United Arab Emirates
Name
| Official name | The United Arab Emirates (الإمارات العربية المتحدة; Dawlat al-Imārāt al-ʿArabiyya al-Muttaḥida — 'the State of the United Arab Emirates'; the UAE) — the federation of 2 December 1971 under the provisional constitution of 18 July 1971 (made permanent on 2 December 1996), the seven emirates — Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah (10 February 1972); the UN's member of 9 December 1971, the Arab League's (6 December 1971), the Gulf Cooperation Council's founder (25 May 1981; the GCC's Abu Dhabi summit), the OIC's, the WTO's (1996), BRICS's (1 January 2024), OPEC's member from 1967 (Abu Dhabi's) to its exit of 1 May 2026 |
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| Former names | The Trucial States (the Trucial Coast; the Trucial Oman of the British) — the sheikhdoms bound to Britain by the General Maritime Treaty of 8 January 1820, the Perpetual Maritime Truce of 4 May 1853 and the Exclusive Agreement of 1892 (the British protection and control of the foreign relations to 1971); the 'Pirate Coast' of the East India Company's charts of the early 19th century (the Al Qasimi's fleet — the 'piracy' of the British line and the 'trade war' of the Emirati historians' line, both stated, LAW 2); the Trucial States Council (1952) and the Trucial Oman Scouts (1951); the emirates' own names since |
| Demonym | Emirati (Imārātī) — the citizens of the seven emirates (about 1.3 million — about 11% of the residents by the 2024–25 estimates), the tribes of the Bani Yas (the Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi and the Al Maktoum of Dubai), the Al Qasimi (Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah), the Al Nuaimi (Ajman), the Al Mualla (Umm Al Quwain), the Al Sharqi (Fujairah), the Bedouin of the interior and the coastal families of the pearl trade, the Ajam and the Baluch-descended citizens; the residents of about 200 nationalities (the Indians about 4.3 million — the largest Indian diaspora of the world in one state); the 'golden visa' of 2019 and the citizenship for the selected foreigners of the 2021 law |
| Meaning of the name | 'Emirates' — the plural of 'emirate' (imārah), the land of an emir (amīr — 'commander, prince'); 'Abu Dhabi' 'the father of the gazelle' (ẓaby) by the legend of the Bani Yas hunters of about 1761 who followed a gazelle to the island's spring; 'Dubai' of the disputed origins (the 'locust' — daba — or the 'creek' readings, both stated); 'Sharjah' 'the eastern' (sharq); 'Ras Al Khaimah' 'the head of the tent'; 'Fujairah' from the spring (fajr, the 'gushing'); 'Umm Al Quwain' 'the mother of the two powers'; 'Ajman' of the Al Nuaimi's town; 'Al Ain' 'the spring' of the oasis |
| Motto | None by law — the state's slogans: 'Allah, Al Watan, Al Rais' ('God, the Nation, the President') of the armed forces and the schools; the 'Year of' themes (2025 the 'Year of Community', 2023 the 'Year of Sustainability', 2018 the 'Year of Zayed'); 'Impossible is possible' of the Dubai brand; 'We the UAE 2031' (the national vision of 2022) and the 'UAE Centennial 2071' (the plan of 2017); 'the Spirit of the Union' (Ruh Al Ittihad) of the National Day |
Quick facts
| Capital | Abu Dhabi — the federal capital on its island of the Gulf (the 1971 'provisional' capital made permanent on 2 December 1996), the Abu Dhabi emirate's about 3.8–4.1 million residents by the 2024–25 estimates (the city and Al Ain and Al Dhafra regions; about 87% of the federation's land); the Qasr Al Hosn (the 1760s' watchtower and the rulers' fort — the oldest stone building of the city), the Qasr Al Watan (the presidential palace opened to the public in 2019), the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (2007; the founder's tomb), the Louvre Abu Dhabi (11 November 2017; Jean Nouvel's dome), the Saadiyat cultural district (the Zayed National Museum and the Guggenheim's site), the Abrahamic Family House (2023), the BAPS Hindu Mandir (14 February 2024; Narendra Modi's inauguration), the Yas Island's Formula One circuit (2009), the Corniche; the Iranian missiles and drones of 28 February 2026 onward (the deaths at Abu Dhabi and the Mussafah and Kizad debris; the French naval air base struck on 1 March 2026 by the reports) |
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| Largest cities | Dubai (about 3.9–4.0 million by the Dubai Statistics Center's 2025 estimate — the largest city; the Creek, Deira and Bur Dubai, the Burj Khalifa, the Palm Jumeirah), Abu Dhabi (the capital; about 1.5–1.8 million in the city by the estimates), Sharjah (about 1.8 million in the emirate; the cultural capital of the Arab world of UNESCO's 1998 title), Al Ain (about 0.8 million; the garden city of the oases — UNESCO 2011), Ajman (about 0.5 million), Ras Al Khaimah (about 0.4 million), Fujairah (about 0.3 million; the east coast's port), Umm Al Quwain (about 0.05 million), Khor Fakkan, Kalba, Dibba, Madinat Zayed, Ruwais; about 83% of the residents in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah; about 87% urban |
| Official language | Arabic — the federal language (the Gulf Arabic dialect, the Emirati Arabic, spoken by the citizens; the Modern Standard Arabic of the laws, the media and the schools; the 2008 language policy and the Arabic Language Charter of 2012); English the language of the business, the higher education, the signage and the courts' commercial divisions (the DIFC and ADGM courts in English); Hindi and Urdu (Hindustani), Malayalam, Tamil, Bengali, Tagalog, Persian, Pashto and Russian of the expatriates; Hindi the third language of the Abu Dhabi courts (February 2019) |
| Currency | UAE dirham (AED; Dh; 100 fils) — pegged at 3.6725 to the U.S. dollar (formally since November 1997; in practice since 1980) — about 25–26 Indian rupees to the dirham at the peg's cross; the Central Bank of the UAE (10 December 1980; Governor Khaled Mohamed Balama since 2021) — the base rate tracking the US Federal Reserve's; the dirham of 19 May 1973; the new dirham symbol (27 March 2025) and the Digital Dirham (the central bank's CBDC of the 2026 plan); the notes of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 (the polymer notes of 2022–23); the rupee–dirham settlement agreement with India (15 July 2023) and the UPI links; the gold souk's dirham prices (the gold's rise of March 2026 after the war's fall by the reports) |
| Time zone | UTC+4 the year round (Gulf Standard Time; no daylight saving) — the same clock as Oman, an hour and a half behind India (IST); the working week Monday to Friday since 1 January 2022 (the federal government's half-day Friday — the shift from the Friday–Saturday weekend to the Saturday–Sunday; Sharjah's four-day week with the Friday off); the dates in the Gregorian and the Hijri calendars |
| Calling code, internet and ISO codes | +971 (the operators e& — Etisalat of 1976 — and du of 2006; the 5G of 2019 among the first; the near-universal internet penetration; the VoIP calls' restrictions eased by the licensed apps — the restrictions' critics and the state's 'licensing' line both stated, LAW 2); internet .ae and .امارات; the UAE Pass digital identity; ISO 3166 AE, ARE, 784; the vehicle code UAE; the IOC code UAE, FIFA code UAE; the aircraft registration A6-; the plugs of Type G at 230 V and 50 Hz |
| Area | About 83,600 km² (32,300 sq mi) by the common count — 71,023 km² by another (the different treatments of the islands and the land boundaries; both stated) — the 114th of the world, about 2.5% of India's area; the emirates — Abu Dhabi about 67,340 km² (about 87%), Dubai about 3,885, Sharjah about 2,590, Ras Al Khaimah about 1,684, Fujairah about 1,165, Umm Al Quwain about 777, Ajman about 259 by the usual counts; the land borders with Saudi Arabia (about 530 km; the Jeddah treaty of 1974 — the Shaybah and the Khor Al Udaid questions) and Oman (about 610 km; the Madha and Musandam enclaves; the 2002 boundary agreement) and the maritime lines with Qatar and Iran; the coast about 1,320 km on the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman; the man-made islands of Dubai (the Palm Jumeirah of 2001–06, the World) and Abu Dhabi |
| Population | About 11.0–11.3 million residents of 2024 by the two counts (11,027,129 by the federal estimate and 11,294,243 by the vital statistics table — both stated; about 4 million in 2004, 8.3 million in 2010) — the Emiratis about 1.3 million (about 11–11.5%), the expatriates about 89% — the Indians about 4.3 million (about 38% of the non-citizens), the Pakistanis about 1.7 million, the Bangladeshis about 1.2 million, the Filipinos about 0.7 million, the Iranians about 0.6 million, the Egyptians about 0.4 million, the Britons, the Russians (the 2022–26 inflow), the Chinese; by emirate (2025 estimates) — Dubai 3,943,683, Abu Dhabi 3,789,860 (about 4.1 million by the emirate's own 2024 count — both stated), Sharjah about 1.8 million, Ajman about 0.5 million, Ras Al Khaimah about 0.4 million, Fujairah about 0.3 million, Umm Al Quwain about 0.05 million; the men about 64% (the labor migration) |
| Density | About 130–135 people per km² on the whole area — the coastal cities' crowding (Dubai's about 1,000 per km² of the emirate, Sharjah's and Ajman's dense towns) and the interior's emptiness (the Rub' al Khali's Liwa, the Al Dhafra region's few towns, the Hajar mountain villages); about 83% in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah; the labor camps of the industrial zones (Mussafah, Jebel Ali, Al Quoz, Sonapur) the workers' housing |
| Religion | Islam the official religion (the constitution's Article 7) — about 74.5% of the residents (the Sunni majority of the Maliki and the Hanbali schools among the citizens, the Shia about 10–15% of the citizens by the estimates), Christianity about 12.9% (the Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia at Abu Dhabi — Pope Francis's visit and the Zayed Sports City Mass of 5 February 2019 with about 180,000; the Anglican, the Orthodox, the Mar Thoma and the Pentecostal churches of the expatriates), Hinduism about 6.2% (the BAPS Mandir of 2024, the Jebel Ali Hindu temple of 2022), Buddhism about 3.2%, the Sikhs (the Guru Nanak Darbar of 2012), the Jews (the Abrahamic Family House's synagogue; the community since the Abraham Accords); the Ministry of Tolerance and Coexistence (2016 as the Tolerance ministry), the 'Year of Tolerance' (2019), the Human Fraternity Document signed at Abu Dhabi (4 February 2019) — the state's 'tolerance' and the rights groups' 'the limits on the speech and the conversion' both stated (LAW 2) |
| Government type | Federal elective constitutional monarchy of the seven hereditary emirates under the constitution of 1971 (permanent since 1996) — the Federal Supreme Council of the seven rulers the highest authority (the election of the President and the Vice President for five-year terms — by custom the rulers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai; the ratification of the federal laws; Abu Dhabi and Dubai's veto), the Council of Ministers (the Cabinet) under the Prime Minister, the Federal National Council of 40 (advisory; half elected by an electoral college), the Federal Supreme Court; each emirate's own ruler, government and courts (Dubai's and Ras Al Khaimah's own court systems, the free zones' common-law courts of DIFC and ADGM); no political parties, no elected legislature with law-making power — Freedom House's 'Not Free' (about 18 of 100) and the state's 'consultation (shura) and stability' line both stated (LAW 2) |
| Head of state | President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ; since 14 May 2022) — born 11 March 1961 at Al Ain, the third son of the founder Sheikh Zayed; the Sandhurst graduate (1979), the commander of the air force, the Chief of Staff (1993) and the Deputy Supreme Commander of the armed forces (2005), the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi of 2004–22 and the de facto leader during Sheikh Khalifa's illness of 2014–22, the Ruler of Abu Dhabi and the President elected unanimously by the Federal Supreme Council on 14 May 2022 (the day after Khalifa's death); the chairman of ADNOC and of the Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs; the Abraham Accords of 15 September 2020, the war in Yemen (2015–19), the Sudan question (the RSF's support by the UN panel's and the rights groups' line, denied by the UAE; the ICJ's dismissal of Sudan's case on 5 May 2025 — both stated, LAW 2), the 2026 Iran war (the strikes on the UAE; the UAE's own strikes on Iran reported by the Wall Street Journal in May 2026), the OPEC exit of 1 May 2026; his son Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi (29 March 2023) |
| Head of government | Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (since 5 January 2006; the Vice President and the Ruler of Dubai; born 1949) — the Cabinet of the federation (the last general reshuffle of 6 January 2024 and the changes of July 2024): the Deputy Prime Ministers Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed (the Presidential Court's minister; the Vice President since 29 March 2023), Sheikh Saif bin Zayed (Interior), Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed (Foreign Affairs), Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed (Finance), Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed (Defense; the Crown Prince of Dubai since 2008); the ministers — Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Energy and Infrastructure Suhail Al Mazrouei, Industry and Advanced Technology Sultan Al Jaber (the ADNOC chief executive and the COP28 president), Minister of State for Youth Sultan Al Neyadi (the astronaut; January 2024); the Cabinet's 'government accelerators' and the 'Zero Government Bureaucracy' program (2023) — the federal budget's spending and the war's emergency measures of 2026 |
| Legislature | The Federal National Council (FNC; al-Majlis al-Watani al-Ittihadi; 1972) — 40 members for four years by the emirates' fixed seats (Abu Dhabi 8, Dubai 8, Sharjah 6, Ras Al Khaimah 6, Ajman 4, Umm Al Quwain 4, Fujairah 4): 20 elected by the electoral colleges chosen by the rulers (about 398,000 voters — about 33% of the citizens — in the election of 7 October 2023; the turnout about 45% by the electoral commission's count) and 20 appointed; the women half of the seats since 2019 by the presidential decree; Speaker Saqr Ghobash (since 2019; re-elected on 14 November 2023; after Amal Al Qubaisi of 2015–19 — the first woman to lead a national parliament in the Arab world by the usual line); the powers advisory — the review of the federal laws and the budget, the questions to the ministers; the Federal Supreme Council's law-making; the next FNC election due in 2027 by the four-year term |
