Demographics of the United Arab Emirates

This article is about the demographic features of the population of the United Arab Emirates, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Population

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1950	70,000	—
1960	90,000	+28.6%
1970	232,000	+157.8%
1980	1,016,000	+337.9%
1990	1,809,000	+78.1%
2000	3,033,000	+67.7%
2010	7,512,000	+147.7%
Source: UN[1]^:162

Population growth in the United Arab Emirates is among the highest in world, mostly due to immigration. According to census data there was a sevenfold increase between 1975 and 2005.

Emirate	census 1975	census 1985	census 1995	census 2005	est. 2010
Abu Dhabi	211,812	566,036	942,463	1,399,484
Dubai	183,187	370,788	689,420	1,321,453
Sharjah	78,790	228,317	402,792	793,573
Ajman	16,690	54,546	121,491	206,997
Umm Al-Quwain	6,908	19,285	35,361	49,159
Ras Al-Khaimah	43,845	96,578	143,334	210,063
Fujairah	16,655	43,753	76,180	125,698
Total	557,887	1,379,303	2,411,041	4,106,427	7,512,000 (UN)[1] 8,190,000 (NBS)[2]

Population pyramids^[3]

Census (05/12/2005) 

Census (05/12/2005) :

Age group	Male	Female	Total	%
Total	2 806 141	1 300 286	4 106 427	100
0-4	145 601	136 538	282 139	6.87
5-9	139 929	129 453	269 382	6.56
10-14	130 778	118 279	249 057	6.07
15-19	121 388	110 838	232 226	5.66
20-24	272 036	161 530	433 566	10.56
25-29	483 657	178 137	661 794	16.12
30-34	489 879	150 482	640 361	15.59
35-39	386 762	113 844	500 606	12.19
40-44	262 718	78 543	341 261	8.31
45-49	174 459	51 311	225 770	5.50
50-54	107 339	31 539	138 878	3.38
55-59	51 303	15 804	67 107	1.63
60-64	18 820	8 527	27 347	0.67
65-69	9 172	5 285	14 457	0.35
70-74	5 391	4 013	9 404	0.23
75-79	2 440	1 837	4 277	0.10
80-84	1 537	1 439	2 976	0.07
85+	1 250	1 165	2 415	0.06
unknown	1 682	1 722	3 404	0.08

Age group	Male	Female	Total	Percent
0-14	416 308	384 270	800 578	19.50
15-64	2 366 679	898 833	3 265 512	79.52
65+	21 472	15 461	36 933	0.90

Vital statistics

UN estimates

Period	Live births per year	Deaths per year	Natural change per year	CBR	CDR	NC	TFR	IMR
1950-1955	4 000	2 000	2 000	49.4	20.8	28.6	6.97	175
1955-1960	4 000	2 000	3 000	49.3	18.0	31.3	6.97	156
1960-1965	5 000	2 000	4 000	46.3	13.2	33.2	6.87	120
1965-1970	8 000	2 000	6 000	41.2	8.7	32.5	6.77	77
1970-1975	12 000	2 000	10 000	32.6	6.4	26.2	6.36	51
1975-1980	23 000	4 000	19 000	29.1	4.6	24.5	5.66	36
1980-1985	36 000	4 000	32 000	30.5	3.7	26.8	5.23	25
1985-1990	45 000	5 000	40 000	28.4	3.1	25.4	4.83	17
1990-1995	48 000	5 000	42 000	23.0	2.5	20.4	3.88	12
1995-2000	49 000	6 000	43 000	18.1	2.1	16.0	2.97	10
2000-2005	57 000	6 000	51 000	16.2	1.7	14.4	2.38	8
2005-2010	81 000	8 000	73 000	14.0	1.4	12.6	1.86	7
CBR = crude birth rate (per 1000); CDR = crude death rate (per 1000); NC = natural change (per 1000); IMR = infant mortality rate per 1000 births; TFR = total fertility rate (number of children per woman)

Source: United National World Population Prospects^[1]

Births and deaths ^[4]

Year	Population (x1000)	Live births	Deaths	Natural increase	Crude birth rate	Crude death rate	Rate of natural increase	TFR
2009		76 366	7 789	68 577
2010		79 625	7 414	72 211
2011		83 950	7 350	76 600

Languages

A trilingual (Arabic, English, Urdu) signboard in the UAE.

Arabic is the official and national language of the UAE. The Gulf dialect of Arabic is spoken natively by the Emirati people.^[5] The yamani language (Original Arab language) is also spoken natively by some Emiratis.^[6] Emirati Sign Language appears to be used by at least part of the deaf community. Apart from Arabic, English is widely used as a second language. Other languages spoken in the UAE, due to immigration, include Malayalam, Urdu, Hindi, Persian, Cebuano, Pashto, Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil, Baluchi (Southern Baluchi), Russian, Somali, Tagalog, Nepali, Mandarin and Telugu.

Religions

Local observers estimate that approximately 55% of the foreign population are Muslim, 25% are Hindu, 10% are Christian, 5% are Buddhist, and 5% (most of whom reside in Dubai and Abu Dhabi) belongs to other religions, including Parsi (Zoroastrian), Baha'i, and Sikh.^[7]

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.^[8]

Age structure

0-14 years: 20.4% (male 500,928/female 478,388)
15–64 years: 78.7% (male 2,768,030/female 1,008,404)
65 years and over: 0.9% (male 27,601/female 15,140)
note: 73.9% of the population in the 15-64 age group is non-national (2010 est.)

Population growth rate

3.282% (2011 est.)

Net migration rate

19 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2011 est.)

Sex ratio

at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15–64 years: 2.75 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 1.8 male(s)/female
total population: 2.2 male(s)/female (2010 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 76.33 years
male: 73.75 years
female: 79.01 years (2010 est.)

Total fertility rate

2.4 children born/woman (2011 est.)

Citizenship

noun: Emirati(s) (Emirian[s])
adjective: Emirati (Emirian)

Literacy

Check the Abu Dhabi Education Council.

See also

• Demographics of Dubai
• Emirati diaspora

References

1. World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision
2. "Population leaps to 8.19 million". UAE Interact. May 30, 2010. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
3. "Demographic Yearbook". UN Data. United Nations. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
4. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/dyb/dyb2.htm
5. Christensen, Shane (2010). Frommer's Dubai. John Wiley & Sons. p. 174. ISBN 978-0470711781.
6. "Lari language".
7. United Arab Emirates
8. The World Factbook - United Arab Emirates