Qatar saw its population fall by more than 40,000 people in June from May, after witnessing growth for the first five months of the year, official data showed on Thursday.

As of June 30, the country's population stood at 1.61 million people, compared with 1.65 million in May, data released by the Qatar Statistics Authority showed.

In the beginning of June, the authority said Qatar's population grew 6.5 percent to 1.65 million in the first five months of the year from 1.55 million in December 2008.

Qatar is the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas and the majority of its population is comprised of foreign workers. - Reuters