| National Day | 2 December — the National Day (Eid Al Etihad — 'the Union Day'; the federation of 1971; the 54th of 2025; the holiday of 2–3 December); 30 November — the Commemoration Day (the Martyrs' Day since 2015; the first Emirati martyr Salem Suhail Khamis of 1971 at the Tunbs, and the soldiers of Yemen and the 2026 war); 3 November — the Flag Day (2012); the Islamic holidays by the lunar calendar — Eid al-Fitr, Arafat Day and Eid al-Adha, the Hijri New Year, the Prophet's Birthday; the Gregorian New Year; Isra and Mi'raj dropped from the holidays (2019) |
| Driving side and HDI | Right (the road network of about 4,000 km of highways — the E11 Sheikh Zayed Road; the Salik tolls of Dubai since 2007; the speed cameras; the high road safety's gains of the 2010s–20s); Human Development Index 0.940 (2023), 15th of 193, 'very high' — the highest of the Arab world by the UNDP's 2025 report; the Gini 26 (2018); life expectancy about 79–80 years by the estimates; the GDP a head about US$54,000 (2026; the IMF's relayed lines) — about US$88,000 by purchasing power; the citizens' welfare (the free health care and education, the housing grants, the marriage fund) and the migrant workers' kafala-based wages (the minimum wage none for the private sector by law — both lines stated, LAW 2) |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | The flag of 2 December 1971 — a vertical red band at the hoist and three equal horizontal bands of green, white and black, the proportion 1:2: the Pan-Arab colors of the Arab Revolt's flag (the red of the hoist from the old red flags of the Trucial sheikhdoms; the green the fertility, the white the neutrality and the peace, the black the oil's wealth by the usual readings — the 1971 meaning 'the poem of Safi al-Din al-Hilli' by another line, both stated); designed by the 19-year-old Abdullah Mohammed Al Maainah and raised by Sheikh Zayed at the Union House of Dubai on 2 December 1971; the Flag Day of 3 November (2012); the flagpole of the Union House of Dubai (123 m; 2011)Flag of the UAE |
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| Coat of arms | The emblem of the federation — the golden falcon (the saqr of the Arab falconry and of the Quraysh's emblem) with the red, green, white and black disc of the flag on its breast surrounded by the seven stars of the emirates, the name of the state in Arabic on the scroll in its talons; the emblem of 1973 (with the dhow on the disc) changed on 22 March 2008 to the flag disc; the falcon on the passports, the dirham, the federal buildings |
| National anthem | 'Ishy Bilady' ('Long Live My Nation') — the music by the Egyptian composer Mohamed Abdel Wahab (1971; the anthem without words to 1986), the words by Aref Al Sheikh Abdullah Al Hassan adopted in 1986 (the shahada of the faith and the land); one of the anthems composed by Abdel Wahab for the Arab states (Libya's of 1969 as well); sung at the National Day, the schools and the sporting events |
| National motto | None by law — 'Allah, Al Watan, Al Rais' ('God, the Nation, the President') the armed forces' and the schools' pledge; the 'Year of' themes of the government (2025 the Year of Community; 2026's theme by the President's announcement); the 'UAE Centennial 2071' and the 'We the UAE 2031' visions; 'the Spirit of the Union' of the National Day |
| National colors | Red, green, white and black — the Pan-Arab colors of the flag; the national teams' white and red (the football 'Al Abyad' — 'the Whites'), the National Day's flag colors on the buildings and the cars; the gold of the falcon emblem; the kandura's white and the abaya's black of the national dress |
| National animal | The falcon (the saker and the peregrine of the falconry — the national bird and the emblem's; the falcon passports of 2002, the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital of 1999; falconry on UNESCO's list since 2010 with the UAE the lead nominator), the Arabian oryx (the national animal by the usual line; extinct in the wild in 1972 and restored — the Arabian Oryx Protected Area of Umm Al Zamool), the Arabian camel (the camel racing of the robot jockeys since 2005; the Al Dhafra Festival's beauty contests), the Arabian horse (Godolphin's and the Dubai World Cup's), the dugong of the Abu Dhabi waters (the world's second-largest population), the Arabian leopard of the Hajar (critically endangered), the green and hawksbill turtles, the flamingos of Ras Al Khor |
| National flower and tree | The Ghaf tree (Prosopis cineraria — the national tree since 2008; the desert's drought-resistant tree, the 'Year of Tolerance' logo of 2019 and the Expo 2020's), the date palm (the UAE's about 40-plus million palms by the counts; the date palm's knowledge on UNESCO's list of 2019 with 13 states; the Liwa Date Festival), the desert hyacinth, the Arabian primrose and the Sidr; the mangroves of Abu Dhabi's coast (the Eastern Mangroves; the 100 million mangroves' planting pledge by 2030) |
| National dish | None by law — the machboos (the spiced rice with the meat or the fish; the Gulf's dish), the harees (the wheat and meat porridge of Ramadan and the weddings — the traditional dish by the usual line), the thareed, the luqaimat (the sweet dumplings with the date syrup), the balaleet, the madrouba, the camel meat, the dates and the Arabic coffee (the qahwa with the cardamom; the Arabic coffee on UNESCO's list of 2015); the Emirati cuisine's Indian, Persian and East African influences; the shawarma of the expatriates' streets; the Ramadan's iftar tents |
| National sport | None by law — the camel racing (the national sport by the usual line; the Al Wathba and the Al Marmoom tracks; the robot jockeys since 2005), the falconry, the horse racing (the Dubai World Cup — the world's richest race day at Meydan; the 30th of 28 March 2026 held during the war by the reports), the dhow sailing, the football (the UAE Pro League; the national team 'Al Abyad' — the World Cup of 1990 (three defeats), the Asian Cup runners-up of 1996 as the hosts, the Gulf Cups of 2007 and 2013, Ali Mabkhout's 85 goals; out of the 2026 World Cup's qualifying after the October 2025 loss to Qatar (2–1) and the November 2025 playoff with Iraq; coach Zlatko Dalić; the FIFA rank 68 of July 2026), the Formula One's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Yas Marina since 2009; the season's finale), the cricket (the ICC's Dubai headquarters since 2005; the IPL of 2014 and 2020, the Asia Cups, the Champions Trophy of 2025's India matches), the jiu-jitsu (the national schools' subject), the tennis (the Dubai Championships), the golf (the DP World Tour Championship) |
| Heritage listings | Three World Heritage properties by UNESCO's list — the Cultural Sites of Al Ain (Hafit, Hili, Bidaa Bint Saud and the Oases Areas; 2011 — the first), the Faya Palaeolandscape of Sharjah (11 July 2025; the 210,000-year record of the early humans), Wadi Wurayah of Fujairah (25 July 2026 by the 2026 session's reports — the mountain wadi's waterfall and the Arabian tahr's habitat); the tentative list (Khor Dubai — the traditional merchants' harbor; Sir Bu Nair island); the intangible heritage — falconry (2010; multinational), Al Sadu weaving (2011; urgent), Al Taghrooda (2012), Al Ayyala (2014), the majlis (2015), the Arabic coffee (2015), Al Razfa (2015), the camel racing (2020), the Al Aflaj irrigation (2020), the Arabic calligraphy (2021), Al Talli embroidery (2022), the date palm (2019; multinational) by the usual relay |
| Symbol status | The flag, the emblem and the anthem by the federal law of the national symbols (Federal Law No. 2 of 1971 on the flag; the emblem's decree of 2008), the constitution's Article 2–4 (the federation's flag, emblem and anthem by the law); the National Day (2 December), the Commemoration Day (30 November) and the Flag Day (3 November) by the decrees; the Ghaf the national tree (2008); no national dish, sport or motto by law — the harees, the camel racing and the 'God, the Nation, the President' by custom; the insult to the state's symbols a crime by the penal code (the 2021 laws) |
Geography
| Location | The southeast of the Arabian Peninsula between 22°30′ and 26°10′ N and 51° and 56°25′ E — on the Persian Gulf (the 'Arabian Gulf' of the Arab usage — both names stated) and the Gulf of Oman, bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south and west, Oman to the east and southeast (with the Musandam exclave to the north and the Madha enclave within the UAE), Qatar across the sea to the west and Iran across the Gulf to the north; the Strait of Hormuz (about 39 km wide at its narrowest) at the northeast — the world's oil choke point closed by Iran's Guards from 28 February 2026 and restricted through the year by the reports; Abu Dhabi at 24°28′ N, 54°22′ E — about 2,200 km from Mumbai |
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| Regions | Seven emirates — Abu Dhabi (about 87% of the land; the capital; the Al Ain region of the eastern oases and the Al Dhafra region of the west — Liwa, Ruwais, Madinat Zayed), Dubai (the Hatta exclave in the Hajar), Sharjah (the exclaves of Khor Fakkan, Kalba and Dibba Al-Hisn on the east coast), Ajman (the exclaves of Masfout and Manama), Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah (the north; the Hajar) and Fujairah (the only emirate wholly on the Gulf of Oman; the east coast) — each ruled by its hereditary family; the emirates' patchwork of the exclaves and the shared zones; the islands — Abu Dhabi's about 200 (Saadiyat, Yas, Sir Bani Yas, Das, Zirku, Abu Al Abyad), Sharjah's Sir Abu Nu'ayr, and the disputed Abu Musa (Sharjah's under the 1971 memorandum with Iran) and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs (Ras Al Khaimah's — seized by Iran on 30 November 1971; the UAE's claim and Iran's sovereignty claim both stated, LAW 2) |
| Highest point | Jebel Jais (the Hajar Mountains of Ras Al Khaimah) — the UAE's highest ground at about 1,892 m on its slopes, the summit about 1,934 m across the border in Oman's Musandam by the surveys (both stated); the Jebel Jais road (the 2015 mountain road), the Jebel Jais Flight zipline (about 2.83 km; the Guinness world's longest of 2018), the winter's snowfall of 2004, 2009 and 2017 on the peak; Jebel Yibir (about 1,527 m), Jebel Hafeet (1,249 m; Al Ain's mountain on the Oman line — the Green Mubazzarah hot springs, the Bronze Age tombs of UNESCO's Al Ain site), the Hajar's wadis of Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah |
| Lowest point | The Persian Gulf at sea level (0 m) — the low coastal sabkhas (the salt flats) of the Al Dhafra region (the Sabkha Matti on the Saudi line), the islands and the coastal lagoons (khors) of Abu Dhabi, Dubai's Creek, Umm Al Quwain's lagoon, Ras Al Khor's wetland; the reclaimed land of the Palm Jumeirah and the Dubai Waterfront a few meters above the sea |
| Longest river | None — no permanent rivers; the wadis (the seasonal riverbeds) of the Hajar Mountains (Wadi Ham of Fujairah, Wadi Wurayah — the only perennial mountain stream and waterfall of the country, UNESCO's World Heritage of 25 July 2026 by the reports, Wadi Shawka, Wadi Bih), the falaj (aflaj) irrigation channels of Al Ain and Hatta (UNESCO 2020), the desalination plants of the coast (about 42% of the water by the counts; among the world's largest desalination capacity), the groundwater's depletion; the April 2024 floods (16 April; about 254 mm at Khatm Al Shakla in Al Ain in 24 hours — the heaviest rain since the records of 1949) and the December 2025 Dubai floods |
| Largest lake | None natural of size — the Al Qudra Lakes (the man-made lakes of the desert south of Dubai, 2018), the Zakher Lake of Al Ain, the Ras Al Khor wildlife sanctuary's lagoon (the flamingos), the Khor Kalba mangrove lagoon, the Umm Al Quwain lagoon; the desalination's reservoirs and the Liwa's strategic aquifer storage (the world's largest by the 2018 claim — 26 million m³ of desalinated water stored underground) |
| Largest island | Abu Al Abyad — about 306 km² of the Abu Dhabi coast (the largest island of the UAE by the usual line), then Abu Dhabi island itself (the capital; about 70 km²), Sir Bani Yas (87 km²; the Arabian Wildlife Park of Sheikh Zayed, 1977), Saadiyat (the cultural district), Yas (the Formula One circuit and the Ferrari World), Dalma, Das (the offshore oil's island), Zirku; the man-made Palm Jumeirah (2001–06; about 5.7 km²), the World islands (2003–08), the Palm Jebel Ali; Abu Musa and the Tunbs disputed with Iran |
| Climate | Hot desert (BWh by the Köppen map) — the summers of 40–48 °C (the national record 51.8 °C at Sweihan on 6 June 2021) with the coastal humidity of 80–90%, the mild winters of 15–25 °C, the rain about 100–120 mm a year (the winter's showers and the rare floods — April 2024's record; the cloud seeding since the 1990s, about 300 operations a year by the National Center of Meteorology's count), the shamal winds and the sandstorms, the Hajar's cooler heights; the climate's change — the heat's rise, the sea's warming, the COP28 hosted at Dubai Expo City (30 November – 13 December 2023; the 'UAE Consensus' on the 'transitioning away from fossil fuels') |
| Natural hazards | The extreme heat (the summers' 50 °C; the midday work ban of 15 June – 15 September), the sandstorms and the dust, the floods of the rare storms (16 April 2024 — the Dubai airport's flooding, the several deaths; December 2025), the cyclones of the Arabian Sea's reach (Gonu 2007, Shaheen 2021 on the east coast), the earthquakes of the Zagros's reach (the Masafi's minor quakes); THE WAR OF 2026 — the Iranian missiles and drones from 28 February 2026 (the interceptions of 6 ballistic missiles and 125 drones on 5 March and 18 ballistic missiles, 4 cruise missiles and 47 drones on 3 April by the defense ministry's counts; the debris deaths in Dubai Marina, Fujairah and Abu Dhabi; the Ruwais refinery shut on 10 March; the strike near the Barakah nuclear plant of 17 May — by the reports); the oil spills of the Gulf's shipping |
