Dubai

The city of Dubai straddles a natural inlet called Dubai Creek, on the southern shores of the Persian Gulf.¹ The port city sits at the base of the mountainous Musandam Peninsula.² It is the capital of the emirate of Dubai and one of the region's most vital commercial and financial centres, housing hundreds of multinational corporations in a forest of skyscrapers.²

The emirate is the second most populous and second largest of the seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates.³ It has an area of about 3,900 square kilometres and a frontage of about 72 km on the Persian Gulf.³ The government portal gives the emirate an area of 4,114 km², which is about 5 per cent of the UAE without the islands.⁴ It lies on the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, in the south-west corner of the Arabian Gulf.⁴ It borders Abu Dhabi to the south, Sharjah to the north-east and the Sultanate of Oman to the south-east.⁴

The climate is hot year-round, like much of the Persian Gulf coastline, with January lows of about 15 °C and July highs of more than 40 °C.¹ Beyond the creek and the coast, the wadis of Hatta are counted among the emirate's major attractions.⁴ The most famous of Dubai's man-made islands is Palm Jumeirah, which has the shape of a palm tree.¹ Others include the 'World' islands, a cluster of small islands positioned to resemble a world map when viewed from above.¹

The origin of the name Dubai is uncertain.¹ One theory associates it with the daba, a type of locust that infests the area, while another holds that it refers to a market that existed near the city.¹ The settlement of Dubai town is known from 1799.³ The sheikh of the emirate, then a minor, signed the British-sponsored General Treaty of Peace in 1820, but the area was seemingly dependent on Abu Dhabi until 1833.³

The town's modern history effectively begins in 1833, when a group of Al Bu Falasah clansmen of the Bani Yas confederation, chiefly pearl fishers, left Abu Dhabi in a rivalry dispute.³ They took over Dubai town without resistance.³ Dubai was established in 1833, when some 800 members of the Bani Yas tribe, led by the Maktoum family, settled by Dubai Creek.⁴ Since then, the Al Maktoum family have ruled Dubai.⁴

The creek was the town's fortune: a natural harbour that helped Dubai become a centre of fishing, pearling and sea trade.⁴ By the beginning of the 20th century the town had developed into a successful port city.⁴ The Maktoum sheikhs, unlike most of their neighbours, long fostered trade and commerce.³ Dubai was an important port by the beginning of the 20th century.³

In foreign affairs the emirate moved within Britain's orbit: together with the rest of the original Trucial States, Dubai signed a maritime truce with Britain in 1835 and the Perpetual Maritime Truce in 1853.³ Its foreign relations were placed under British control by the Exclusive Agreement of 1892.³ When Britain finally left the Persian Gulf in 1971, Dubai was a prominent founding member of the United Arab Emirates.³

The oil era began offshore: in 1966 the Fateh field was discovered in the Persian Gulf about 120 km due east of Dubai, in waters where the state had granted an oil concession.³ By the 1970s three 20-story submarine tanks, each holding 500,000 barrels, were installed on the seabed at the site.³ Shaped like inverted champagne glasses, they are popularly called the 'Three Pyramids of Dubai.'³ Dubai's first oil exports in 1969 were followed by a period of rapid development that laid the foundations for today's modern society.⁴

Money reshaped the currency as well as the skyline: after the devaluation of the Gulf rupee in 1966, Dubai joined Qatar in setting up a new monetary unit, the riyal.³ In 1973 Dubai joined the other emirates in the adoption of a national currency, the dirham.³ Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the eighth ruler from the Al Maktoum family, ruled Dubai from 1958 to 1990.⁴

The state invested its income in trade infrastructure.³ Port Rashid, a deepwater harbour named for the former emir, was opened in 1972, and a supertanker dry dock was completed in 1979.³ In an effort to boost industrial investment, the Jebel Ali port and industrial centre was declared a free-trade zone in the early 1980s, and numerous international companies responded favourably by opening facilities there.³ Emirates airline, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, was established by the Dubai government in the mid-1980s.³

The oil endowment itself was modest beside Abu Dhabi's.³ Dubai's estimated oil reserves are less than one-twentieth those of its neighbour, but oil income combined with trading wealth has made the emirate a very prosperous state.³ Investment in the Burj Khalifa and numerous other extravagant projects entailed heavy borrowing.³ With the escalation of the global financial crisis, the emirate's economy was troubled by massive debt and substantial quantities of real estate that lacked prospective buyers.³ Abu Dhabi had recently provided its financially troubled neighbour with a bailout of some $10 billion, and new reliance upon it explains to some extent the decision to rename the Burj Dubai in honour of Abu Dhabi's emir upon its opening.³

