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Low confidence · transparency 1.0/5

How Many Americans Live in the UAE

The UAE stopped publishing population figures by nationality years ago, so the federal record has no American row at all. The last place the United States appears by name is Dubai's tourism reports.

11.0M
The UAE's Population
The Point of Reference

The American Emigration Revue counts US citizensPeople holding United States citizenship, as counted by the UAE's own official records. A separate population from US-born residents; the two are never added. Definitions ›, US-born residentsPeople born in the United States living in the UAE, whatever citizenship they hold today. A separate population from US citizens; the two are never added. Definitions ›, naturalizations and long-term permits from official government sources, with every figure cited. This page sets out what the UAE publishes, what it does not, and how far the published record can be trusted.

Dual citizenship
Not recognized
Americans must renounce US citizenship
Years to naturalize
30 yrs
minimum residency requirement
01

Why the UAE's Records, Not Washington's

The Context

The context every page needs: who counts Americans abroad, and who doesn't.

The United States publishes no count of its own citizens abroad. Its best federal figure, 3.3 million Americans worldwide, is a statistical model built to size the overseas electorate, and the same model said 4.4 million two years earlier. The Census Bureau decided in 1976 to exclude private Americans abroad from the decennial enumeration (overseas federal employees and military are still counted). What Washington publishes instead is fragments: Social Security checks mailed to foreign addresses, tax returns claiming foreign income, quarterly lists of people who gave up their citizenship. See what each federal source actually counts ›

So this project counts from the receiving side. Every figure on this page comes from records the UAE itself publishes, read under the same rules applied to every country in the project. Where the UAE publishes, it is counted and cited. Where it does not, the gap is shown rather than filled: no estimates, no models. How openly each country reports ›

02

What the Research Found

The Findings

Findings from the UAE research, drawn from the official record.

Findings
by Daniel ATZ
›The UAE hosts a substantial foreign-resident population, the great majority of which is non-Emirati.
›UAE federal authorities have not published nationality-disaggregated population, residency, or labour statistics for any year since approximately 2010.
›The single UAE government dataset providing genuinely U.S.-disaggregated figures is the Dubai Department of Economy & Tourism's Tourism Performance Reports, which list the United States individually as a source market for visitor arrivals to the Emirate of Dubai for 2017 through 2022.
›The Retirement Visa was introduced in 2018; the Golden Visa in 2019 (with 5- and 10-year tracks expanded in 2022); the Green Visa in 2022; and the Blue Visa in 2024 (operationalised 2025).
›Bayanat publishes federal Marriage Contracts statistics 2012–2017 with disaggregation by Emirati / non-Emirati nationality of each spouse.
›No naturalization data are publicly available at any nationality level. UAE citizenship grants may be made by Cabinet decision following nomination by federal entities or by individual emirate rulers' courts, crown princes' courts, or executive councils; the decentralized authority structure makes systematic data …
What the Public Record Says
Trend (federal Emirati / non-Emirati population)Federal data ends at the 2005 census (825,495 nationals; 3,280,932 non-nationals). FCSC publishes population totals 2000–2024 by gender only; no national / non-national breakdown for any post-2005 year.
Trend (federal Births by Citizenship — most recent federal nationality-disaggregated dataset)Annual non-Emirati live births: 47,296 (2010) to 63,658 (2016); most recent 61,896 (2019). Series ends 2019.
Trend (Dubai DET tourist visitors from US — emirate-level, informative context only)633,000 (2017); 656,000 (2018); 667,000 (2019); 191,000 (2020, COVID-affected); 311,000 (2021); 590,000 (2022). Reports for 2023–2025 publish continental aggregates only ("Americas").
Main data sourcesBayanat (UAE Open Data Portal): Births by Citizenship 2010–2019; Population by Emirates × Nationality 1975–2005; Labor Force by Emirates × Nationality 1975–2005; Marriage Contracts by Nationality 2012–2017. FCSC: Statistical Reports (gender-only nationality treatment for recent years). Dubai DET: Tourism Performance Reports (Dubai only).
Work authorizationFederal MOHRE administers private-sector work permits; free-zone employees administered by free-zone authorities (DIFC, ADGM, JAFZA, etc.). No nationality-disaggregated permit statistics published.
NaturalizationBy Cabinet decision under Federal Law No. 17 of 1972 on Nationality and Passports (as amended by Federal Decree-Law No. 16 of 2017 and the 2021 Cabinet Resolution). Decentralized: nominations may originate from federal entities, individual emirate rulers' courts, crown princes' courts, or executive councils. No nationality-disaggregated public data.
US presence outside the administrative systemU.S. military, diplomatic, and contractor footprint at Al Dhafra Air Base, U.S. Embassy Abu Dhabi, U.S. Consulate General Dubai, and associated facilities. Personnel under bilateral arrangements not captured in ICP, GDRFA, MOHRE, or FCSC datasets.
Data transparency1.0 out of 5 (low confidence) — how much the UAE publishes about resident Americans, how often, and how easily the figures can be checked. Scored under How Far to Trust These Figures below.
03

How Far to Trust These Figures

The Publishing Record

What the UAE publishes, how often it publishes, and the sources behind every number on this page.

What We Know · What’s Missing
Low confidence · transparency 1.0/5
Inflows
Permits
US-Born
Citizens
Naturalizations
published every yearone-off figurenot published

The gaps: No US-disaggregated official publication identified for this country.

Sources & Datasets
8 publishing authorities

Every figure on this page comes from one of the publishers below. Links go to the authority and, where stable, straight to the dataset.

BayanatAuthority
Ministry of Interior · MOIImmigration authority
04

Frequently Asked Questions

Quick Answers

Every answer is drawn from the official record, from the same sources cited across this page.

Does the UAE recognize dual citizenship with the United States?
No. The UAE does not generally recognize dual citizenship with the United States; naturalizing typically means giving up US citizenship.Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre, Bayanat, and plus emirate-level statistics centres
Where do the figures for Americans in the UAE come from?
Every figure on this page comes from the UAE's own official publishers: Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre, Bayanat, plus emirate-level statistics centres, Federal Authority for Identity, General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs, Ministry of Human Resources & Emiratisation, free-zone authorities DIFC / ADGM / JAFZA / DMCC / RAKEZ etc., and Ministry of Interior (MOI. These are counts those bodies published themselves, not estimates or projections. Where the UAE publishes nothing, the page says so rather than filling the gap. The UAE's published record scores 1.0 out of 5 for transparency, which measures how much it publishes, how often, and how easily the figures can be checked.Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre
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Edited by Daniel Atz, Founder and Editor in Chief.

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