| Nearby countries | Saudi Arabia (the south and the west; about 530 km; the Treaty of Jeddah of 1974 — the Khor Al Udaid and the Shaybah questions; the GCC partner; the OPEC rift of 2026), Oman (the east; about 610 km; the Musandam and Madha arrangements, the Al Ain–Buraimi twin oasis, the Hafeet rail link to Sohar under construction), Qatar (across the sea; the blockade of 5 June 2017 – 5 January 2021 — the AlUla declaration; the football's quarrels), Iran (across the Gulf; the Abu Musa and Tunbs dispute since 1971; the trade of the Dubai creek's dhows; the 2026 war — the embassy in Tehran closed on 1 March 2026, the trade halted on 18 August 2026 after the UAE's report of two Iranian missiles (Iran's 'false flag' denial — both stated, LAW 2)), Bahrain and Kuwait (the GCC), Yemen (the 2015–19 coalition; the last forces withdrawn by 30 December 2025), India (the CEPA of 1 May 2022; the largest trade partner) |
| Minerals and resources | Oil — about 98–113 billion barrels of proved reserves (about 6–7% of the world's; the sixth or seventh largest by the counts — both stated), the production capacity of about 4.85 million barrels a day (ADNOC's 5 million target for 2027), the OPEC quota's constraint (about 3.2–3.4 million barrels a day of the 2024–25 output) lifted by the exit of 1 May 2026 while the Strait of Hormuz's closure capped the exports to the Habshan–Fujairah pipeline's about 1.5–2 million barrels a day (2012); the fields of Abu Dhabi (Upper Zakum, Murban, Bab, Bu Hasa) and the offshore Umm Shaif (the first discovery of 1958); natural gas about 290 trillion cubic feet (the seventh of the world; the Shah sour gas field — operations suspended on 17 March 2026 by the reports; the Ruwais LNG project); the aluminum (EGA — Emirates Global Aluminium, the world's largest premium aluminum producer; its facility damaged on 28 March 2026 by the reports), the gold refining of Dubai (the world's second gold hub), the limestone and the gypsum of the Hajar, the sun (the solar parks — Noor Abu Dhabi, Al Dhafra's 2 GW, Dubai's Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park), the nuclear (Barakah's 5.6 GW) |
| Protected areas | About 49 protected areas covering about 18% of the land and 12% of the sea by the ministry's counts — the Arabian Oryx Protected Area (Umm Al Zamool), the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve (225 km²; 2003), the Marawah Marine Biosphere Reserve (the dugongs; UNESCO's biosphere of 2007), the Sir Bani Yas's wildlife park, the Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary (the flamingos; Ramsar), the Wadi Wurayah National Park (2009; UNESCO 2026), the Mangrove National Park of Abu Dhabi, the Khor Kalba conservation reserve, the Jebel Hafeet National Park, the Al Wathba Wetland Reserve (the flamingos' breeding); the eight Ramsar sites by the usual count; the leopard's Hajar refuges |
| Extreme points | North: Ras Al Khaimah's Al Jeer on the Musandam border (about 26°04′ N); South: the Rub' al Khali's edge on the Saudi border south of Liwa (about 22°38′ N); West: Ghuwaifat at the Saudi border on the coast (about 51°35′ E); East: Fujairah's coast at Dibba/Kalba (about 56°23′ E); the highest Jebel Jais's slopes (about 1,892 m) and the lowest the Gulf's sea level; the tallest building the Burj Khalifa (828 m); the Moreeb Dune of Liwa (about 300 m high) |
| Land and water | About 83,600 km² (71,023 km² by the other count — both stated) — the desert about 80% (the Rub' al Khali's dunes of the south and the west, the gravel plains, the sabkhas), the Hajar Mountains of the northeast about 4%, the oases of Al Ain and Liwa, the coastal plains; the arable land under 1% (the date palms, the greenhouses, the hydroponics — the vertical farms of Dubai's 2022 Bustanica, the world's largest by its claim), the forests of the planted Ghaf and the mangroves; the renewable fresh water among the world's lowest per head (about 15 m³) — the desalination's dependence (the about 70 plants; the brine's marine impact) and the groundwater's depletion; the reclaimed land of Dubai and Abu Dhabi; the food import dependence of about 85–90% (the National Food Security Strategy 2051) |
| Islands and coasts | About 1,320 km of coast — on the Persian Gulf from the Qatar sea line to Ras Al Khaimah (the long, shallow, lagoon-cut coast of Abu Dhabi and Dubai; the ports of Jebel Ali — the largest man-made harbor of the world and the busiest of the Middle East, Khalifa, Zayed, Port Rashid, Mina Saqr) and on the Gulf of Oman (Fujairah — the bunkering hub and the oil terminal beyond the Strait, struck by the drones in March 2026 by the reports; Khor Fakkan, Kalba, Dibba); about 200 islands of Abu Dhabi; the man-made Palm Jumeirah, the World, the Bluewaters (the Ain Dubai of 2021); the coral reefs and the seagrass of the dugongs; the pearl beds of the old economy |
| The country | The federation of the seven emirates in five pictures — Dubai's towers (the Burj Khalifa of 828 m, the Palm, the Creek's dhows and the gold souk, the airport of the world's most international passengers); Abu Dhabi's white mosque, the Louvre's dome and the oil of ADNOC; the dunes of Liwa and the Empty Quarter's camels; the Hajar's wadis and Fujairah's coast beyond the Strait; the 200 nationalities of the 11 million residents — 9 of 10 of them foreigners, the Indians about 4.3 million; the wealth of the sovereign funds; the federation's war of 2026 — the Iranian missiles over Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the closed Strait, the OPEC exit — and the founder Sheikh Zayed's union of 1971 |
People
| Population | About 11.0–11.3 million residents of 2024 by the two counts (11,027,129 and 11,294,243 — both stated) — from about 180,000 in 1968 (the last Trucial States' census) and 557,887 in 1975, 4.1 million in 2005, 8.3 million in 2010 by the census and the estimates — among the world's fastest growth of the 2000s (the migration); the Emiratis about 1.3 million (about 11–11.5%; no recent public breakdown by the federal authority — the estimates' line), the expatriates about 89%; by emirate (2025 estimates): Dubai 3,943,683, Abu Dhabi 3,789,860 (about 4.1 million by the emirate's own 2024 count — both stated), Sharjah about 1.8 million, Ajman about 0.5 million, Ras Al Khaimah about 0.4 million, Fujairah about 0.32 million, Umm Al Quwain about 0.05 million; the war's departures of 2026 by the press's reports (the numbers unpublished) |
|---|---|
| Growth rate | Fast and migration-driven — from about 4 million in 2004 to about 11 million in 2024 (about 5% a year on average; the boom of 2005–08, the dip of 2009–10 and of the pandemic year 2020, the rise of 2021–25 with the golden visas, the Russians and the remote workers); the natural increase small (the births about 100,000 a year; the deaths about 25,000 — the young workforce); the Emiratis' own growth about 2–3% a year by the estimates; the war of 2026's effect on the migration unknown by the official data |
| Fertility rate | About 1.4–1.5 children per woman overall (1.46 by the estimate) and about 3.1 for the Emirati women by the estimates (both stated) — from about 6 in the 1970s; the Marriage Fund (1992) and the housing grants for the citizens, the Emirati Family Growth Council of 2024, the 'Year of Community' of 2025's family policies; the expatriates' families small and the single workers many |
| Life expectancy | About 79–80 years at birth by the estimates (79.6 by one; 78–82 by others — both stated) — among the region's highest; the non-communicable diseases (the diabetes about 16–19% of the adults — among the world's highest rates by the IDF's lines; the obesity, the heart disease), the road accidents' fall of the 2010s–20s; the health care's quality (the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi of 2015, the medical tourism); the COVID-19 vaccination among the world's fastest (2021) and the deaths about 2,350 by the official count |
| Age structure | 0–14 years about 14–15%, 15–64 about 84%, 65 and over about 2% by the estimates — the median age about 32–38 by the counts; the working-age migrant men dominant (about 64% of the residents male; the sex ratio of about 2.2 to 1 — among the world's most skewed); the Emirati population's younger profile (about 30% under 15 by the estimates); the retirement visas of 2021 for the over-55s |
| Urbanization | About 87% urban by the UN's lines — Dubai (the city about 3.9–4.0 million), Abu Dhabi (the city about 1.5–1.8 million), Sharjah (the city about 1.8 million with its suburbs), Al Ain, Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah; the Dubai–Sharjah–Ajman conurbation (the commute of the Sharjah residents to Dubai); the planned cities — Masdar City (2008; the zero-carbon plan), the Expo City Dubai (2021–22), the Dubai South; the labor camps of the industrial zones; the Bedouin villages and the oasis towns of the interior (Liwa, Hatta) |
| Ethnic groups | The Emiratis about 11% (the Arab tribes, the Ajam and the Baluch-descended citizens), the South Asians about 59% — the Indians about 38% of the residents (about 4.3 million; the Keralites the largest group — about a third of them), the Pakistanis about 1.7 million, the Bangladeshis about 1.2 million, the Sri Lankans and the Nepalis — the Filipinos about 0.7 million, the Iranians about 0.6 million, the Egyptians about 0.4 million and the other Arabs (the Syrians, the Jordanians, the Palestinians, the Lebanese, the Sudanese), the Westerners (the British about 0.24 million by the estimates), the Russians (the inflow of 2022–26), the Chinese, the Africans (the Nigerians, the Ethiopians, the Kenyans, the Ugandans); about 200 nationalities by the official line |
| Languages | Arabic the official language (the Emirati Gulf Arabic of the citizens — the Bedouin and the coastal dialects, the Shihhi of the Hajar's Musandam border; the Modern Standard Arabic of the state); English the business and the education language (the universities, the free-zone courts, the signage); the expatriates' tongues — Malayalam, Hindi and Urdu, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Punjabi, Pashto, Persian, Tagalog, Sinhala, Nepali, Russian, Chinese; the Hindi in the Abu Dhabi courts (2019); the Arabic Language Charter (2012) and the 'Arabic Language Day' of 18 December |
| Religion | Islam the state religion (Article 7) — about 74.5% of the residents (the citizens all Muslim; the Sunni majority of the Maliki and the Hanbali schools, the Shia minority of about 10–15% of the citizens), Christianity about 12.9% (the Catholics of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia — about a million; Pope Francis's visit of 3–5 February 2019 — the first by a pope to the Arabian Peninsula; the Orthodox, the Anglicans, the Mar Thoma and the Malankara churches of the Keralites, the Copts), Hinduism about 6.2% (the BAPS Mandir of 2024, the Jebel Ali temple of 2022, the Shiva and Krishna temples of Bur Dubai since 1958), Buddhism about 3.2%, the Sikhs, the Bahá'ís, the Jews (the Abrahamic Family House's Moses Ben Maimon synagogue of 2023; the rabbi Zvi Kogan's murder of November 2024 — the death sentences of 31 March 2025); the conversion from Islam and the proselytizing forbidden by the law and the tolerance campaign of the state (both lines stated, LAW 2) |
| Health | The Ministry of Health and Prevention and the emirates' authorities (the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, the Dubai Health Authority) — the free care of the citizens and the mandatory insurance of the expatriates (Abu Dhabi's of 2006, Dubai's of 2014–17, the federal of 2025), the hospitals of the world's brands (Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Mediclinic, the American and the Indian chains — NMC's collapse of 2020, Aster), the medical tourism, the genomics program (the Emirati genome program of 2021), the diabetes' burden (about 16–19% of the adults), the life expectancy about 79–80; the war of 2026's casualties — 2 soldiers, 1 civilian contractor and 13 civilians killed and 246 injured by mid-July 2026 by the war's tallies (the official counts partial — both stated) |
| Education | Free for the citizens in the public schools (the Emirati School model of 2017 and the ministry's 2025 curriculum; the national schools' moral education and the Arabic), the private schools of the expatriates (about 70% of the students; the Indian CBSE and Kerala schools — among the largest CBSE presence outside India, the British, the American, the IB; the fees regulated by Dubai's KHDA and Abu Dhabi's ADEK), the universities — the UAE University (Al Ain, 1976; the first), the Zayed University (1998), the Higher Colleges of Technology (1988), Khalifa University (2007), the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (2019; the world's first AI university by the government's line), the branch campuses (NYU Abu Dhabi of 2010, the Sorbonne Abu Dhabi, the IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi of 2024, the Birla, the Manipal and the Amity of Dubai); the literacy about 98%; the AI's compulsory schooling from 2025–26 |
| Migrants and diaspora | The migrants about 89% of the residents — the kafala sponsorship system (the employer-linked residence; the 2022 labor law's reforms — the job-change freedom, the end of the passport confiscations by the law; the rights groups' 'forced labor' and the 'heat deaths' findings and the government's 'among the most progressive labor laws of the region' — both stated, LAW 2), the Wage Protection System (2009), the unemployment insurance of 2023, the golden visa (2019; 10 years) and the green visa (2022), the remote-work visa (2020), the retirement visa; the remittances out about US$40–45 billion a year (India's largest source — about 18–20% of India's inflows by the RBI's 2023–24 survey); the Emiratis abroad few (the students, the diplomats); the deportations and the amnesties (the 2024 amnesty); the US deportees' and the Afghan evacuees' transits (2021) |
| Social indicators | HDI 0.940 (2023; 15th of 193 — the Arab world's highest); the Gini 26 (2018) for the residents by the survey line (the inequality between the citizens and the migrant workers outside it — both readings stated, LAW 2); the citizens' welfare — the free education, the health care, the housing loans and the land grants, the Emiratisation quotas (2% a year of the private firms' skilled jobs from 2023 — the Nafis program); the women's rights — the 50% of the FNC since 2019, the Gender Balance Council (2015), the personal status law of 2024 (the non-Muslims' civil marriage of Abu Dhabi's 2021 law), the guardianship rules; the speech and the assembly restricted (the 'UAE 84' trial and the sentences of July 2024 — the state's 'terrorist organization' line and the rights groups' 'mass unfair trial' both stated); the World Happiness Report's top-25 place; the safety indexes' high ranks (Abu Dhabi the 'safest city' of the Numbeo lists) |
