Topics
Cities · United Arab Emirates · capital
Abu Dhabi, 
United Arab Emirates
Abū Ẓabī
1,016,460 people lived in Abu Dhabi in 2025. It is the 507th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in the United Arab Emirates, where it is the capital.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Abu Dhabi's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
In its own language: Abū Ẓabī.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Abu Dhabi grew
Where Abu Dhabi had 10 people in 1980, it had 85.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.4 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2020 and 2025. The UN first counts it as a city in 1980, when it passed 50,000 people.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Abu Dhabi through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Abu Dhabi in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United Arab Emirates · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 15 cities in the United Arab Emirates in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Dubai. The ringed dot in colour is Abu Dhabi; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Abu Dhabi covered 249 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 54 km² of it. That is 53 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 7.5 times its size, and its people are 8.5 times as many.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in the United Arab Emirates
Its share of the United Arab Emirates
Of every 100 people in the United Arab Emirates in 2025, 9 lived in Abu Dhabi, which is 1.0 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in the United Arab Emirates; the coloured squares live in Abu Dhabi. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 503 Otite Nigeria1,020,218
- 504 Tanta Egypt1,018,577
- 505 Luohe China1,018,295
- 506 Binhai New Area China1,017,230
- 507 Abu Dhabi1,016,460
- 508 Hải Phòng Vietnam1,015,494
- 509 Helsingfors Finland1,014,317
- 510 Cartagena Colombia1,008,584
- 511 Malda India1,001,322
In the United Arab Emirates, 2025
- 76 Dubai5,283,789
- 507 Abu Dhabi1,016,460
- 598 Al Ain873,839
- 1656 Ras Al Khaimah345,621
How to read this: names are in order of size, the leading number being each city's rank among all 12,138 in 2025; the bars share a scale within a list. A jump in the ranks means a city under 300,000 people, which is not given a page here.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Abu Dhabi are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1980 to 2025, then projection to 2050. Projected years are drawn hatched, and the UN publishes no range of uncertainty for a city. What a city means here, how the UN measures one, and why that number can differ from the one Abu Dhabi publishes about itself: how the figures here are put together.
Sources: UN WUP 2025 · Natural Earth · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries