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Al Ain, 
United Arab Emirates
873,839 people lived in Al Ain in 2025. It is the 598th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in the United Arab Emirates.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Al Ain governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Al Ain grew
Count 10 people in Al Ain in 1990 and the same count gives 57.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.2 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2030 and 2035. The UN first counts it as a city in 1990, when it passed 50,000 people.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: each column is one of the UN's five-yearly estimates, 1975 through 2050, and taller means more people. Where a column is hatched the year has not happened yet. The strip under the columns is the UN's own confidence in each figure, palest where it is least sure; where it is blank the city was not on the list at all.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Al Ain through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Al Ain 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: the United Arab Emirates and its 15 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Dubai). Al Ain is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Al Ain covered 231 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 47 km² of it. That is 54 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1990, its built-up land has grown to 3.5 times its size, and its people are 5.7 times as many.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
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, 8 lived in Al Ain, which is 873,839 people.
How to read this: shrink the United Arab Emirates to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Al Ain; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 594 Firozabad India878,282
- 595 Saint Petersburg United States877,183
- 596 Chenghai China875,988
- 597 Oslo Norway874,991
- 598 Al Ain873,839
- 599 Hengyang China873,169
- 600 Nowshera Pakistan872,172
- 601 Cagayan de Oro Philippines870,291
- 602 Agadir Morocco869,990
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 Al Ain are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1990 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 Al Ain 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