| Cities and provinces | The seven emirates and their cities — Abu Dhabi (the capital; Al Ain — the garden city of the Hili and the Hafeet sites, the Sheikh Zayed's birthplace; the Al Dhafra towns of Madinat Zayed, Ruwais, Liwa, Ghayathi), Dubai (the city; Hatta of the Hajar; Jebel Ali), Sharjah (the city — the Arab Culture Capital of 1998 and the Islamic Culture Capital of 2014, the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization; the east coast's Khor Fakkan, Kalba and Dibba Al-Hisn), Ajman (the smallest emirate; the city and the Masfout and Manama exclaves), Umm Al Quwain (the least peopled), Ras Al Khaimah (the city, the Jebel Jais, the Al Hamra; the RAK ceramics), Fujairah (the city, the port, the Al Bidyah mosque — the oldest mosque of the country of about the 15th century); the rulers — Abu Dhabi's MBZ (2022), Dubai's Mohammed bin Rashid (2006), Sharjah's Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi (since 25 January 1972 — the longest-reigning), Ajman's Humaid bin Rashid Al Nuaimi III (1981), Umm Al Quwain's Saud bin Rashid Al Mualla (2009), Ras Al Khaimah's Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi (2010), Fujairah's Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi (1974) |
| Names and customs | The names — Mohamed, Zayed, Khalifa, Hamdan, Mansour, Saif, Rashid, Sultan, Saqr for the men, Fatima, Mariam, Shamma, Hessa, Moza, Latifa, Sheikha for the women; the 'bin' (son of) and the 'bint' (daughter of) and the family names (Al Nahyan, Al Maktoum, Al Qasimi, Al Mansouri, Al Shamsi, Al Ketbi, Al Suwaidi); the customs — the majlis (the sitting room of the open councils; UNESCO 2015), the kandura and the ghutra of the men, the abaya and the shayla of the women, the Arabic coffee (qahwa) and the dates of every welcome, the oud perfume and the bakhoor incense, the henna, the falconry, the camel racing, the Al Ayyala dance (UNESCO 2014) and the Al Razfa, the Ramadan's iftars and the Eid's eidiya, the weddings' segregated feasts, the Sheikh Zayed Heritage Festival; the National Day's car decorations |
| Media and sport culture | The media — WAM (the Emirates News Agency; 1976), Abu Dhabi Media (the National of 2008), the Dubai Media Incorporated, the Gulf News (1978), the Khaleej Times (1978), Al Khaleej, Al Ittihad, the Sky News Arabia (2012; Abu Dhabi), the Dubai Media City's regional bureaus (2001), the influencers' licenses (the 2023 Advertiser Permit); the press freedom's ranks low by the RSF's lines (about the 160s of 180) and the 2021 cybercrime law's limits (both lines stated, LAW 2); the sport — the camel racing, the falconry, the Dubai World Cup (the horse race of about US$30 million of the prizes; the 30th of 28 March 2026), the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (since 2009), the cricket (the ICC headquarters; the IPL's seasons), the football's UAE Pro League (Al Ain's AFC Champions League of 2003 and 2024; Shabab Al Ahli, Al Wasl, Sharjah), the tennis, the golf, the UFC's Abu Dhabi nights, the Ironman and the cycling's UAE Tour (2019) and the UAE Team Emirates of Tadej Pogačar (the Tour de France titles of 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025) |
Government
| System | Federal elective constitutional monarchy under the constitution of 18 July 1971 (provisional; permanent by the amendment of 2 December 1996) — the Federal Supreme Council of the seven hereditary rulers (the President and the Vice President elected from among them for five years; the federal laws' and the treaties' ratification by the majority with Abu Dhabi's and Dubai's votes required), the President (by custom the Ruler of Abu Dhabi), the Council of Ministers under the Prime Minister (by custom the Ruler of Dubai), the Federal National Council (advisory), the Federal Supreme Court; the emirates' own governments, the oil and the resources owned by each emirate (Article 23 — Abu Dhabi's oil Abu Dhabi's), the federal budget funded mostly by Abu Dhabi and Dubai; no parties, no elected law-making assembly — the 'consultation (shura) of the majlis' of the state's line and Freedom House's 'Not Free' (about 18 of 100) both stated (LAW 2) |
|---|---|
| Head of state | President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (since 14 May 2022; the third President after his father Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan, 2 December 1971 – 2 November 2004, and his half-brother Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, 3 November 2004 – 13 May 2022) — the Ruler of Abu Dhabi, the Supreme Commander of the armed forces, the chairman of ADNOC, of the Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs and of the Abu Dhabi investment bodies; the foreign policy of the Abraham Accords (15 September 2020; the White House signing), the CEPA trade network, the AI ambitions (the Stargate UAE campus of May 2025 with OpenAI, Nvidia, Oracle, SoftBank and Cisco; the G42), the mediation (the Russia–Ukraine prisoner swaps of 2024–25 and the trilateral talks of 23–24 January 2026 at Abu Dhabi; the Azerbaijan–Armenia meeting of 10 July 2025), the 2026 war against Iran's strikes (the UAE's own airstrikes on Iran reported in May 2026), the OPEC exit; Vice Presidents Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid (since 2006) and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed (since 29 March 2023); Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed (29 March 2023) |
| Head of government | Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (since 5 January 2006; the Vice President and the Ruler of Dubai) — the Council of Ministers of about 30 ministers: the Deputy Prime Ministers Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed (the Presidential Court), Sheikh Saif bin Zayed (Interior since 2004), Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed (Foreign Affairs since 2006), Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed (Finance; the First Deputy Ruler of Dubai), Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed (Defense since July 2024; the Crown Prince of Dubai); Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Energy and Infrastructure Suhail Al Mazrouei, Industry and Advanced Technology Sultan Al Jaber (ADNOC's chief executive), Cabinet Affairs Mohammad Al Gergawi; the ministers of state for the AI (Omar Sultan Al Olama, 2017 — the world's first AI minister by the government's line), the youth (Sultan Al Neyadi), the foreign trade (Thani Al Zeyoudi — the CEPA negotiator); the last general reshuffle of 6 January 2024 and the July 2024 changes by the cabinet's roll |
| Legislature | The Federal National Council (FNC; 1972) — 40 members for four years: 20 elected by the emirates' electoral colleges (about 398,000 citizens chosen by the rulers — about a third of the citizens; the election of 7 October 2023, the fifth since the first of 2006) and 20 appointed by the rulers; the seats by emirate (Abu Dhabi 8, Dubai 8, Sharjah 6, Ras Al Khaimah 6, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah 4 each); the women half of the seats since 2019 by the presidential decree; Speaker Saqr Ghobash (since 2019; re-elected 14 November 2023); the powers advisory (the review of the draft laws and the budget, the questions; the Supreme Council and the Cabinet the law-makers by decree); the next election due in 2027; the emirates' own consultative councils (Sharjah's elected half of 2015) |
| Parties | None — political parties are not permitted (no law provides for them; the Muslim Brotherhood's al-Islah designated a terrorist organization in 2014 — the 'UAE 94' trial of 2013 and the 'UAE 84' trial of 2023–24 with the sentences of 10 July 2024 (43 life terms) — the state's 'terrorist organization' line and the rights groups' 'peaceful dissidents' both stated, LAW 2); the tribes, the ruling families and the merchant families the political networks; the 2011 petition of 133 for an elected FNC and the 'UAE 5' trial of 2011 (the activist Ahmed Mansoor jailed since 2017 for 10 years by the rights groups' count) |
| Judiciary | The Federal Supreme Court (Abu Dhabi; the constitutional and the federal disputes), the federal courts of the first instance and the appeal (the Sharia and the civil codes — the new federal civil, penal and personal status laws of 2021–22), the emirates' own judicial systems (Abu Dhabi's Judicial Department, the Dubai Courts, Ras Al Khaimah's), the common-law courts of the free zones — the DIFC Courts (2004) and the ADGM Courts (2015) in English; the Abu Dhabi civil family court for the non-Muslims (2021); the Federal Public Prosecution; the death penalty kept (the executions rare; the Kogan case's death sentences of 31 March 2025); the Sudan case at the ICJ (dismissed on 5 May 2025 for the lack of jurisdiction — Sudan's 'complicity in genocide' charge and the UAE's denial both stated, LAW 2); the extraditions of the 2025–26 (Daniel Kinahan arrested on 15 April 2026 at Dubai and extradited to Ireland on 9 August 2026 by the reports) |
| Administrative divisions | Seven emirates — Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah — each an absolute hereditary monarchy within the federation with its ruler, its crown prince, its executive council and its municipalities (Abu Dhabi's three regions — the capital, Al Ain and Al Dhafra; Dubai's Hatta; Sharjah's east-coast exclaves); the federal ministries' and the emirates' shared powers (the defense unified in 1976 — Dubai's and Ras Al Khaimah's forces merged by 1997; the foreign policy federal; the oil, the land and the courts by the emirate); the about 40-plus free zones (the Jebel Ali Free Zone of 1985, the DIFC of 2004, the ADGM of 2013, the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre) with their own business laws; the disputed islands — Abu Musa (Sharjah's under the 1971 memorandum, Iran's control) and the Tunbs (Ras Al Khaimah's claim; Iran's since 1971) |
| Constitution and rights | The constitution of 1971 (permanent since 1996) — the equality of the citizens, the personal liberty, the freedom of the opinion 'within the limits of the law', the religion's freedom with Islam the state religion; the practice — Freedom House's 'Not Free' (about 18 of 100), the RSF's rank of the 160s, the cybercrime law of 2021 (the 'rumors' and the criticism of the state punished), the dissidents' trials ('UAE 94', 'UAE 84'), the migrant workers' kafala (the 2022 labor law's reforms, the heat-stress rules, the domestic workers' law of 2022 — the rights groups' 'forced labor' findings and the government's 'reforms' both stated, LAW 2), the women's personal status reforms (the 2020 'honor crimes' repeal, the 2021–24 family laws), the cohabitation and the alcohol laws liberalized in 2020; the tolerance's institutions; the LGBT conduct criminal |
| Military | The UAE Armed Forces (the union of 6 May 1976; the union defense force of 1971 before) — about 63,000 active by the IISS's relayed count, the conscription for the Emirati men of 18–30 since 2014 (11–16 months; the women's voluntary service); the Supreme Commander the President, the Deputy Supreme Commander, the Chief of Staff; the Defense Minister Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed (July 2024); the air force's F-16 Block 60 'Desert Falcons' and the Mirage 2000-9s, the 80 Rafale F4s ordered (December 2021; the deliveries from 2027), the THAAD and the Patriot batteries (the first THAAD combat interception of 17 January 2022 against the Houthi missile), the Barak and the Pantsir systems; the bases of the French (Camp de la Paix, 2009 — struck by the Iranian drones on 1 March 2026 by the reports) and the US (Al Dhafra Air Base; Al Minhad's coalition use — damaged on 3 March 2026 by the reports); the wars — the Yemen coalition of 2015–19 (the Aden, Mukalla and Hodeidah campaigns; the last forces withdrawn by 30 December 2025), Libya's Haftar backing (the UN panel's line — both stated), THE 2026 IRAN WAR (the interceptions of the hundreds of missiles and drones; the UAE's own strikes on Iran's Bandar Abbas, Qeshm, Abu Musa, Lavan and Asaluyeh reported by the Wall Street Journal in May 2026; the willingness to join the US-led Hormuz coalition of 5 April 2026; 2 soldiers killed by the war's tallies; the helicopter crash of 9 March 2026); the EDGE group of the defense industry (2019) |
| Foreign relations | The Gulf Cooperation Council (the founder of 1981; the Qatar blockade of 2017–21 ended at AlUla on 5 January 2021), the Arab League, the OIC, the UN (the Security Council's non-permanent seat of 2022–23), BRICS (1 January 2024); the United States (the security partner — the Al Dhafra base, the F-35's stalled sale of 2020–21, the Trump visit of 13–16 May 2025 and the pledge of US$1.4 trillion of the investment over ten years, the AI chips' approvals; the 2026 war's alliance against Iran), Israel (the Abraham Accords of 15 September 2020; the trade, the flights, the CEPA of 2022; the Gaza war's strains — Israel's evacuation of most of its diplomats on 31 July 2025 by the reports), India (the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership; the CEPA of 18 February 2022 in force on 1 May 2022, the rupee settlement of 2023, the IMEC corridor of 2023, the 4.3 million Indians, the BAPS temple), China (the largest trade partner by the goods), Saudi Arabia (the partner and the rival — the Yemen and the OPEC divergences of 2025–26), Iran (the Abu Musa and Tunbs dispute; the trade's Dubai hub; THE 2026 WAR — the embassy closed on 1 March 2026, the trade and the financial transactions halted on 18 August 2026), Sudan (the RSF backing alleged by the UN experts and denied by the UAE; the SAF government's break of relations of 6 May 2025 — both stated, LAW 2), Somalia (the agreements revoked by Mogadishu on 12 January 2026 over the Somaliland and the Puntland dealings by the reports), Russia and Ukraine (the mediator of the prisoner exchanges; the Ukraine CEPA of 17 February 2025), Egypt (the Ras El-Hekma's US$35 billion deal of February 2024); the CEPA network (about 30 signed by 2026 — India, Israel, Indonesia, Türkiye, Malaysia, the Philippines of 13 January 2026, New Zealand, Serbia, Costa Rica, Mauritius, Ukraine, Angola, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic) |
