Alpha Consultancy
Retail & trade · sector data

How many pharmacies are in Saudi Arabia?

Retail pharmacies.

10.8K

active registrations list pharmacies activities — 0.7% of classified registrations.

Ministry of Commerce data · Q3 2026 to 16 Sep

10,788 active commercial registrations in Saudi Arabia list pharmacies activities as of 16 September 2026 — 0.7% of all classified registrations, the 55th-largest of the 64 sectors we track.

1,555 were registered in 2025 and are still active — -5.8% on 2024, slower than the +15% across all sectors.

Riyadh (3,421), Jeddah (1,780) and Makkah (715) lead. Relative to its size, Jeddah is the most concentrated: pharmacies make up 1.5× the share they hold nationally.

63.7% of these registrations are companies rather than sole proprietorships, and the median company reports SAR 50,000 of paid-up capital.

Active registrations
10,788
0.7% of classified CRs
Registered in 2025
1,555
-5.8% on 2024 · all sectors +15%
Companies
63.7%
6,876 of 10,788
Median company capital
SAR 50k
Paid-up, main registrations
By city

Where pharmacies are registered

Loading map…

Column height: pharmacies by city · select a highlighted city for its page

Leading cities

Registrations, with concentration vs the national average

  1. Riyadh3,4211.0×
  2. Jeddah1,7801.5×
  3. Makkah7151.3×
  4. Madinah5361.3×
  5. Dammam3350.7×
  6. Buraydah2340.9×
  7. Taif2331.0×
  8. Khobar2321.0×
  9. Khamis Mushait2221.2×
  10. Hail1841.0×

Concentration compares the sector's share of a city's registrations with its share nationally; 1.0× is average. Highlighted cities are above 1.15×.

Pharmacies: registrations by year of creation

Still-active registrations by the year they were created, 2015–2025. Older years read lower because cancelled registrations drop out.

By region

Active registrations in the sector

  1. Riyadh3,867
  2. Makkah2,885
  3. Eastern Province984
  4. Madinah635
  5. Asir623
  6. Qassim467
  7. Jazan383
  8. Hail252
  9. Najran216
  10. Tabuk197
  11. Al Jouf143
  12. Northern Borders81
  13. Al Baha55

Most common activities

Registrations listing each national activity code

  1. Pharmacies10,788Activity code 477211

Business structures

Legal form of registrations in the sector

  1. LLC6,60261.2%
  2. Sole proprietorship3,91136.3%
  3. JSC1801.7%
  4. SJSC350.3%
  5. General partnership340.3%
  6. Limited partnership250.2%
  7. GCC branch1<0.1%

Pharmacies by city

Riyadh (3,421)Jeddah (1,780)Makkah (715)Madinah (536)Dammam (335)Buraydah (234)Taif (233)Khobar (232)Khamis Mushait (222)Hail (184)Najran (173)Tabuk (163)

More in retail & trade

General wholesale tradersButchers, fruit & specialty food shopsCar repair & maintenanceGrocery stores & supermarketsClothing & shoe shopsBuilding materials & hardwareFood & beverage wholesalersFurniture & home goods shopsCar parts & accessoriesPerfume, oud & cosmetics shopsElectronics & mobile phone shopsFlower & gift shopsCar dealersMedical equipment suppliersGold & jewellery shops
All Saudi company statistics
FAQs

Common questions

How many pharmacies are there in Saudi Arabia?

10,788 active commercial registrations list pharmacies activities as of 16 September 2026, according to Ministry of Commerce data. A registration can list several activities, so it may also count in related sectors.

Which city has the most pharmacies?

Riyadh, with 3,421 — 31.7% of the national total. Jeddah follows with 1,780.

Is the number of pharmacies growing?

1,555 were registered in 2025 and are still active — -5.8% on 2024, slower than the +15% across all sectors.

Can a foreign investor set up in pharmacies in Saudi Arabia?

Most activities are open to 100% foreign ownership with a MISA investment licence, though some carry conditions such as minimum capital, a Saudi partner or sector-regulator approval. Alpha Consultancy confirms the conditions for your exact activity code before you apply.

Source & method

Figures are Alpha Consultancy's analysis of the Ministry of Commerce's open datasets on the Saudi Open Data Platform (open.data.gov.sa): the register of active commercial registrations (CRs) as of 16 September 2026.

Active CRsinclude main and branch registrations, as in the Ministry's own totals. Registered in a period counts CRs created in that period that were still active on 16 September 2026; registrations since cancelled are not in the source file, so older periods read lower than the number originally issued.

Partial quarter. The Ministry's Q3 2026 file is labelled as the quarter end but only contains registrations created up to 16 September 2026, so every figure here is as of that date and the latest quarter in the charts (marked *) is incomplete.

Sector figures cover the 1,443,322 active registrations (74.7%) that appear in the Ministry of Commerce's activity association file, which lists activities for registrations created up to 31 December 2025. Registrations created after that date are not yet classified. A registration counts once in each sector it is active in, so sectors overlap.

No individual business is identified on these pages; only aggregate counts are published.

Starting a business in pharmacies?

We confirm the licence conditions for your exact activity code, then take you from MISA licence to commercial registration and municipal licence.

Book a free consultationCheck MISA eligibility