UAE Population Statistics 2019 (Infographics)

As compared to previous years, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) population has developed with extreme diversity and being the home from more than over 100 nations (only 80 countries report their citizens living in UAE, so the real number is not published). The expatriate community has a big impact on the culture of the country.  In today’s infographic by The Media Lab, we are exploring different factors including demographics, nationality, and others to see how the region is going through certain changes throughout the duration of 2019.  Last year (2018 statistics) multiply sources claimed 9.54 million residences living across the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The total UAE population count in accordance with the World Bank is 9.68 million residences, a plus of 200,000 people. Other sources claim 10.7 million (Statista), 9.90 million (countrymeters.info) or 9.66 million (worldpopulationreview.com). We can find the ratio between males (69.5%) and females (30.5%). 

Nations Diversity 

In 2018 over 88% of the living people in the UAE had been expatriates. Which nationalities are the largest in the UAE in 2019? Well, the Indian community stayed nearly stable but reduced by -20,000 and have over 2.6 million Indians living in the UAE. The biggest groups are Pakistani 1,2 million, Emirati 1,08 million, Bangladeshi 700k and Philipines 5,35 k. Compared to 2018 we can see that the large groups of nationalities all reduced, while the allover increase comes from the rest of other nations living here. 

It is interesting to see that Emirati citizens constitute 13% of the total population in the UAE, compared to 11% in 2018. 

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Population by Emirate 

The top 3 are Dubai which is home of 4.1 million people, 2.7 million call Abu Dhabi their domicil, while in Sharjah 2.3 million people are residence. We can see the development in Dubai is quite strong with an increase of 800,000 while in Abu Dhabi nearly 500,000 people shifted out.  Due to the increasing costs of living across the UAE, Sharjah is experiencing a positive trend for people looking for cheaper housing,  a plus of 800,000 people who live in Sharjah compared to 2018.  All other Emirates Ajman, Fujeirah, Ras al-Khaimah, and Umm-al Quwain see an upwards trend in increasing their residences. 

Social Media Statistics 

There is no doubt that social media is an important element in an expatriate’s life. To see who is on these digital channels is maybe interesting to see compared to other countries. Over 8.9 million people are active on social media and use on regular bases the top 5 social media networks in the region.  

• Facebook, 8.8 million monthly visitors, 74% are male, 26% are female 
• LinkedIn, 4.million monthly users, 72% are male, 29% are female 
• Instagram, 3.70 million monthly active users, 62% are male, 38% are female 
• Twitter, 2.30 million monthly twitter, 68% are male, 32% are female 
• Snapchat, 2.05 million monthly snappers,  43% are male, 56% are female 

In this year’s edition, we did not compare YouTube since we looked into social media only. 

Conclusion 

The UAE is still a booming nation where the economy is driven by construction and technology. In a survey by KPMG, we can learn that the construction industry will grow by 6-10% over 2020. This is reflecting in the increase of the UAE population. Major events as the Expo 2020 are giving hope to the economy in the UAE, while a shift of typical workers happened over the last years. In the year 2019, the UAE could encounter a 30% (SMEs) increase in new company registrations.