I heard somewhere that all the Arab nations combined in the last 20 years had been granted fewer industrial patents than South Korea had in one recent single year. Seems to me like a reasonably good dipstick into the Arab world. Anybody have more recent data?
I think you'd be pretty close to right.
Status of Muslim Societies around the World:
...there are several factors for the backwardness of the Muslim society. First and foremost is their illiteracy in general and women illiteracy in particular. Another major reason of Muslim fall is the fact that hardly 16% of population is involved in industrial production. It is important to note that 60% of Christian population is engaged in industry. High population growth is another major factor for Muslim backwardness because this rapid population rise neutralizes whatever economic development takes place in Muslim Societies. Human Development Index prepared by UNDP gives a very dismal picture of the status of literacy, health and economy of Muslim nations. In the first 25 best countries listed under HDI (2002), no Muslim country figured in the list. Barring few small oil producing Muslim nations, majority of the Islamic world lies in the middle and low categories of human development, a clear indication that the Islamic nations needs to increase their focus on human development. Latest data (2002) about the Human Development Index (HDI) and Per capita GDP of some of the important and large populated Muslim countries are as follows;
HDI Income
(Per Capita)
Indonesia: 112 $850
(Population 210 M)
Bangladesh: 139 $350
(150 M)
Pakistan, 144 $500
(1300 M)
India 127 $500
(I Billion, Muslims, 140 M)
Egypt: 120 $1200
(70 M)
Turkey 96 $2700
(65 M)
Iran 106 $1,600
(70 M)
S. Arabia 73 $9,000
(22 M)
Malaysia 58 $4,000
(25 M)
Sudan 138 $450
(30 M)
Nigeria 152 $350
(120 M)
Libya 61 $7,000
(6 M)
Morocco 126 $1,300
(30 M)
Afghanistan 145 $300
(24 M)
Iraq 74 $5,500
(2.5 M)
Tunisia 91 $2,000
(10 M)
Syria 110 $1,300
(15 M)
Algeria 73 $1,700
(30 M)
It may be stated that the few Muslim countries, which do figure between 25 to 50 HDI, are Brunei, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar. Their per capita GDP is also comparatively higher i.e. between 10,000 to 15,000 dollars but combined population of all these Muslim countries is hardly 30 millions. One must bear in mind that total GDP of all the Arab oil producing counties (12 in numbers) is less than the GDP of Spain alone. Ironically Muslim Spain during Middle Ages had higher revenue (because of the industrial products like Textile, Paper, mineral etc) than the whole of the Christian Europe (eleventh Century AD). Today Germany alone has a GDP of 3 thousand Billion Dollars that is almost twice of the entire Muslim World. Per capita GDP of major Christian countries is also staggering. A few examples with higher Human Development Index (HDI) and per capita incomes are as below: ...
http://www.irfi.org/articles/articles_251_300/status_of_muslim_societies_aroun.htm