Study shows rise in religious beliefs in Oman

Muscat: Religious beliefs among citizens has increased a study released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) has indicates.
The number of Jamea increased during 2016 to 1,419 and mosques to 14,367 during 2016 across the nation, according to the data. There was an increase in the number of schools and teaching centres for the Holy Qur’an to 1,051. According to the NCSI data, in 2016, the number of pilgrims reached 11,064 of whom 95 per cent were Omanis. While 6 per cent of the pilgrims were youth in the 15-29 age group, the elderly constituted 14 per cent of the pilgrims.
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The number of religious cadres in the Sultanate reached 5,050 while the number of preachers decreased by 40 per cent to 132. The number of religious guides decreased by 7 per cent to 1,130. The numbers of imams and preachers rose by 0.8 per cent to 3,703.
There was a considerable increase in the number of visitors to museums in the Sultanate in 2016 compared to 2015. The Land of Frankincense Museum witnessed a 15.5 per cent rise in the number of visitors to 117,744 compared to 2015. There were 91,166 visitors to Bait Al Zubair Museum (24 per cent growth over 2015) while the Children’s Museum saw a 26.8 per cent rise in number of visitors to 24,883.
The number of visitors to the Natural History Museum was down by 18.2 per cent with the number at 15,011. The number of visitors to the Sultan’s Armed Forces Museum increased by 61 per cent to 20,121 compared to 2015, according to the NCSI data.
The number of visitors to the Bait Al Baranda decreased by 1.3 per cent to 7,690 visitors and the number of visitors to the Omani-French Museum decreased by 9 per cent to reach 3,032. Ghalya’s Museum of Modern Art was visited by 2,279 visitors. The number of visitors to Bidiyah Museum was 1,789.
In 2016, three museums were set up, namely the National Museum, which was visited by 11,991 people, the Currency Museum, which received 585 visitors, and Al Saidia Education School Museum, which was visited by 1,515 visitors. The number of visitors to castles and forts in the Sultanate also saw an increase compared to the previous year by 14 per cent to 284,719. The number of craftspersons has increased by 11 per cent to reach 19,576, including 17,206 females, and 2,370 males, according to the NCSI data.
The number of reserved areas reached 14 with 242 workers. There are three types of reserved areas in the Sultanate: animal (three reserves with 23,681 visitors), plants (two reserves with 2,020 visitors) and both animal and plants (Nine reserves with 600 visitors). Overall, the percentage of visitors to reserved areas decreased by 31 per cent in 2016 compared to 2015.
With eight theatres, the number of theatrical performances increased twice to 41 reaching 128,950 spectators, down by 2 per cent in attendance compared to 2015.
The number of paintings and drawings decreased by 80 per cent to 800 while the number of visitors to art galleries decreased by 9 per cent to reach 15,250. The number of Omani artists saw a decline of 21 per cent to 1,050.
The number of books published in the Sultanate increased by 17 per cent to 775 in 2016 of which 47 per cent were on education with 363 books.
In the subjects of social sciences, business and law, there were 30 books and in humanities and arts, there were 25 books. In science, there were 18 books, health and social service, there were 15 books, agriculture four books on agriculture and 320 books were published on other subjects.