section_path: Demographics
section_name: Demographics
paragraph_text: Demographics
  
  Mecca is very densely populated. Most long-term residents live in the Old City, the area around the Great Mosque and many work to support pilgrims, known locally as the Hajj industry. 'Iyad Madani, the Saudi Arabian Minister for Hajj, was quoted saying, "We never stop preparing for the Hajj."
  
  Year-round, pilgrims stream into the city to perform the rites of ' Umrah, and during the last weeks of eleventh Islamic month, Dhu al-Qi'dah, on average 2–4 million Muslims arrive in the city to take part in the rites known as Hajj. Pilgrims are from varying ethnicities and backgrounds, mainly South and Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa. Many of these pilgrims have remained and become residents of the city. By the 19th century, people of South Asian origin had come to constitute 20% of the population. The Burmese are an older, more established community who number roughly 250,000. Adding to this, the discovery of oil in the past 50 years has brought hundreds of thousands of working immigrants.
  
  Non-Muslims are not permitted to enter Mecca under Saudi law, and using fraudulent documents to do so may result in arrest and prosecution. The prohibition extends to Ahmadis, as they are considered non-Muslims. Nevertheless, many non-Muslims and Ahmadis have visited the city as these restrictions are loosely enforced. The first such recorded example of a non-Muslim entering the city is that of Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna in 1503. Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, is said to have visited Mecca in December 1518. One of the most famous was Richard Francis Burton, who traveled as a Qadiriyya Sufi from Afghanistan in 1853.
  
  Mecca Province is the only province where expatriates outnumber Saudis.