| Police and security | The Ministry of Interior (Sheikh Saif bin Zayed since 2004), the emirates' police (Abu Dhabi Police, Dubai Police — the Lamborghini patrol cars, the smart police stations of 2017, the robot officer; the Sharjah Police), the State Security Apparatus, the National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority (the 2026 war's alerts; the shelters' guidance), the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security; the counterterrorism lists (2014), the surveillance (the 'safe city' cameras; the Pegasus and the Project Raven's revelations — the critics' line and the state's 'security' line both stated, LAW 2); the money-laundering's FATF gray list of March 2022 – February 2024 and the EU's high-risk list removal of 10 June 2025; the 2026 war's security — the Hezbollah–Iran network dismantled (20 March 2026), the money changers arrested for the IRGC transfers (late March 2026), the 27 'Iranian-linked' cell members arrested (20 April 2026) by the reports; the low crime rates (Abu Dhabi the 'safest city' of the Numbeo indexes) |
| Elections | No national elections by universal suffrage — the FNC's half elected by the electoral colleges chosen by the rulers: 2006 (the first; 6,689 voters), 2011 (about 129,000), 2015 (about 224,000), 2019 (about 337,000; the women's 50% of the seats by the decree), 7 October 2023 (about 398,000; the turnout about 45% by the commission); the President elected by the Federal Supreme Council (MBZ unanimously on 14 May 2022; Khalifa re-elected in 2009, 2014, 2019); the Sharjah Consultative Council's elections (2015); the next FNC election in 2027 — the state's 'gradual political empowerment' and the critics' 'no meaningful elections' both stated (LAW 2) |
| The politics of 2024–26 in dates | 1 January 2024 — BRICS membership; 6 January 2024 — the cabinet reshuffle (Al Neyadi a minister); 14 February 2024 — the BAPS Mandir's inauguration; February 2024 — the FATF gray list's removal; 16 April 2024 — the record floods; July 2024 — Hamdan bin Mohammed the Defense Minister; 10 July 2024 — the 'UAE 84' sentences; November 2024 — the rabbi Kogan's murder; 17 February 2025 — the Ukraine CEPA; 31 March 2025 — the Kogan verdicts; 5–6 May 2025 — the ICJ's dismissal of Sudan's case and Sudan's break of relations; 13–16 May 2025 — Trump's visit (the US$1.4 trillion pledge); 22 May 2025 — Stargate UAE; 10 June 2025 — the EU's AML list removal; 10 July 2025 — the Azerbaijan–Armenia meeting at Abu Dhabi; 11 July 2025 — Faya on UNESCO's list; 30 December 2025 — the last forces out of Yemen; 12 January 2026 — Somalia's revocation; 23–24 January 2026 — the Russia–Ukraine–US trilateral talks at Abu Dhabi; 13 February 2026 — DP World's chairman Sultan bin Sulayem's resignation by the reports; 28 FEBRUARY 2026 — THE IRANIAN STRIKES ON THE UAE (the US–Israeli war on Iran); 1 March — the Tehran embassy closed; 5 April — the readiness to join the Hormuz coalition; 28 APRIL — THE OPEC AND OPEC+ EXIT (effective 1 May); 17 May — the strike near Barakah; 17 June — the US–Iran memorandum and its collapse of July; 25 July — Wadi Wurayah on UNESCO's list; 18 AUGUST — THE TRADE WITH IRAN HALTED |
| Current issues | THE WAR WITH IRAN — the federation's cities, airports, refineries and bases hit since 28 February 2026 (the deaths of 2 soldiers, 1 contractor and 13 civilians and 246 injured by mid-July by the war's tallies; the Dubai airport's suspensions of March; the Ruwais refinery's and the Shah gas field's shutdowns; the Fujairah terminal's fires), the Strait of Hormuz's closure and the US naval blockade (the exports through the Habshan–Fujairah pipeline), the ceasefires of April and June that collapsed, the trade halt of 18 August — the UAE's 'self-defense' and Iran's 'the bases of the aggressors' lines both stated (LAW 2); the OPEC exit's oil strategy; the economy's war shock (the airlines, the tourism, the property, the stock markets' two-day pause of March) against the safe-haven flows; the succession's settled line (MBZ's son the Crown Prince); the Sudan war's accusations; the AI and the data-center ambitions (the Stargate UAE's first 200 MW of 2026 by the plan); the labor rights; the cost of living for the expatriates; the water and the heat |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$621.5 billion projected for 2026 by the IMF's relayed lines (US$527.8 billion for 2024 and about US$550 billion for 2025 by the earlier relays — the projections before the 2026 war's revisions; both stated) — the Arab world's second economy after Saudi Arabia, about 15% of India's GDP; about US$54,000 a head (2026) on about 11 million residents; the non-oil sectors about 75% of the real GDP by the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre's 2024 line (the trade, the logistics, the finance, the real estate, the tourism, the manufacturing, the construction), the oil and gas about 25%; Abu Dhabi about 60% of the GDP and Dubai about 26% by the emirates' counts; the 'We the UAE 2031' goal of AED 3 trillion of GDP |
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| GDP (PPP) | About US$1.006 trillion by purchasing power for 2026 by the IMF's relayed lines — about US$87,800 a head, among the world's top ten; about 6% of India's purchasing-power GDP; the citizens' incomes far above the residents' average and the migrant workers' far below (both readings stated, LAW 2); the prices of the housing, the schooling and the health dear for the expatriates, the fuel at the monthly market-linked prices since 2015 |
| Growth and inflation | Growth about 3.5–4% in 2024 (3.8% by the federal center; 3.5% by another relay — both stated), about 4–5% forecast for 2025 and the 2026's pre-war forecasts of about 5% overturned by the Iran war (the airlines' and the tourism's halts of March 2026, the oil's export cap at the pipeline's capacity) — the 2026 outcome unpublished by 5 October 2026; inflation about 1.5–2.5% (2024–25; the housing rents' rise the main driver; the 4.8% of 2022) and the war's prices of 2026 (the food imports' shipping costs; the gold's swings); the dirham's dollar peg the inflation's anchor |
| Monetary policy and the dirham | The Central Bank of the UAE (Governor Khaled Mohamed Balama) — the dirham pegged at 3.6725 to the U.S. dollar (formally since 1997), the base rate following the US Federal Reserve's moves (the 2024–25 cuts), the foreign reserves about US$230–250 billion by the central bank's lines of 2025 (the sovereign funds' far larger holdings outside them); the banking sector's about AED 4.5 trillion of assets (First Abu Dhabi Bank, Emirates NBD, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank — the Islamic banking about 20%); the Digital Dirham's pilot and the new dirham symbol of 27 March 2025; the rupee–dirham settlement (2023); the war of 2026's liquidity support (the stock exchanges' two-day pause of 2–3 March 2026 and the reopening of 4 March by the reports) |
| Public finances | The federal budget small (about AED 71.5 billion for 2025 — the federal ministries' spending; balanced by the law; the 2026 budget of about AED 92.4 billion approved in October 2025 by the cabinet's line) against the emirates' own budgets (Abu Dhabi's and Dubai's far larger); the revenues — the oil's dividends of ADNOC to Abu Dhabi, the VAT of 5% (1 January 2018), the corporate tax of 9% (from 1 June 2023; the 15% domestic minimum top-up tax for the large multinationals of 2025), the excise taxes (2017), the fees; no personal income tax; the public debt about 30–35% of GDP (the emirates' and the federal bonds; Dubai's 2009 debt crisis and Abu Dhabi's US$10 billion of rescue); THE SOVEREIGN WEALTH — the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA; 1976; about US$1 trillion), Mubadala (about US$330 billion), ADQ (2018), L'imad (2025), the Investment Corporation of Dubai, the Emirates Investment Authority — together about US$2 trillion by the institutes' estimates, among the world's largest |
| Structure and labor | The non-oil economy about 75% of GDP (2024) — the trade and the logistics (Jebel Ali, the airports), the finance (the DIFC and ADGM), the real estate and the construction, the tourism and the hospitality, the manufacturing (the aluminum, the petrochemicals, the steel, the cement, the pharmaceuticals, the defense — EDGE), the ICT and the AI (G42, the Stargate UAE); the oil and gas about 25%; the labor force about 7–8 million — the expatriates about 90% of the private sector's workers, the Emiratis mostly in the public sector (the Emiratisation quotas of the private firms — 2% a year to 10% by 2026); the kafala and the 2022 labor law (the fixed-term contracts, the end-of-service benefits, the unemployment insurance of 2023); no minimum wage in the private sector by law (the Emiratis' minimum in the quota jobs; the rights groups' line and the state's both stated, LAW 2); the summer midday work ban |
| Trade | The non-oil foreign trade about AED 3 trillion (2024; a record) and about AED 3.5 trillion by the 2025 lines by the trade ministry's counts (the re-exports' hub of Dubai — about 40%), the total exports about US$400-plus billion by the 2024 lines (the oil, the gas, the refined products, the gold, the aluminum, the jewelry, the re-exports of the electronics and the vehicles); the partners — China, India (about US$85–100 billion of the bilateral trade with the CEPA of 2022), Saudi Arabia, the US, Iraq, Türkiye, Japan; the CEPA program of about 30 agreements by 2026; the gold trade (Dubai the world's second hub; the Sudanese and the African gold's provenance questions by the critics' line); the war of 2026 — the Strait of Hormuz's closure, the Jebel Ali's and the Khalifa port's disruptions, the shipping through Fujairah and Khor Fakkan, the trade with Iran halted on 18 August 2026 (Iran's re-export hub of the decades) |
| Agriculture | About 1% of GDP — the date palms (about 40-plus million; the Liwa and Al Ain oases; among the world's leading date producers), the vegetables of the greenhouses and the hydroponics (the vertical farms — Bustanica of 2022, the AeroFarms of Abu Dhabi), the fodder's water-hungry crops cut by the policy, the poultry and the dairy (Al Ain Farms, Al Rawabi), the camels and the goats, the fisheries of the Gulf (the hammour; the overfishing's limits); the food imports about 85–90% (the National Food Security Strategy 2051; the farmland investments abroad — Sudan, Egypt, Pakistan, Romania; the war of 2026's food-supply routes through the Gulf of Oman ports); the national agricultural center (2023) |
| Industry | The oil and gas — ADNOC (the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company of 1971; the capacity of about 4.85 million barrels a day and the 5 million target for 2027; the Ruwais refinery — about 900,000 barrels a day, shut by the drone strike of 10 March 2026 by the reports; the Borouge petrochemicals; the XRG international arm of 2024), ENOC of Dubai; the aluminum of EGA (2013 merger; the Al Taweelah smelter — among the world's largest; its facility damaged on 28 March 2026 by the reports), the steel (Emirates Steel Arkan), the cement, the pharmaceuticals, the defense (EDGE), the aerospace parts (Strata of Al Ain for Airbus and Boeing), the semiconductors' and the AI's data centers (the G42's Khazna; the Stargate UAE's 5 GW campus plan), the space (the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre — the Hope probe in Mars orbit of 9 February 2021, the Khalifa Sat of 2018, the MBZ-Sat of 2025); the 'Operation 300bn' industrial strategy (2021) — the manufacturing to AED 300 billion of GDP by 2031 |
| Tourism | Dubai about 18.7 million international overnight visitors in 2024 and about 19.6 million in 2025 by the Dubai tourism department's counts (the world's most visited city of the Euromonitor lists of the 2020s with Bangkok and Istanbul); Abu Dhabi about 5–6 million hotel guests; the attractions — the Burj Khalifa (the world's tallest, 828 m), the Dubai Mall (the world's most visited mall by the claim), the Palm and the Atlantis, the Museum of the Future (2022), the Expo City, the desert safaris, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the Yas Island's Ferrari World and Warner Bros. World, the Hatta and the Jebel Jais; the events — the Dubai Shopping Festival (1996), the Dubai World Cup, the Formula One; THE 2026 WAR'S SHOCK — Dubai International's suspensions of March 2026, the travel warnings, the hotels' and the flights' cancellations (the Burj Khalifa's evacuation of 28 February 2026 by the reports) — the recovery's pace unknown by 5 October 2026 |
| Energy | Oil and gas — the reserves of about 98–113 billion barrels (about 6–7% of the world's) and about 290 tcf of gas, the production of about 3.2–3.4 million barrels a day under the OPEC+ quotas of 2024–25 and the capacity of about 4.85 million — THE OPEC AND OPEC+ EXIT announced on 28 April 2026 and effective on 1 May 2026 (after Abu Dhabi's membership since 1967 — the 'freedom to produce' of the UAE's line and the 'divergence from Riyadh' of the analysts', both stated, LAW 2) while the Strait of Hormuz's closure capped the exports to the Habshan–Fujairah pipeline (about 1.5–2 million barrels a day; 2012); the electricity — the Barakah nuclear power plant (four APR-1400 units of 5.6 GW, 2020–24 — about 25% of the electricity; the Arab world's first; the drone strike near it of 17 May 2026 by the reports), the solar (Noor Abu Dhabi of 2019 — 1.2 GW, Al Dhafra of 2023 — 2 GW, the Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park — the 5 GW plan, the 24-hour solar-and-storage project of 2025), the gas-fired plants and the desalination's cogeneration; the net-zero 2050 pledge (2021; the first of the Gulf) and the COP28's 'UAE Consensus' (13 December 2023) |
| Banks and markets | The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX; 2000) and the Dubai Financial Market (DFM; 2000) — about US$1 trillion of the combined market value (the IHC's and the ADNOC units' rise; the Alpha Dhabi; the 2021–25 IPO wave — ADNOC Gas, Dubai's Salik, DEWA, Talabat), Nasdaq Dubai; the banks — First Abu Dhabi Bank (the largest), Emirates NBD, ADCB, Dubai Islamic Bank, Mashreq; the DIFC (2004; about 6,900 firms by 2024) and the ADGM (2015) financial centers with their own regulators (the DFSA, the FSRA) and the English common-law courts; the crypto's VARA regulator of Dubai (2022) and the stablecoins' licenses; the ratings AA (S&P, Fitch) and Aa2 (Moody's) for the federation; the 2026 war's market shocks — the two-day pause of the exchanges of 2–3 March 2026 and the reopening of 4 March by the reports |
