Population in UAE
Population in UAE Last updated on Monday 26th April 2010
The UAE has grown at an extremely rapid pace since its foundation.
The population has increased from about 180,000 to its present 2,407,460 million while the revenues from oil have enabled the government to undertake a massive construction programmes including housing, schools, hospitals, roads, seaports, airports and telecommunications facilities.
The UAE had an estimated population of 2,407,460 in 2001, with a density of 29 persons per sq. km (75 per sq. m). Some 85% of the country's population is urban with Abu Dhabi as the largest city and the capital of the UAE. It also serves as the financial, transportation, and communications center of an area considered to be a major petroleum-producing one. Abu Dhabi is also a significant port and is home to a majority of the federal government ministries; the emirate of Abu Dhabi constitutes nearly 40 % of the total UAE population.
Dubai is the major trading center of the entire Persian Gulf and has the principal port facilities of the UAE as well as its busiest airport. It has also several federal ministries. Ash-Shariqah is an important port and industrial center.
Several aspects of the UAE's population are unusual. The population in 1995 was 15 times larger than it was in thirty years ago, mainly due to the immigration of oil workers. 80% of the UAE's inhabitants are foreign workers and their dependents. Due to the influx of young foreign workers, cultural preference for large families and improved medical care, the UAE also has a very young population,.
The poverty of the past has been swept away but not the customs and traditions of the people.