
Dhofar topic file
Infrastructure and utilities
Roads, water and the quiet base layer that usually decides whether any of the rest of it actually works.