| Infrastructure projects | The Etihad Rail (the national freight railway of 2023 — about 900 km from Ghuwaifat to Fujairah; the passenger service's launch of 2026 by the plan; the Hafeet Rail to Oman's Sohar), Dubai Metro (2009; the Blue Line of 2029 by the plan), the Al Maktoum International Airport's US$35 billion expansion (April 2024; the world's largest airport by 2030s' capacity of 260 million by the plan), the Zayed International Airport's Terminal A (November 2023), the Jebel Ali port's expansions, the Barakah nuclear plant (2020–24), the solar parks, the Stargate UAE's 5 GW AI campus (May 2025), the Expo City Dubai, the Saadiyat cultural district (the Zayed National Museum and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi), the Dubai Creek Tower (stalled), the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan, the Etihad Water and Electricity's desalination; the 2026 war's damage to the refineries, the ports and the airports by the reports — the repairs' scale unpublished |
| Poverty and inequality | No official poverty measure for the residents — the citizens' welfare state (the housing loans and grants of the Sheikh Zayed housing program, the free health care and education, the social support of the Ministry of Community Empowerment, the debt-settlement initiatives, the Emiratis' salaries in the public sector) and the migrant workers' low wages (the laborers' about AED 1,000–1,500 a month by the reports; the labor camps; the debt bondage of the recruitment fees by the rights groups' line — and the 2022 law's protections by the government's — both stated, LAW 2); the Gini 26 (2018) by the survey line; the HDI 0.940; the World Happiness Report's top-25 rank |
| Economic history in brief | The pearl-diving and the fishing economy of the Trucial coast (the pearl's collapse of the 1930s with the Japanese cultured pearls and the Depression; the poverty of the 1940s), the dhow trade of Dubai's Creek (the 1902 free port of Sheikh Maktoum bin Hasher; the Persian merchants), OIL — the Umm Shaif offshore discovery of 1958, the first exports of Abu Dhabi of 1962 (Das Island), Dubai's Fateh field of 1966, Sheikh Zayed's rule of Abu Dhabi from 6 August 1966; the federation of 1971 and the oil boom of 1973–74; Dubai's Jebel Ali port and free zone (1979, 1985), Emirates airline (25 October 1985), the Burj Al Arab (1999), the property freehold for the foreigners (2002), the Dubai boom and the Dubai World debt crisis (November 2009; Abu Dhabi's US$10 billion and the Burj Khalifa's naming of 4 January 2010), the Arab Spring's safe-haven flows, the VAT (2018), the Expo 2020 (2021–22), the corporate tax (2023), the Russian and the global wealth inflows of 2022–25, the 2026 war and the OPEC exit |
Transport
| Roads | About 4,000-plus km of highways and the dense urban grids — the E11 (Sheikh Zayed Road of Dubai and Abu Dhabi; the 12-lane spine of the coast from Ghuwaifat to Ras Al Khaimah), the E311 (Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road), the E611 (the Emirates Road), the E88 to Fujairah through the Hajar; the right-hand traffic; the Salik road tolls of Dubai (2007) and the Darb of Abu Dhabi (2021); the speed cameras and the high limits (140 km/h on some highways); the road deaths about 400 a year by the 2024 counts (down from about 1,000 in 2008); the vehicles about 4 million; the fuel's monthly market prices since August 2015; the autonomous taxis' trials of Dubai and Abu Dhabi (2024–26) |
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| Rail | Etihad Rail — the national network of about 900 km of standard gauge from Ghuwaifat (the Saudi border) to Fujairah via Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah (the freight operations of February 2023; the passenger trains at up to 200 km/h due in 2026 by the plan; the Abu Dhabi–Dubai high-speed line of 350 km/h announced in 2025 by the plan), the Hafeet Rail joint venture with Oman (Abu Dhabi–Sohar; 2023–); the GCC Railway's link plan; the Dubai Metro (9 September 2009; the Red and the Green lines — about 90 km, the world's longest driverless network at its opening by Guinness's line; the Blue Line of 2029 by the plan), the Dubai Tram (2014), the Palm Monorail (2009) |
| Dubai and Abu Dhabi transit | The Dubai Metro (about 90 km; about 270 million riders a year by the Roads and Transport Authority's 2024 count), the Dubai Tram, the buses of the RTA (Dubai) and the ITC (Abu Dhabi), the water buses and the abras of the Creek (the traditional wooden ferries — about AED 1 a crossing), the taxis and the ride-hailing (Careem — founded in Dubai in 2012, bought by Uber in 2020; Uber), the Abu Dhabi's autonomous Robotaxis (WeRide and TXAI of 2024–25), the flying taxis of Joby Aviation and Archer planned for 2026 by the RTA's plan; the Nol card of Dubai and the Hafilat of Abu Dhabi; the traffic of the Dubai–Sharjah commute |
| Air | Dubai International Airport (DXB; 1960) — the world's busiest airport for the international passengers (about 92.3 million in 2024 by the airport's count; the hub of Emirates — the airline of 25 October 1985, the world's largest A380 and 777 operator — and flydubai), Zayed International Airport (AUH; Abu Dhabi; the Terminal A of November 2023; the hub of Etihad Airways of 2003), the Al Maktoum International (DWC; Dubai South; 2010 — the US$35 billion expansion of April 2024 to replace DXB by the 2030s by the plan), Sharjah (Air Arabia of 2003 — the region's first low-cost carrier), Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, Al Ain; THE 2026 WAR — the Iranian strikes' damage at Dubai International on 28 February 2026 and the suspensions of 7 March and 16 March 2026 by the reports, the airlines' rerouting; the Dubai Airshow (the HAL Tejas crash of 21 November 2025 — the Indian Air Force pilot killed); the aircraft registration A6- |
| Ports and waterways | Jebel Ali (Dubai; 1979 — the largest man-made harbor of the world and the busiest port of the Middle East; about 14–15 million TEU a year by DP World's counts; DP World's chairman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem's resignation of 13 February 2026 by the reports), Khalifa Port (Abu Dhabi; 2012; Abu Dhabi Ports Group), Mina Zayed, Port Rashid (the cruise terminal), Sharjah's Khalid Port and Khor Fakkan (the east coast's container port beyond the Strait), Fujairah (the bunkering hub — the world's third-largest by the claim — and the oil storage; struck by the drones in March–April 2026 by the reports), Mina Saqr of Ras Al Khaimah; the Strait of Hormuz's closure and the US blockade of 2026 — the ships' diversions to the Gulf of Oman ports and the pipeline; the Dubai Creek's dhow wharfage (the trade with Iran, India and East Africa); the Dubai Maritime City |
| Energy and utilities | The electricity of the emirates' utilities — EWEC (Abu Dhabi), DEWA (Dubai; listed 2022), SEWA (Sharjah), Etihad Water and Electricity (the northern emirates; 2023 merger) — about 40-plus GW of capacity by the counts (the gas-fired, the Barakah nuclear's 5.6 GW, the solar's about 6–7 GW by 2025), the per-head consumption among the world's highest (the air conditioning); the water — the desalination (about 42% of the water by the counts; about 70 plants; the Taweelah reverse-osmosis plant of 2022 — the world's largest by its claim), the groundwater and the treated wastewater; the telecoms — e& (Etisalat) and du, the 5G (2019), the subsea cables; the war of 2026's strikes on the energy sites (the Ruwais refinery, the Shah gas field, the Fujairah terminal, the near-miss of Barakah) by the reports |
| Border crossings and bridges | With Saudi Arabia: Ghuwaifat–Batha (the coastal highway's gate; the trucks of the GCC; the Etihad Rail's link), with Oman: Hatta–Al Wajajah, Hili–Buraimi (the Al Ain oasis's twin), Mezyad, Khatm Al Shikla, Dibba and the Musandam's Tibat; the airports and the seaports the main gates; the visa on arrival or the visa-free entry for about 80-plus nationalities (the 2024–26 rules), the Indians' visa on arrival with the US/UK/EU visas (2024), the GCC unified tourist visa's plan; the bridges — the Sheikh Zayed Bridge of Abu Dhabi (Zaha Hadid's of 2010), the Maqta, the Mussafah and the Al Mafraq bridges of the capital's island, the Dubai Creek's Al Maktoum (1963), Al Garhoud, Business Bay and the Infinity Bridge (2022), the Al Shindagha tunnel |
History in dates
| c. 210,000 BCE – 3000 BCE | The early humans of the Faya Palaeolandscape (Jebel Faya of Sharjah; the stone tools of about 210,000 years ago — among the oldest evidence of the modern humans' exit from Africa by the archaeologists' line; UNESCO's list of 11 July 2025), the Neolithic herders and the fishers of the coast (the Marawah island's stone house of about 8,000 years ago; the Ubaid pottery's trade with Mesopotamia of the 6th–5th millennia BCE), the Hafit period's beehive tombs of Jebel Hafeet (c. 3200–2600 BCE; UNESCO 2011) |
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| 3000 BCE – 1300 BCE | THE UMM AN-NAR CULTURE (c. 2600–2000 BCE; the island off Abu Dhabi — the round communal tombs, the copper of the Hajar exported to Mesopotamia — the 'Magan' of the Sumerian and the Akkadian texts), the Hili towers and the tombs of Al Ain (UNESCO 2011), the Wadi Suq period (c. 2000–1600 BCE), the Late Bronze Age's decline; the dates and the camels' domestication |
| 1300 BCE – 300 BCE | THE IRON AGE — the falaj (aflaj) irrigation's invention by about 1000 BCE (the oldest known underground channels of the world at Al Ain's Hili and the Bidaa Bint Saud by the archaeologists' line), the fortified villages of Hili, Rumailah, Muweilah and Saruq Al Hadid (the metalworking of Dubai's desert, found in 2002), the Assyrian and the Achaemenid reach (Maka the Persian satrapy), the trade of the copper, the incense and the pearls |
| 300 BCE – 630 CE | The Hellenistic and the Pre-Islamic towns — Mleiha (Sharjah; the coins of the Abi'el kings) and Ed-Dur (Umm Al Quwain; the port of the 1st century CE, the 'Omana' of the Periplus by one reading), the Parthian and the Sasanian dominion of the coast, the Azd tribes' arrival from Yemen, the Nestorian monastery of Sir Bani Yas (the 7th–8th centuries; found 1992), the Christian and the pagan communities; the Sasanians' rule of the Oman coast to the 7th century |
| 630 – 1500 | ISLAM — the Prophet's envoys to Oman's Julanda rulers (about 630), the Ridda wars' Battle of Dibba (632–633; the Muslim army's victory and the Dibba's cemetery of the fallen), the Umayyads and the Abbasids, the Ibadi imamate of Oman's interior, the Julfar port of Ras Al Khaimah (the medieval trading town of the pearls and the ceramics; the Kush and the Al Mataf sites), the Hormuz kingdom's sway over the coast (the 13th–16th centuries), Ahmad ibn Majid of Julfar (the 15th-century navigator — the 'Lion of the Sea' of the Arab tradition), the Al Bidyah mosque of Fujairah (about the 15th century — the oldest standing mosque of the country) |
| 1500 – 1761 | The Portuguese (Afonso de Albuquerque's raids of 1507; the forts of Khor Fakkan, Dibba, Kalba, Julfar; the Portuguese rule of the Hormuz coast to 1622–50), the Dutch and the English East India companies' trade, the Ya'ariba imams of Oman's expulsion of the Portuguese (1650), the Safavid Persians' claims, the Bani Yas confederation of the Liwa oases (the Al Bu Falah — the Al Nahyan's line), the Qawasim (Al Qasimi) of Julfar and Ras Al Khaimah (the early 18th century — the Gulf's naval power), the founding of Abu Dhabi's settlement on the island about 1761 (the gazelle's spring; the Qasr Al Hosn's watchtower of the 1760s) |
| 1761 – 1820 | The Al Qasimi's maritime power and the clashes with the British East India Company and Oman (the 'Pirate Coast' of the British — the attacks on the shipping of 1805–19; the Qawasim's 'resistance to the Omani and British monopolies' of the Emirati historians' line, both stated, LAW 2), the British expeditions against Ras Al Khaimah (1809 and the destruction of December 1819), the Wahhabi influence of the First Saudi State (1800s), the Bani Yas's move of the capital to Abu Dhabi island (1795) |
| 1820 – 1892 | THE TRUCIAL SYSTEM — the General Maritime Treaty of 8 January 1820 (the sheikhs' end of the 'piracy'), the Maritime Truces of 1835 and the Perpetual Maritime Truce of 4 May 1853 (the 'Trucial States'), the Al Maktoum's settlement of Dubai (1833 — Maktoum bin Butti's Bani Yas secession from Abu Dhabi), the rule of Zayed bin Khalifa — 'Zayed the Great' — of Abu Dhabi (1855–1909; the dominant power of the coast), the pearling's golden age (the dhows of the season, the Indian markets), the Exclusive Agreement of 6–8 March 1892 (the British control of the foreign relations; the protection) |
| 1892 – 1929 | The protectorate's half-century — Dubai's free port of 1902 (Sheikh Maktoum bin Hasher's tax exemptions drew the Persian merchants of Lingeh), the pearl trade's peak (about 1,200 boats and 22,000 divers of the coast by the 1900s' count) and its collapse (the Japanese cultured pearls and the Depression of the 1930s) |
| 1929 – 1945 | Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum of Dubai (1912–58), Sheikh Shakhbut of Abu Dhabi (1928–66), the first oil concessions (1936–39 — the Petroleum Development (Trucial Coast)), the Imperial Airways' Sharjah air station (1932; the first airport of the Gulf), Kalba recognized as a Trucial State (1936–51), the Second World War's RAF base at Sharjah |
| 1945 – 1966 | The road to the union — the Trucial Oman Levies (1951; the Scouts), the Trucial States Council (1952), the Buraimi dispute with Saudi Arabia (1952–55), Fujairah recognized as the seventh Trucial State (1952), OIL — the offshore Umm Shaif find of 1958 and the onshore Murban of 1960, the first exports from Das Island (July 1962), Dubai's Fateh (1966; exports from 1969), Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed of Dubai (1958–90; the Creek's dredging of 1959, the Port Rashid of 1972, the World Trade Centre of 1979) |
| 1966 – 1971 | SHEIKH ZAYED BIN SULTAN ruler of Abu Dhabi (6 August 1966; Shakhbut deposed), the British withdrawal from 'east of Suez' announced in January 1968, the Zayed–Rashid meeting at Argoub El Sedirah (18 February 1968; the union agreement), the nine-emirate talks with Bahrain and Qatar (1968–71) — Bahrain's and Qatar's separate independence (August–September 1971) |
