UAE witnessed 15% population growth in 10 years

The UAE population increased by 15 per cent to reach a total of 9,503,738 in 2019, revealed the country's Federal Center for Competitiveness and Statistics. The data saw an increase of 1.46 per cent from 9,366,828 at the end of 2018.

The populace increased by about 1.24M over a decade because of significant growth in various economic sectors, leading to an influx of workers from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. According to the 2019 census, out of the total population, the male population accounted for 66.3 per cent (6,302,724 males) while the female accounted for 33.7per cent (3,201,014 females).

The gender ratio was 196.9, which is the number of males per 100 females residing in the country. The Center noted that the age dependency ratio (per cent of working-age population) was 22.4%, which is the ratio of people too young (below 14) or old (65 and above) to work, to people between 15-64 years of age.

The UAE's flexible legal reforms such as granting citizenship to talented foreigners, 100% ownership of foreign businesses, decriminalizing alcohol and suicide, allowing the cohabitation of unmarried couples and criminalizing honour crimes against women have contributed to escalating ex-pat population. Abu Dhabi is also the safest city in the world, according to Numbeo's Quality of Life index, the world's largest cost-of-living database.