The Christmas holiday season seems to have once again led to a reduction in number of people staying back in Qatar.

The country’s population stood at 2.64m at the end of 2017, according to a communique from the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS), reported Gulf Times.

The latest figures put the population at 2,642,000 against 2,683,000 on November 30 — a fall of 41,000 people or 0.5%.

The fall in numbers has been attributed to people going back to their native countries for annual vacation and Christmas holidays.

Despite the lower numbers month-on-month, the actual numbers showed a 1.5% increase when compared to the same period last year.

On December 31, 2016, there were only 2,597,000 people in Qatar.

This year, the highest number of people in Qatar was reported in May, when MDPS reported that the numbers had touched 2.70m mark for the first time. The lowest figure in recent times was 2.44m in August when a large chunk of residents went away on holidays.