Demographics of the United Arab Emirates


This article contains demographic features of the United Arab Emirates, including population density, vital statistics, immigration and emigration data, ethnicity, education levels, religions practiced, and languages spoken within the UAE.

Population

The United Arab Emirates witnessed significant population increase during the past few years because of major growth in the various economic sectors, which lead to influx of workers from diverse cultural and religious background. From 4.1 million in 2005 to roughly 9.5 million in 2018. Out of this, the number of UAE citizens is around 11.5% and the remaining 88.5% made up of Expatriate workers. The largest group of non-UAE nationals are South Asian 59.4%, Egyptian 10.2%, Filipino 6.1%, other 12.8%.
Female citizens and non-citizens account for 28% percent of the UAE'S population due to the high level of male foreign workers. The majority of the UAE population falls in the age group of 25 to 54 year old. A large part of this can be attributed to the expatriate population of working men and women who fall in the age category. Population is heavily concentrated to the northeast on the Musandam Peninsula, the three largest Emirates - Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, are home to nearly 75% of the population.
EmirateCensus 1975Census 1985Census 1995Census 2005Est. 2010
Abu Dhabi211,812566,036942,4631,399,484
Dubai183,187370,788689,4201,321,453
Sharjah78,790228,317402,792793,573
Ajman16,69054,546121,491206,997
Umm Al-Quwain6,90819,28535,36149,159
Ras Al-Khaimah43,84596,578143,334210,063
Fujairah16,65543,75376,180125,698
Total557,8871,379,3032,411,0414,106,4277,512,000
8,190,000

Population pyramid data

Age groupMaleFemaleTotal%
Total2 806 1411 300 2864 106 427100
0-4145 601136 538282 1396.87
5-9139 929129 453269 3826.56
10-14130 778118 279249 0576.07
15-19121 388110 838232 2265.66
20-24272 036161 530433 56610.56
25-29483 657178 137661 79416.12
30-34489 879150 482640 36115.59
35-39386 762113 844500 60612.19
40-44262 71878 543341 2618.31
45-49174 45951 311225 7705.50
50-54107 33931 539138 8783.38
55-5951 30315 80467 1071.63
60-6418 8208 52727 3470.67
65-699 1725 28514 4570.35
70-745 3914 0139 4040.23
75-792 4401 8374 2770.10
80-841 5371 4392 9760.07
85+1 2501 1652 4150.06
unknown1 6821 7223 4040.08

Education and Employment

The United Arab Emirates government have always focused on increasing the quality of education, allowing female access to higher education and value their achievements. Currently, there are more women in higher education than men, with total graduates of 58 percent. However, the unemployment rate for women is about more than five times higher than men. The program that is the most popular is business with the highest number of graduates, and the second popular program is Humanities and social science. The UAE relies on migrant workers, and they make up a majority of the population and will continue to increase and will be about 88.2 percent of the population in 2030.

Vital statistics

UN prospects

Source: United National World Population Prospects

Births and deaths

Life expectancy

Source: UN World Population Prospects

Ethnicity of UAE immigrants

The UAE National Bureau of Statistics does not publish demographic data in relation to any nationality. The figures listed in the table below are estimates provided by each country's embassy.
Nationals ofPopulation% of total populationYear of data
India2,600,00027.15%2019
Pakistan1,200,00012.53%2014
UAE1,084,76411.32%2015
Bangladesh700,0007.31%2013
Philippines525,5305.49%2014
Iran*400,000 – 500,0004.18% – 5.22%N/A
Egypt*400,0004.18%2014
Nepal300,0003.13%2014
Sri Lanka300,0003.13%2015
Syria>250,000≈2.6%2016
United Kingdom250,0001.25%2015
China200,0002.09%2015
Jordan200,0002.09%2015
Afghanistan150,0001.57%<2011
Palestine150,0001.57%2009
South Africa100,0001.04%2014
Lebanon*100,0001.04%2015
Ethiopia90,0000.94%2014
Yemen90,0000.94%2013
Indonesia85,0000.89%2015
Sudan75,0000.78%2013
Saudi Arabia70,0000.73%2014
Somalia70,0000.73%2015
Iraq52,0000.54%2014
United States50,0000.52%2015
Canada40,0000.42%2014
Kenya40,0000.42%2014
France25,0000.26%2015
Australia16,0000.17%2015
Germany12,0000.12%2013
Spain12,0000.11%2015
Algeria10,0000.10%2014
Italy10,0000.10%2014
South Korea10,0000.10%2014
Thailand10,0000.10%2014
Turkey10,0000.10%2014
Azerbaijan7,0000.07%2015
Ireland7,0000.07%2015
Malaysia6,000 – 7,0000.06% – 0.07%2015
Colombia5,4660.06%2018
Kazakhstan5,000 – 6,0000.05% – 0.06%2015
Greece5,0000.05%2015
Mauritania5,0000.05%2015
Netherlands5,0000.05%2015
Serbia5,0000.05%2015
Ukraine5,0000.05%2014
Sweden4,0000.04%2015
Denmark3,000 – 4,000≈0.03%2015
Mexico3,000 – 3,500≈0.03%2014
Belgium3,0000.03%2015
Eritrea3,0000.03%2015
Japan2,603≈0.03%2015
Dominican Republic2,000-3,0000.02% – 0.03%2015
Austria2,500≈0.03%2015
Belarus2,500≈0.03%2015
Hungary2,500≈0.03%2015
Switzerland2,430≈0.03%2013
Poland2,348≈0.02%2015
Singapore>2,000≈0.02%2015
Bosnia and Herzegovina1,000 – 2,0000.01% – 0.02%2015
Czech Republic1,500≈0.02%2015
Venezuela1,200≈0.01%2015
Norway1,184≈0.01%2015
Finland1,180≈0.01%2014
Cyprus1,000≈0.01%2014
Slovakia1,000≈0.01%2014
Senegal700 – 800< 0.01%2015
Ghana500< 0.01%2015
New Zealand444< 0.01%2015
Taiwan400< 0.01%2015
Latvia300< 0.01%2014
Peru300< 0.01%2015
Chile270< 0.01%2014
Albania200 – 300< 0.01%2015
Chad200< 0.01%2015
Slovenia100 – 150< 0.01%2015
Angola100< 0.01%2015
Zimbabwe1< 0.001%2018

*The figures for the countries marked with a "*" cannot be directly sourced to embassy statements.

Ethnic groups

is the official and national language of the UAE. The Gulf dialect of Arabic is spoken by the Emirati people which differs in accents from other Arab/ Middle Eastern countries The Larestani language is also spoken by a number of Emiratis. Apart from Arabic, English is widely used. Other languages spoken in the UAE, due to immigration, include Malayalam, Urdu, Hindi, Persian, Cebuano, Pashto, Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil, Baluchi, Sinhala, Russian, Somali, Tagalog, Nepali, Mandarin, Telugu, Spanish, Italian and Greek.

Practiced religions

Religions are represented in the UAE as follows:
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook unless otherwise indicated.

Age structure