Construction of the Burj Khalifa began on 21 September 2004, and the exterior of the structure was completed on 1 October 2009.⁵ The tower was to form part of Downtown Dubai, a new 2 km² (490-acre) flagship development at the 'First Interchange', near Dubai's main business district.⁵ It was developed by Emaar Properties with the architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, headed up by the renowned American architect Adrian Smith.⁵

The monumental edifice officially opened on 4 January 2010 and was certified as the tallest building on the planet.⁵ Reaching 828 m (2,716 ft 6 in) into the sky, the skyscraper would soon be described as a 'vertical city' and become an icon of the modern world.⁵ It took the crown of tallest building from Taipei 101 when it officially opened, concluding a construction period that lasted more than seven years.⁶

The records extend beyond height: the tower has the tallest elevator in a building, at 504 m, the most floors in a building, at 163, and the highest restaurant from ground level, at 441.3 m.⁵ Its 555.7 m observation deck was formerly the highest in the world until China's Shanghai Tower opened one at 561.3 m in 2015.⁵ More than 12,000 people from all over the world worked on its construction, and almost 26,000 hand-cut glass panels were used in the exterior cladding.⁵

The tower was named after the president of the United Arab Emirates and emir of Abu Dhabi, Khalifa ibn Zayed Al Nahyan.¹ Close to Sheikh Zayed Road stand the Dubai International Financial Centre, housed in a futuristic arch-shaped building, and the Burj Khalifa itself.¹ The emirate's second signature record belongs to the Dubai Frame, measuring 150.23 m (492 ft 10 in) tall and 95.53 m (313 ft 5 in) wide.⁷ Guinness World Records verified it on 9 May 2019 as the largest building in the shape of a picture frame, achieved by Dubai Municipality.⁷

Port Rashid, Dubai's deepwater harbour, opened in 1972.³ The first portion of the driverless metro went into operation in September 2009, the first metro in the Gulf region.³ The Burj Khalifa officially opened on 4 January 2010.⁵

Expatriates in the city vastly outnumber native Emiratis.¹ Although Arabic is the official language, English is, in practice, the lingua franca.¹ Because of its large expatriate population, the city feels like a Middle Eastern melting pot, and the atmosphere is generally tolerant.¹

The numbers trace the growth: Britannica put the city's population at 2,919,178 in a 2017 estimate.¹ A 2020 estimate for the emirate stood at 3,411,200.³ The UAE government portal now gives the emirate's population as 3,759,864.⁴

In the later 20th century the city's construction boom led to a huge increase in the number of South Asian labourers and an influx of skilled expatriates from all over the world.¹ They play an important role in Dubai's multi-sector economy.¹ At the national scale, World Bank data put the total population of the United Arab Emirates at 11,513,149 in 2025, with annual population growth of 4.7 per cent.¹² Net migration to the UAE reached 158,634 in 2025.¹²

Construction on the Burj Dubai tower, as the Burj Khalifa was then known, was interrupted by strikes held by the city's large population of expatriate labourers.³ Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum became the Ruler of Dubai on 4 January 2006, following the death of his brother and the then Ruler, Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum.⁴ He is the Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE.⁴

Dubai's economy is now more diversified, relying heavily on trade, services and finance sectors.⁴ Dubai's GDP reached around AED 115 billion during the first quarter of 2024.⁴ At the national level, the World Bank reports GDP of about US$552.32 billion for 2024 and GDP per capita of US$50,273.5.¹²

The value of the UAE's non-oil foreign trade in 2022 amounted to nearly AED 2.233 trillion, reflecting a 17 per cent growth compared with the value of trade in 2021.¹³ In 2023, non-oil GDP was AED 1.43 trillion at current prices, achieving a growth rate of 9.9 per cent since 2022.¹³ Dubai's economic geography supports the pattern: it has a large number of small 'free economic zones', academic institutions for developing a knowledge economy, and smart and/or sustainable urban neighbourhoods.¹⁴

From the three cities studied, the authors conclude that Dubai currently leads, having largely completed its industrial transition with vast economic diversification and urban expansion.¹⁴ Across the board, however, this has had little effect on its ecological footprint.¹⁴ Oil income combined with trading wealth has made the emirate a very prosperous state, even though its estimated reserves are less than one-twentieth those of neighbouring Abu Dhabi.³

Dubai Airports was established as a commercial entity in April 2007, following organisational restructuring of the erstwhile Dubai Department of Civil Aviation.¹⁰ It manages the operation of both of Dubai's airports.¹⁰ Dubai International (DXB) is the world's number one airport for international guests since 2014, and Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International (DWC) is presented as the world's future aviation hub.¹⁰ Dubai's second airport opened its doors to passengers on 27 October 2013, with Wizz Air as the launch airline.¹⁰

