Saudi Arabia Tension Score
building record · 49 days on fileLive 0–100 tension reading for Saudi Arabia, built by our own engine from 19,188 world headlines in the last 30 days. Refreshed every 10 minutes; a fresh headline count twice a day.
Where Saudi Arabia stands
#8 of 197 countries today, #5 of 16 in Middle East (region score 78). Tension is easing this week.
Same 0–100 scale and zones as the World Tension Index.
Saudi Arabia news pulse
60 headlines in 30 days · newest firstEvery story the engine read that names Saudi Arabia, its capital or its leaders. Links go to the original outlet; the badge is the engine’s own 0–100 tension weight. This list is what moves the number above.
What is driving Saudi Arabia’s tension score
last 30 days- 628 headlines in 30 days — 3.27% of everything the engine read, in line with the previous 30 days (424).
- 71% of those were violent (attacks, strikes, casualties) and 60% scored as high-tension stories.
- Conflicts on the roster: none. Saudi Arabia is not a party to any conflict our engine tracks right now.
- Region: Middle East reads 78 today; it carries 15% of this score.
Read it like this. Attention (how much the world is talking about Saudi Arabia) is the biggest input at 30%. Violence and high-tension share tell you what kind of talk it is. A country can be loud and calm — an election, a summit — or quiet and dangerous. The mix is the point.
Saudi Arabia tension month by month
average score, headline counts| Month | Avg score | Zone | Headlines | Violent | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2026 | 57.8 | Moderate | 41 | 23 | 5 |
| October 2026 | 49.6 | Stable | 688 | 475 | 31 |
| September 2026 | 43.6 | Stable | 323 | 151 | 13 |
Record for Saudi Arabia began on 18 September 2026. Nothing is revised after the fact.
How the Saudi Arabia score is built
Five inputs, fixed weights. Attention 30% (share of world coverage), violence 25% and high-tension share 15% (what kind of coverage), roster conflicts 15%, and the Middle East region score 15%. A momentum nudge (+6 / −4) rewards a country whose coverage is accelerating or fading.
Same physics as the world score. The number rises 85% of the way to its new level at once and falls no faster than 3 points a day — fear arrives fast and leaves slowly.
No third-party index inside. Every count comes from the 41 public news feeds our engine reads itself; the full method is on the methodology page. Data is free under CC BY 4.0 via the API.
Questions people ask about Saudi Arabia
Is Saudi Arabia in a war right now?
Not on our roster. Saudi Arabia is not a party to any tracked conflict; the engine flags new candidates automatically when coverage repeats.
Is tension in Saudi Arabia rising or falling?
Easing: down 3 points in 7 days.
How does Saudi Arabia compare with the rest of Middle East?
Below its region: Saudi Arabia reads 55 against 78 for Middle East, ranking #5 of 16 there.
Keep exploring
The bigger picture
All countries on the map · Middle East · World Tension Index · active conflicts · escalation watchlist
Saudi Arabia and world tension: the long view
evergreen · World Tension Meter teamThe swing producer. Saudi Arabia can add or remove millions of barrels a day, which makes its decisions the single biggest influence on the oil price after outright war. OPEC+ meetings are tension events for the energy index.
A regional power with a long reach. From Yemen to Sudan to Lebanon, Riyadh funds, mediates and sometimes fights. Its rivalry and its thaw with Iran both show up in our corpus as swings in regional coverage.
Diversifying under pressure. The kingdom is spending oil money on a post-oil economy. Investment headlines are calm signals; the engine scores them low, which is why a busy Saudi week is not always a tense one.
What our engine watches in Saudi Arabia
- OPEC+ output decisions and price-war rhetoric
- Attacks on oil infrastructure, the Red Sea and the Gulf
- Relations with Iran, Israel and the United States
Indexes to follow: Energy Security · Shipping Stress · Market Fear.