| 1971 – 1979 | THE UNION — the treaties with Britain ended (1 December 1971), Iran's seizure of the Greater and Lesser Tunbs and the Abu Musa arrangement (30 November 1971; the first Emirati martyr Salem Suhail Khamis), THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES of 2 December 1971 (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah; the flag raised at the Union House of Dubai), Sheikh Zayed the President and Sheikh Rashid the Vice President, Ras Al Khaimah's accession (10 February 1972), Sharjah's coup attempt (January 1972; Sheikh Khalid's killing and Sultan bin Muhammad's accession), the UN and the Arab League's membership (December 1971), the dirham (19 May 1973), the 1973 oil embargo's role (Zayed's 'Arab oil is not dearer than Arab blood'), the armed forces' unification (6 May 1976), Jebel Ali port (1979) |
| 1979 – 1990 | The Iran–Iraq war (1980–88; the tanker war of the Gulf, the Emirates' split sympathies — Dubai's and Sharjah's Iran trade, Abu Dhabi's Iraq support), the Gulf Cooperation Council founded at Abu Dhabi (25 May 1981), the Sharjah coup attempt of June 1987 (Sheikh Abdulaziz's; the Supreme Council's mediation), Emirates airline's founding (25 October 1985), the Jebel Ali Free Zone (1985), Sheikh Rashid's death (7 October 1990) and Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid the Ruler of Dubai and the Vice President and Prime Minister |
| 1990 – 2002 | The Gulf War (1990–91; the UAE in the coalition against Iraq's occupation of Kuwait), the BCCI's collapse (1991; Abu Dhabi's majority-owned bank), the constitution made permanent (2 December 1996; Abu Dhabi the permanent capital), the WTO membership (1996), the dollar peg formalized (1997), Dubai's boom — the Burj Al Arab (1999), Dubai Internet City (1999), the Palm Jumeirah (2001–06), the freehold for the foreigners (2002), Emirates' expansion |
| 2003 – 2004 | Etihad Airways (2003); the 9/11 hijackers' two Emirati nationals and the UAE's recognition of the Taliban (1997–2001) ended; SHEIKH ZAYED'S DEATH (2 November 2004; the 'Father of the Nation') — Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed the President (3 November 2004) |
| 2004 – 2008 | Khalifa's presidency — Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid's death (4 January 2006) and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid the Ruler of Dubai, the Vice President and the Prime Minister (5 January 2006), the first FNC elections (December 2006), the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (2007), the Masdar City (2008) |
| 2009 – 2011 | THE DUBAI DEBT CRISIS (November 2009; Dubai World's standstill; Abu Dhabi's US$10 billion of December 2009 and the Burj Khalifa's naming at its opening of 4 January 2010), the Dubai Metro (9 September 2009), the Formula One at Yas (November 2009), the Barakah nuclear contract with Korea's KEPCO (December 2009), the Arab Spring (2011; the 'UAE 5' trial; the Bahrain deployment of the GCC's Peninsula Shield of March 2011) |
| 2011 – 2016 | The security state and the interventions — the Muslim Brotherhood's al-Islah crackdown ('UAE 94' trial of July 2013; the terrorism list of November 2014), the Egypt support after July 2013, the conscription (2014), the Libya strikes (August 2014; the reports), Sheikh Khalifa's stroke (January 2014; MBZ the de facto ruler), THE YEMEN WAR — the Saudi-led coalition from 26 March 2015 (the Emirati forces' Aden campaign of July 2015, the 45 soldiers killed at Marib on 4 September 2015 — the deadliest day of the armed forces; Mukalla's retaking of April 2016), the Ministry of Happiness and of Tolerance (February 2016), the Martyrs' Day (30 November 2015), the 'Year of Reading' (2016) |
| 2017 – 2020 | THE QATAR BLOCKADE (5 June 2017; with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt — to 5 January 2021), the VAT (1 January 2018), the 'Year of Zayed' (2018), the Pope's visit and the Human Fraternity Document (3–5 February 2019), the Yemen drawdown (2019; the Southern Transitional Council's backing), the first Emirati astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri on the ISS (25 September – 3 October 2019), the women's half of the FNC (2019), the Barakah's first unit (1 August 2020), the COVID-19 (the first Gulf case of 29 January 2020; the vaccination drive), THE ABRAHAM ACCORDS (13 August announced; 15 September 2020 signed at the White House — the normalization with Israel), the Hope probe's launch (20 July 2020), the personal-law reforms (November 2020) |
| 2021 – 2022 | The Hope probe in Mars orbit (9 February 2021; the Arab world's first interplanetary mission), the Expo 2020 Dubai (1 October 2021 – 31 March 2022; about 24 million visits), the workweek's change (1 January 2022), THE HOUTHI ATTACKS ON ABU DHABI (17 January 2022; three killed at the ADNOC fuel depot; the THAAD's and the Patriots' interceptions of the following weeks), the India CEPA (1 May 2022), SHEIKH KHALIFA'S DEATH (13 May 2022) and MOHAMED BIN ZAYED THE PRESIDENT (14 May 2022), the UN Security Council seat (2022–23) |
| 2023 | Sultan Al Neyadi's six months on the ISS (March–September 2023; the first Arab spacewalk of 28 April 2023), the Crown Prince Khaled and Vice President Mansour (29 March 2023), the FNC election (7 October 2023), the corporate tax (1 June 2023), COP28 AT DUBAI (30 November – 13 December 2023; the 'UAE Consensus') |
| 2024 | 1 January — BRICS membership; 6 January — the cabinet reshuffle; 14 February — the BAPS Mandir's inauguration by Narendra Modi; 23 February — the Ras El-Hekma deal with Egypt (US$35 billion); February — the FATF gray list's end; 16 APRIL — THE RECORD FLOODS (about 254 mm in a day at Al Ain; the Dubai airport flooded; several deaths); April — the Al Maktoum airport's US$35 billion plan; July — Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed the Defense Minister; 10 July — the 'UAE 84' sentences; September — MBZ's White House visit (the 'major defense partner' status); the Barakah's fourth unit (September 2024; the plant complete); May — Al Ain's AFC Champions League title; November — the rabbi Zvi Kogan's murder |
| 2025 (January – June) | 14 January — the Malaysia CEPA; 17 February — the Ukraine CEPA; March — the US$1.4 trillion investment pledge to the US; 27 March — the new dirham symbol; 31 March — the Kogan verdicts; 2 April — the Costa Rica and Mauritius CEPAs in force; 5 May — the ICJ's dismissal of Sudan's case; 6 May — Sudan's break of relations; 13–16 MAY — PRESIDENT TRUMP'S VISIT (the AI chips, the Boeing and the GE deals); 22 May — STARGATE UAE announced (OpenAI, Nvidia, Oracle, SoftBank, Cisco and G42); 10 June — the EU's AML list removal; the Year of Community's programs |
| 2025 (July – December) | 10 July — the Azerbaijan–Armenia leaders' meeting at Abu Dhabi; 11 July — the Faya Palaeolandscape on UNESCO's list; 31 July — Israel's evacuation of most of its diplomats by the reports; 25 August — the Angola CEPA; 27 August — the New Zealand CEPA in force; October — the World Cup qualifying loss to Qatar (2–1) and the November playoff with Iraq; the 2026 federal budget approved (about AED 92.4 billion); 17–21 November — the Dubai Airshow (the HAL Tejas crash of 21 November); 2 December — the 54th National Day; 18 December — the Dubai floods; 30 December — the last security personnel out of Yemen |
| 2026 (January – April) | 12 January — Somalia revokes its agreements with the UAE; 13 January — the Philippines CEPA; 23–24 January — the Russia–Ukraine–US trilateral talks at Abu Dhabi; 13 February — DP World's chairman resigns by the reports; 28 FEBRUARY — THE US–ISRAELI WAR ON IRAN AND IRAN'S MISSILES AND DRONES ON THE UAE (the Abu Dhabi death, the Dubai hotel's damage, the Burj Khalifa evacuated); 1 March — the embassy in Tehran closed; the French base struck; 2–4 March — the stock exchanges' pause; 3 March — Al Minhad, the Fujairah terminal and the US consulate in Dubai hit; 5 March — 6 ballistic missiles and 125 drones intercepted; 7 and 16 March — Dubai International's suspensions; 9 March — the army helicopter's crash; 10 March — the Ruwais refinery shut; 17 March — the Shah gas field's suspension; 28 March — the 30th Dubai World Cup, EGA's damage; 3 April — 18 ballistic missiles, 4 cruise missiles and 47 drones intercepted; 5 April — the readiness for the Hormuz coalition; 8 April — the two-week ceasefire; 15 April — Kinahan arrested; 20 April — the 27 cell members arrested; 28 APRIL — THE OPEC AND OPEC+ EXIT ANNOUNCED (effective 1 May) — by the reports and the agencies |
| 2026 (May – October) | 1 May — out of OPEC and OPEC+; May — the UAE's own airstrikes on Iran reported by the Wall Street Journal (the Bandar Abbas, Qeshm, Abu Musa, Lavan and Asaluyeh targets); 17 May — the drone strike near the Barakah plant; 17 JUNE — THE US–IRAN MEMORANDUM signed at Versailles (the war's end and the Strait's reopening — collapsed by July with the Strait closed again and the US blockade reinstated); July — the UAE's toll by the war's tallies: 2 soldiers, 1 civilian contractor and 13 civilians killed and 246 injured; 25 July — Wadi Wurayah on UNESCO's list; 9 August — Kinahan extradited to Ireland; 10 August — the attacks on the aviation, the energy and the education sectors repelled; 18 AUGUST — THE TRADE AND THE FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS WITH IRAN HALTED after the UAE's report of two Iranian missiles (Iran's 'false flag' denial); August–September — the strikes and the shipping attacks of the Gulf continuing by the reports; THE STATE AS OF 5 OCTOBER 2026 — President Mohamed bin Zayed, Vice President and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President Mansour bin Zayed, the Crown Prince Khaled bin Mohamed; the war with Iran without a lasting settlement; outside OPEC; the 55th National Day on 2 December 2026 the next date |
| The rulers and the presidents | The Presidents — Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (2 December 1971 – 2 November 2004), Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan (3 November 2004 – 13 May 2022), SHEIKH MOHAMED BIN ZAYED AL NAHYAN (since 14 May 2022); the Vice Presidents and Prime Ministers — Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum (the Vice President 1971–90; the Prime Minister 1979–90), Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid (the Prime Minister 1971–79 and 1990–2006; the Vice President 1990–2006), SHEIKH MOHAMMED BIN RASHID AL MAKTOUM (since 5 January 2006), Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed (the second Vice President since 29 March 2023); the rulers of 2026 — Abu Dhabi: Mohamed bin Zayed (2022), Dubai: Mohammed bin Rashid (2006), Sharjah: Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi (1972), Ajman: Humaid bin Rashid Al Nuaimi III (1981), Umm Al Quwain: Saud bin Rashid Al Mualla (2009), Ras Al Khaimah: Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi (2010), Fujairah: Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi (1974) |
| The wars and the crises in dates | 1819 — the British expedition against Ras Al Khaimah; 1952–55 — the Buraimi dispute; 30 November 1971 — the Tunbs' seizure by Iran; 1980–88 — the Iran–Iraq war's tanker war; 1990–91 — the Gulf War; 2009 — the Dubai debt crisis; 2011 — the Bahrain deployment; 2015–19 — the Yemen war (4 September 2015 — the 45 dead of Marib); 2017–21 — the Qatar blockade; 17 January 2022 — the Houthi strike on Abu Dhabi; 16 April 2024 — the floods; 28 February 2026 — THE IRANIAN ATTACKS ON THE UAE; 2026 — the Strait of Hormuz's closure, the OPEC exit (1 May), the June memorandum's collapse, the trade halt (18 August) — the war without a lasting settlement by 5 October 2026 |
Records
| The tallest and the biggest | The Burj Khalifa (828 m; 163 floors; opened 4 January 2010 — the world's tallest building and structure), the Dubai Mall (the world's largest by the total area by the claim), the Palm Jumeirah (the world's largest artificial island at its completion), the Dubai Frame (150 m; 2018 — the world's largest picture frame by Guinness's line), the Ain Dubai (250 m; 2021 — the world's tallest observation wheel), the Jebel Ali port (the largest man-made harbor), the Jebel Jais Flight (about 2.83 km; the world's longest zipline of 2018), the Dubai Fountain (the world's largest choreographed fountain of 2009), the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque's carpet (5,627 m²; the world's largest hand-knotted carpet by the claim) and chandelier, the Ferrari World's roof, the Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park (the world's largest single-site solar park by the plan), the Al Maktoum airport's planned capacity |
|---|---|
| The oil and the sovereign wealth | About 98–113 billion barrels of oil (about 6–7% of the world's) and about 290 tcf of gas; ADNOC's 4.85 million barrels a day of capacity; the Murban crude's own futures (the ICE Futures Abu Dhabi of 2021); the Habshan–Fujairah pipeline (2012) beyond the Strait; the OPEC membership of 1967–2026 ended on 1 May 2026; the sovereign wealth — ADIA (about US$1 trillion), Mubadala, ADQ, ICD, the EIA, L'imad — about US$2 trillion together, among the world's largest by the institutes' estimates; the Abu Dhabi's 'capital of capital' slogan; Barakah's 5.6 GW (the Arab world's first nuclear plant) |
| The firsts of the state | The Arab world's first interplanetary mission (the Hope probe in Mars orbit, 9 February 2021), the first Arab spacewalk (Sultan Al Neyadi, 28 April 2023), the first Arab astronaut on the ISS (Hazza Al Mansouri, 2019), the world's first AI minister (Omar Al Olama, 2017) and the first AI university (MBZUAI, 2019) by the government's lines, the world's first minister of happiness and of tolerance (2016) by the usual line, the Arab world's first nuclear plant (Barakah, 2020), the first Gulf state to normalize with Israel in the Abraham Accords (2020), the first Gulf net-zero pledge (2021), the first Arab host of the World Expo (Expo 2020) and of a COP since Qatar's of 2012 (COP28), the first OPEC exit of a Gulf founding-era member (2026), the first Hindu stone temple of the Middle East (BAPS, 2024), the Middle East's first Formula One night race (Yas, 2009) |
