- Population
- ~1,250,000 (est. 1,100,000-1,350,000)
- Language
- Bengali
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni
- Location
- Every emirate; largest in Dubai (Deira, Naif, Satwa, Al Quoz, Sonapur, Al Qusais), Sharjah, Abu Dhabi (Mussaffah, ICAD) and Ajman
About 1.2 million Bangladeshis live in the Emirates, the third-largest foreign community after Indians and Pakistanis, almost all of them men from village and district networks in Cumilla, Chattogram, Noakhali, Sylhet and other districts who work two-year contracts in construction, cleaning, factories, farms and transport; nearly 8,000 of them drive Dubai's taxis. They share rooms in labour camps and crowded flats in Deira, Sharjah's Rolla and Abu Dhabi's Mussaffah, cook rice and fish curry together and send home more money than Bangladeshis in any other country. Bengali-speaking Muslims from India's West Bengal live and pray alongside them. In July 2024 dozens were jailed for marching in support of the uprising back home and later pardoned and deported, and in 2026 several were killed by debris from Iranian missiles and drones while at work.
Read more- Population
- 1,000,000
- Language
- Malayalam
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni (plurality); Hinduism; Christianity
- Location
- Every emirate; largest in Dubai (Karama, Bur Dubai, Deira, Al Qusais, Al Nahda, Jebel Ali), Sharjah (Rolla, Al Nahda), Abu Dhabi (city, Musaffah), Ajman, Al Ain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah
About a million Malayalis from Kerala live in the Emirates, the largest Malayali community anywhere outside India and about two-fifths of all Kerala's emigrants. They came in large numbers with the oil boom of the 1970s and now fill every level of work, from labourers, drivers and supermarket staff to nurses, accountants and the founders of some of the country's biggest retail and hospital chains. They are split three ways by faith, with Muslims the largest share, Hindus next and a Christian minority that fills Malayalam-language Catholic, Orthodox, Mar Thoma and Pentecostal congregations in the church compounds of Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. Malayalam newspapers are printed in the Emirates every day, Malayalam radio stations broadcast around the clock, and at Onam thousands sit down to banana-leaf feasts in Karama restaurants and Sharjah exhibition halls.
Read more- Population
- ~700,000 (620,000-975,000)
- Language
- Tagalog
- Religion
- Christianity - Roman Catholicism
- Location
- Dubai (about half; Al Karama, Satwa and Deira are social hubs), Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Al Ain and the northern emirates
Filipinos are the fourth-largest foreign community in the United Arab Emirates, about 700,000 people, half of them in Dubai, working as nurses, engineers, retail, hotel and office staff and, in large numbers, as nannies and housemaids. Speaking Tagalog laced with English, they fill the malls, parks and Filipino eateries of Al Karama and Satwa on their days off and send home some 1.5 billion dollars a year. They are the largest community in the Catholic Church of southern Arabia: before Christmas 30,000 to 35,000 Filipinos a night crowd St Mary's Church in Dubai for the nine evening Masses of Simbang Gabi, and on Holy Thursday they drive across the emirates to visit seven churches. Most have come since Dubai's boom of the 2000s, and when Iranian missiles and drones struck the Emirates in 2026 most chose to stay.
Read more- Population
- ~600,000 (430,000-900,000)
- Language
- Arabic, Egyptian
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni
- Location
- Dubai, Sharjah and the northern emirates (Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah, Fujairah), Abu Dhabi and Al Ain
Egyptian Muslims are one of the largest Arab communities in the United Arab Emirates, perhaps half a million to nearly a million people, whose presence goes back to the federation's founding in 1971, when Egyptian teachers, judges, doctors and engineers helped staff the new state's schools and ministries. Today they work in every field from construction and oil and gas to banking, medicine, media and call centres, and most live in the apartment districts of Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman. Their Cairene dialect, familiar to every Arab from Egyptian films, carries their humour and pride in home cities like Alexandria and Port Said, and older men gather in Egyptian-run coffee shops over backgammon and football while koshari restaurants spread across the cities. The community has grown with Egypt's economic crisis since 2016, and its remittances keep many families at home afloat.
