Kuwait is a small, oil-rich country in the Middle East, at the north of the Persian Gulf, with Iraq to the north and Saudi Arabia to the south. Oil made it wealthy. In 1990 Iraq attacked it and took control; that led to the Gulf War. In 1991 a group of countries, led by the United States, forced the Iraqi army out. People in Kuwait still mark that year very clearly. The capital is Kuwait City. Older learner books give a population of about 2.7 million (2014); the number has grown since, and though actually a large share of the people living there are workers from other countries, not Kuwaiti citizens — a pattern you also see in neighbouring Gulf states. The English name comes from Arabic al-Kuwayt, a smaller form of al-kūt.