Announced in April 2016, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 represents the idea of a future Saudi Arabia that is more open and presents greater opportunities for individuals in the Kingdom. Accordingly, Saudi Arabia today is very different than it was even ten years ago: Women are allowed to drive, gender segregation in restaurants and cafes is no longer enforced, and the once-feared morality police no longer patrols the Kingdom’s streets to punish violators of the country’s old, ultra-conservative catalogue of socially acceptable public behaviour.
On 08 July 2025, KAS hosted a delegation of young Saudis from the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS) for a workshop in Berlin about the social transformation taking place in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under Vision 2030. The event attracted over 30 participants representing universities, think tanks, government institutions, and the interested public and aimed to delve into the nuances and intricacies of the social impacts of the country’s ambitious national reform agenda. In the process, the discussions provided attendees with a detailed understanding of contemporary changes taking place in Saudi society, along with their regional reverberations, that goes beyond the headlines of newspapers or surface-level insights offered by social-media influencers.
After welcoming remarks delivered by Dr Thomas Volk, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Department at KAS, and Dr Mark Thompson, Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Socioeconomics Programme at KFCRIS, the first session of the workshop focused on how Saudi society is negotiating changes introduced in a top-down fashion under the Vision. Featuring inputs from Dr Sheemah Alenezi, Lecturer at Al Jouf University in Saudi Arabia’s Northern Borders Province, and Mohammed Al Munif, a native of Najran working as a Senior Procurement Specialist at NEOM, the discussion highlighted how reforms introduced on paper must still navigate deep-rooted societal institutions like the family and the tribe. As a result, despite the challenge that the younger generation’s increased mobility within the Kingdom poses to these traditional structures and networks, they remain highly relevant for life-changing events, such as the choice of a spouse.
Building on the discussion of internal migration, the second session of the workshop delved into the Vision’s impact on evolving expectations and opportunities for young women and men in the Kingdom. Above all, the reforms introduced by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have dramatically altered the economic outlook faced by Saudi youths. In contrast to their parents, these citizens can no longer treat the receipt of a comfortable, high-paying job in the public sector as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, the expectation is for them to find productive employment in the private sector, leading many to move from previous hotspots of oil-centred economic activity, like the Eastern Province, to the capital, Riyadh. In this session, Dr May Al Dubayan, Assistant Professor at Al Yamamah University, and Ahmad Alrkad, Manager of the Strategic Management Office of the Charity Committee for Orphans Care in Hafr Al Batin (TRAOF), offered insights into the socio-economic pressures and opportunities tied to Vision 2030’s expectations toward young people. Particularly prescient in this regard were observations about the emergence of a ‘certification culture,’ whereby intense competition on the job market has forced young Saudis to rigorously pursue professional certificates alongside university degrees to stand out amongst their peers. Inflation has also made life more difficult for Saudis seeking opportunities in Riyadh amidst the economy’s increasing centralisation around the city. In this regard, the cost of living in the capital has skyrocketed, to the degree that the crown prince ordered a five-year rent freeze in September 2025, two months after the workshop took place.
The workshop concluded with a look beyond the borders of the Kingdom to understand the regional impacts of Saudi Vision 2030. Participants agreed that the societal reforms introduced by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have sent shockwaves around the Arab world, with many citizens in neighbouring countries according the Kingdom a new ‘lighthouse function’ or leadership role commensurate with its economic weight in the Arab world. Through providing a multifaceted, nuanced overview of social changes taking place in Saudi Arabia under Vision 2030, the event thus offered participants important insights into how citizens of the Kingdom and beyond are impacted by the ambitious reforms introduced by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, along with their implications within Saudi Arabia and without.