| Dubai, the city of the world | Dubai — from the pearling and the Creek's dhow trade (the free port of 1902) to about 3.9–4.0 million residents (2025), the world's busiest airport for the international passengers (DXB; about 92.3 million in 2024), Emirates (the world's largest A380 fleet), the most visited city of the 2020s' lists with about 19.6 million overnight visitors (2025), the Burj Khalifa, the Palm, the Museum of the Future, the gold souk (the world's second gold hub), the Dubai World Cup (the world's richest race day), the Expo 2020, the COP28; the ruler Mohammed bin Rashid since 2006 and the Crown Prince Hamdan since 2008; the 2009 debt crisis and the recovery; the Iranian strikes of 2026 on the city's airport, hotels and marina by the reports |
| The falcon, the camel and the pearl | Falconry — the national heritage (UNESCO 2010 with the UAE the lead nominator; the falcon passports of 2002, the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital of 1999 — about 11,000 falcons treated a year), the camel racing (the robot jockeys since 2005; the Al Dhafra's camel beauty contests; UNESCO 2020), the Arabian horse (Godolphin of the Maktoums; the endurance racing), the pearl diving (the ghous; the dhows; the Pearl Museum; the Sir Bu Nair's beds), the dhow building of Ajman, the Arabic coffee and the majlis (UNESCO 2015), the Al Sadu weaving (UNESCO 2011), the Al Ayyala stick dance (UNESCO 2014), the date palm (UNESCO 2019) |
| The sporting firsts | The Dubai World Cup (since 1996; about US$30 million of the prizes — the world's richest race day), the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Yas Marina; since 2009 — the season's finale; the 2021 title decider of Verstappen and Hamilton), the UAE national football team's World Cup of 1990 (Italy; the only appearance) and the Asian Cup's final of 1996 (the hosts), the Gulf Cups of 2007 and 2013, Ali Mabkhout's 85 goals, Al Ain's AFC Champions League titles (2003, 2024), the ICC's headquarters at Dubai (2005), the IPL's UAE seasons, the Asia Cups, the Champions Trophy's 2025 India matches; the UAE Team Emirates' Tour de France titles with Tadej Pogačar (2020, 2021, 2024, 2025); the Olympic medals — Ahmed Al Maktoum's double trap shooting gold of Athens 2004 (the first) and the judo bronzes (Sergiu Toma, 2016) |
| The letters and the screen | The Nabati poetry (the Bedouin vernacular verse; Sheikh Zayed's and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid's own poems; the 'Million's Poet' television contest of Abu Dhabi since 2006), the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the 'Arabic Booker' of Abu Dhabi; 2007), the Sheikh Zayed Book Award (2007), the Sharjah International Book Fair (1982; among the world's largest), the Abu Dhabi Book Fair, the Emirates Literature Festival (2009), the UNESCO World Book Capital of Sharjah (2019); the screen — the Dubai International Film Festival (2004–17), the Abu Dhabi film sets (the 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' desert of Liwa, 'Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol' on the Burj Khalifa of 2011, 'Dune' of 2021 at Liwa), the Image Nation studios; the Louvre Abu Dhabi (2017) and the Sharjah Biennial (1993) |
| The faiths' marks | The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (2007; about 41,000 worshippers; the 82 domes, the world's largest hand-knotted carpet by the claim, the founder's tomb), the Al Bidyah mosque of Fujairah (about the 15th century; the oldest), the Sir Bani Yas Christian monastery (the 7th–8th centuries), the Abrahamic Family House of Saadiyat (2023; the mosque, the church and the synagogue), the BAPS Hindu Mandir of Abu Mureikhah (14 February 2024; the first traditional stone Hindu temple of the Middle East), the Jebel Ali's temples (2022), the Guru Nanak Darbar (2012), the St Joseph's Cathedral of Abu Dhabi, the Pope Francis's Mass of 5 February 2019 (about 180,000; the largest Christian gathering of the Arabian Peninsula), the Human Fraternity Document (4 February 2019; the International Day of Human Fraternity of 4 February by the UN) |
| The economic records | The non-oil foreign trade of about AED 3 trillion (2024; a record), the non-oil about 75% of GDP, the CEPA network of about 30 agreements in five years (2021–26), the world's busiest international airport (DXB), the Jebel Ali's about 14–15 million TEU, the sovereign funds' about US$2 trillion, the corporate tax of 9% (2023) and no personal income tax, the dirham's peg since 1997, the Dubai's 2009 debt crisis and the Abu Dhabi's US$10 billion, the Ras El-Hekma's US$35 billion (2024), the US$1.4 trillion pledge to the US (2025), the Stargate UAE (2025), the OPEC exit (2026); the remittances out of about US$40–45 billion a year — India's largest source |
| The desert and the sea | The Rub' al Khali's Liwa (the Moreeb Dune of about 300 m; the Liwa Date Festival), the Hajar Mountains (Jebel Jais's about 1,892 m; the Wadi Wurayah's waterfall — UNESCO 2026), the Al Ain oases (UNESCO 2011; the aflaj), the Persian Gulf's lagoons, the mangroves of Abu Dhabi, the Marawah's dugongs, the Sir Bani Yas's wildlife, the cloud seeding's about 300 missions a year, the record heat of 51.8 °C (2021), the record rain of 16 April 2024, the desalination's dependence; the 'Gulf' naming question (the 'Persian' and the 'Arabian' — both stated, LAW 2) |
| The wildlife's records | The Arabian oryx (extinct in the wild in 1972 and restored — the UAE's about 10,000 by the estimates, the world's largest population), the dugong (about 3,000 in Abu Dhabi's waters — the world's second-largest population), the falcons (the saker, the peregrine; the falcon hospital), the Arabian leopard of the Hajar (critically endangered; the breeding at Sharjah's center), the Arabian tahr of Wadi Wurayah, the sand gazelle, the camel, the flamingos of Ras Al Khor and Al Wathba, the hawksbill and the green turtles, the whale sharks of the Gulf, the coral reefs' bleaching (2017 and later), the houbara bustard's breeding programs (the International Fund for Houbara Conservation) |
| The small and the strange | The robot camel jockeys (2005); the Lamborghini and the Bugatti police cars of Dubai; the falcons' passports; the gold ATM (2010, the Emirates Palace); the indoor ski slope of the desert (Ski Dubai, 2005); the cloud seeding's rain; the Hindi in the courts; the Ministry of Happiness; the weekend's change (2022); the Palm visible from space; the 'Million's Poet'; the Union House's 123 m flagpole; the Dubai's Burj Khalifa evacuation of 28 February 2026 by the reports; the 30th Dubai World Cup run during the war (28 March 2026); the dirham's new symbol (2025); the AI minister; the Moreeb Dune's car-climbing contest |
| The disasters' marks | The pearling's collapse and the famine years of the 1930s–40s; the Iran–Iraq war's tanker attacks; the Marib missile strike on the Emirati troops (4 September 2015; 45 dead — the deadliest day of the armed forces); the Houthi drone and missile strike on Abu Dhabi (17 January 2022; 3 dead); the floods of 16 April 2024 (the heaviest rain since 1949) and of December 2025; the Dubai tower fires (the Torch of 2015 and 2017, the Address Downtown of 31 December 2015); the COVID-19 (about 2,350 deaths by the official count); THE 2026 WAR — the Iranian missiles and drones on the cities, the airports, the ports, the refineries and the bases from 28 February 2026 (2 soldiers, 1 contractor and 13 civilians killed and 246 injured by mid-July by the war's tallies — the counts partial, both stated, LAW 2) |
| The empires of the coast | The Magan of the Bronze Age's copper (Mesopotamia's partner), the Achaemenid and the Sasanian Persians, the Azd's Arab tribes, the early Islamic caliphates, the Hormuz kingdom (the 13th–16th centuries), the Portuguese (1507–1650), the Omani imamates, the Safavid and the Qajar Persians' claims, the Al Qasimi's maritime power (the 18th–19th centuries), the British — the Trucial treaties of 1820–1971 (the protection, the foreign relations, the Political Agents of Dubai and Abu Dhabi), the federation of 1971 — the 'union' of the seven sheikhdoms that the founder Sheikh Zayed built |
| The census and the counts | About 11.0–11.3 million residents (2024; 11,027,129 and 11,294,243 by the two counts — both stated); 557,887 at the census of 1975, 4.1 million in 2005, 8.3 million in 2010; the Emiratis about 1.3 million (about 11%); the Indians about 4.3 million, the Pakistanis about 1.7 million, the Bangladeshis about 1.2 million, the Filipinos about 0.7 million; the men about 64%; Dubai 3,943,683 and Abu Dhabi 3,789,860 (about 4.1 million by its own 2024 count — both stated) by the 2025 estimates; the Muslims about 74.5%, the Christians about 12.9%, the Hindus about 6.2%; the area 83,600 km² (71,023 by the other count — both stated); the FNC's 40 seats and the 398,000 voters of 2023; the HDI 0.940; the GDP about US$621.5 billion (2026 projection); the war's toll of 2026 by the tallies |
| The last and the next | THE LAST — the President's election of 14 May 2022, the FNC election of 7 October 2023, the cabinet reshuffle of 6 January 2024, the OPEC exit of 1 May 2026, the US–Iran memorandum of 17 June 2026 and its collapse, the trade halt with Iran of 18 August 2026, the Wadi Wurayah's inscription of 25 July 2026, the 30th Dubai World Cup of 28 March 2026, the Trump visit of May 2025, the COP28 of 2023; THE NEXT — the 55th National Day of 2 December 2026, the Etihad Rail's passenger service (2026 by the plan), the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix of December 2026, the FNC election of 2027, the Al Maktoum airport's first phase, the Barakah's operations, the Stargate UAE's first capacity, the Dubai Metro's Blue Line (2029), the 'We the UAE 2031' goals, the 'Centennial 2071'; THE STATE AS OF 5 OCTOBER 2026 as tabled above |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of the United Arab Emirates?
The United Arab Emirates (Dawlat al-Imārāt al-ʿArabiyya al-Muttaḥida; the UAE) — the federation of seven emirates formed on 2 December 1971 by Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah, with Ras Al Khaimah joining on 10 February 1972; the Trucial States (the Trucial Coast) of the British treaties of 1820–1971 before it; the provisional constitution of 1971 made permanent in 1996; the demonym Emirati; the UN's member of 9 December 1971, the Arab League's, the Gulf Cooperation Council's founder (25 May 1981), the OIC's, BRICS's (from 1 January 2024) — and no longer OPEC's or OPEC+'s from 1 May 2026 (the exit announced on 28 April 2026, after 59 years of OPEC membership since Abu Dhabi's of 1967).
What is the capital of the United Arab Emirates?
Abu Dhabi — the federal capital on its island off the Gulf coast (the 'provisional' capital of 1971 made permanent by the 1996 amendment), the seat of the President, the Supreme Council, the Cabinet and the Federal National Council, the emirate of about 87% of the land and most of the oil (the emirate's about 3.8–4.1 million by the estimates of 2024–25); the Qasr Al Watan palace, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (2007), the Louvre Abu Dhabi (2017), the BAPS Hindu temple (14 February 2024), the Abrahamic Family House (2023); Dubai the largest city (about 3.9–4.0 million by the 2025 estimate) and the commercial hub, Sharjah the third (about 1.8 million).
How big is the United Arab Emirates, and how many people live there?
About 83,600 km² (32,300 sq mi; 71,023–83,600 km² by the different counts with the islands and the territorial claims — both stated) — about the size of Maharashtra's quarter or of Bihar's nine-tenths, about 2.5% of India's area; Abu Dhabi about 87% of it; about 11.0–11.3 million residents of 2024 by the two counts (11,027,129 and 11,294,243 — both stated; about 4 million in 2004), the Emiratis about 11% (about 1.3 million) and the expatriates about 89% — the Indians about 4.3 million, the Pakistanis about 1.7 million, the Bangladeshis about 1.2 million, the Filipinos about 0.7 million; the men about 64% of the residents (the labor migration's skew); the islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs claimed and held by Iran since 30 November 1971 (both stated, LAW 2).
What are the highest and lowest points of the United Arab Emirates?
Jebel Jais in the Hajar Mountains of Ras Al Khaimah — the UAE's highest ground at about 1,892 m on the mountain's slopes, the summit itself (about 1,934 m) across the border in Oman's Musandam by the surveys (both stated); the Jebel Jais Flight — the world's longest zipline of about 2.8 km (2018) — and the mountain road; Jebel Yibir (about 1,527 m) and Jebel Hafeet (1,249 m; Al Ain) the other heights; the lowest point the Persian Gulf at sea level and the coastal sabkhas (the salt flats of the west); the Rub' al Khali's dunes of Liwa — Moreeb Dune about 300 m high; no permanent rivers or lakes.
What currency does the United Arab Emirates use?
The UAE dirham (AED; Dh; 100 fils) — pegged at 3.6725 to the U.S. dollar since November 1997 (de facto since 1980), about 25–26 Indian rupees to the dirham at the peg's cross; introduced on 19 May 1973 (replacing the Qatar–Dubai riyal and the Bahraini dinar of the emirates); the Central Bank of the UAE (1980; the Currency Board of 1973 before it; Governor Khaled Mohamed Balama); the new dirham symbol of 27 March 2025 and the digital dirham of the central bank's plan; the notes of 5 to 1,000 dirhams (the polymer series of 2022–23); no income tax on the individuals, the VAT of 5% (1 January 2018) and the corporate tax of 9% (from 1 June 2023).
Who governs the United Arab Emirates?
President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan — born 11 March 1961, the Ruler of Abu Dhabi, elected President by the Federal Supreme Council of the seven rulers on 14 May 2022 after his half-brother Sheikh Khalifa's death (13 May 2022); Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (since 5 January 2006); Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed (since 29 March 2023; the Presidential Court's minister); the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed (29 March 2023); the Cabinet's deputy prime ministers — Saif bin Zayed (Interior), Abdullah bin Zayed (Foreign Affairs), Maktoum bin Mohammed (Finance) and Hamdan bin Mohammed (Defense; the Crown Prince of Dubai); the Federal National Council of 40 (20 elected by an electoral college of about 400,000 on 7 October 2023, 20 appointed; Speaker Saqr Ghobash) — advisory; no political parties; the federation at war with Iran's strikes since 28 February 2026.
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