DXB recorded its highest-ever annual traffic with 95.2 million guests in 2025, up 3.1 per cent year on year, marking the highest annual international passenger traffic ever recorded by any airport.¹⁰ The airport has a total of 526 check-in counters, and its baggage handling system is 175 km long.¹⁰ An average bag spends 29 minutes in the system.¹⁰

On 28 April 2024 Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, approved a US$35 billion Phase 2 expansion of DWC.¹⁰ The project aims to build a 150 million capacity facility over the next 10 years.¹⁰ The ultimate capacity of the airport will be 260 million passengers per year and 12 million tonnes of cargo.¹⁰

In September 2009 the first portion of a driverless rapid-transit metro line went into operation in Dubai: the first metro in the Gulf region.³ Its Red Line, 52.1 km long, holds the Guinness record for the longest driverless metro line as of 23 May 2011.⁹ The city's ports complete the web: Port Rashid, the deepwater harbour, dates to 1972, and the Jebel Ali free-trade zone to the early 1980s.³

UNESCO describes Dubai, located on the south-east coast of the Persian Gulf, as a cosmopolite city and the business hub of the Middle East.¹⁵ The city has long asserted its role as the country's economic driver and technological hub.¹⁵ In transiting from an oil-based industry, it aims to reinvent itself by harnessing creativity and innovation to develop a strong creativity-led economy.¹⁵

Dubai joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the Design category, with membership dated 2017.¹⁵ Committed to placing design and creativity at the heart of its policies, the Dubai Government completed the Dubai Design District (D3).¹⁵ The project aims to meet the needs amongst design practitioners, creative professionals and artists of the region, and to formalise dedicated infrastructures supporting design and the cultural ecosystem as a whole.¹⁵

Its global showcase was Expo 2020 Dubai, an International Registered exhibition that ran from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022 under the theme 'Connecting Minds, Creating the Future', on a site of 438 hectares.¹¹ It was the first World Expo held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region.¹¹ Across 182 days, more than 200 participants — including nations, multilateral organisations, businesses and educational institutions — created what the BIE calls the largest and most diverse World Expo ever.¹¹

The fair recorded 24,102,967 visits from 200 participants.¹¹ Built with a meaningful and measurable long-term legacy in mind, the Expo site is transforming into Expo City Dubai.¹¹ The new district is described as a model global community that will rethink the cities of the future.¹¹

A satellite-based study found that Dubai grew rapidly between 1972 and 2011, with the rate of urban growth and associated sprawl dependent on local and global drivers.¹⁶ Urbanisation in this hyper-arid environment resulted in an increase in vegetation cover and inland water bodies.¹⁶ The emirate's offshore islands demonstrate that development has not been constrained by physical barriers or land ownership.¹⁶

Britannica notes that criticism of Dubai's authoritarian government and ruling elite is not tolerated, and that there persists an atmosphere of discreet corruption.¹ In the construction years, work on the Burj Dubai tower, as the Burj Khalifa was then known, was interrupted by strikes held by the city's large population of expatriate labourers.³ Landscape metrics, meanwhile, reveal rapidly oscillating phases of urban diffusion and coalescence, a sequence the researchers find unique to the Dubai landscape.¹⁶

Scholars also question the sustainability record.¹⁴ A 2019 study found that Gulf cities have been very active in branding their sustainable urbanisation policies, but that the branding is substantially more impressive than implementation.¹⁴ The same study observes that the economic rise has led the emirates to attain the world's highest per capita carbon footprint.¹⁴ The World Bank recorded CO2 emissions of 18.3 tonnes per capita for the UAE in 2024.¹²

Historians of the city look beneath the spectacle.¹⁷ Yasser Elsheshtawy's book 'Dubai: Behind an Urban Spectacle' explores Dubai's history from its beginnings as a small fishing village to its place on the world stage today.¹⁷ With the help of case studies and surveys, it explores the economic and political forces driving Dubai's urban growth, its changing urbanity and its place within the global city network.¹⁷ Looking beyond the glamour of the mega-projects, it provides an in-depth exploration of a select set of spaces which reveal the city's 'inner life'.¹⁷

The emirate covers an area of 4,114 km², about 5 per cent of the UAE without the islands.⁴ The government portal puts the emirate's population at 3,759,864.⁴ For the country as a whole, World Bank data put the population at 11,513,149 and, for 2024, GDP at about US$552.32 billion and GDP per capita at US$50,273.5.¹²