Read more- Population
- 500,000
- Language
- Nepali (individual language)
- Religion
- Hinduism
- Location
- Dubai (Deira, Bur Dubai, Al Quoz, Muhaisnah/Sonapur, Jebel Ali), Abu Dhabi (city, Mussaffah, ICAD), Sharjah, Ajman, Al Ain, Ras al-Khaimah
Nepalis are one of the largest foreign communities in the United Arab Emirates, about half a million people, and the Emirates now take more Nepali workers than any other country. Almost all are men on two- to three-year contracts who guard malls and towers, clean offices, staff hotels and build in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, sending home the wages that keep families in Nepal's hills and southern plains afloat. They come from every community in Nepal, high-caste Hindu hill families, Magar, Gurung and Tamang, Rai and Limbu, and Maithili-speaking Madhesis, and keep Dashain, Tihar, Teej and Chhath in rented halls and city parks; a Nepal Day in Dubai's Creek Park in 2025 drew over forty thousand visitors. A small Nepali-speaking church movement meets in flats and on apartment lawns in Dubai.
Read more- Population
- ~500,000 (est. 400,000-600,000)
- Language
- Telugu
- Religion
- Hinduism
- Location
- Every emirate; largest in Dubai (Sonapur/Muhaisnah, Al Quoz, Jebel Ali, Karama), Abu Dhabi (Mussaffah, Reem Island) and Sharjah
About half a million Telugu speakers from India's Andhra Pradesh and Telangana live in the Emirates, the largest Indian regional community after Malayalis and Tamils. Most are working men from the dry northern Telangana districts of Nizamabad, Jagtial and Karimnagar, where going to Dubai has been the way out of farm debt since the 1970s, and from coastal Andhra, which also sends many women as housemaids. Most are Hindus, but a large Muslim minority and a smaller Christian one share the language, and Telugu congregations meet in the church compounds of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Each autumn women raise towering cones of flowers for Bathukamma, Telangana's flower festival, at some ten gatherings across the country, while workers' groups raise money for the families of men killed in camp fires and road accidents.
Read more- Population
- ~360,000 (est. 290,000-395,000)
- Language
- Mandarin Chinese
- Religion
- Ethnoreligion - Chinese Folk Religion
- Location
- Mostly Dubai (International City and Dragon Mart, Deira, business districts); also Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman
About 370,000 Chinese live in the Emirates, nearly all of them Han, up from a few thousand in the 1990s, and most of them live in Dubai. Their hub is Dragon Mart, a 1.2-kilometre dragon-shaped market opened in 2004 that is the largest Chinese trading centre outside China, and the neighbouring China cluster of International City, where Chinese-language shop signs, restaurants and supermarkets line the streets. Many of the early traders came from Wenzhou and sell Chinese goods on to buyers from Africa, the Gulf and South Asia; others work for Chinese banks, port, construction and technology companies, or have come as professionals and families on long-term visas. Most are not religious but keep Spring Festival and ancestor customs, while the Chinese Muslims among them, most of them Hui, have their own mosque in International City.
Read more- Population
- ~250,000-300,000
- Language
- Standard Arabic
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni
- Location
- Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Ajman and Al Ain
Syrians in the Emirates, roughly a quarter to a third of a million people, are one of the country's largest Arab communities and mostly live as families rather than as single workers. Teachers, doctors and merchants came from the 1960s and helped staff the young federation's schools and ministries; a second wave of professionals, entrepreneurs and wealthy families followed after the 2011 uprising, when the UAE gave residence to more than 100,000 Syrians on ordinary work and family visas rather than as refugees. Syrians now run about 40,000 companies, from real estate and hotels to the shawarma shops and Aleppan sweet makers found in every neighbourhood of Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman. Most are Sunni Muslims, with Orthodox and Catholic Christians who worship in Arabic, and since the fall of the Assad government in December 2024 the community has celebrated its heritage openly while many weigh a return home.
Read more- Population
- ~250,000 (range 200,000-400,000)
- Language
- Levantine Arabic
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni
- Location
- Sharjah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah; Gaza evacuees at Emirates Humanitarian City, Abu Dhabi
Palestinians helped build the Emirates from the 1950s, arriving as refugees and graduates to staff the first schools, courts and ministries; one of them founded Sharjah's modern school system in 1954. About a quarter of a million now live in the country, many in their third generation, born in the Emirates yet without citizenship and travelling mostly on Jordanian passports. Most are Sunni Muslim professionals, teachers, doctors, engineers and business people, with a small Orthodox and Catholic minority. In August 2026 more than 50,000 people filled Expo City Dubai for the first 'Emirates Loves Palestine' festival of embroidered dresses, folk songs and date-filled ma'moul, while relatives in Gaza endure war and wounded Gazans and their families are flown to the Emirates for treatment.
Read more- Population
- ~250,000 (est. 200,000-300,000)
- Language
- Gujarati
- Religion
- Hinduism
- Location
- Dubai (Bur Dubai, Meena Bazaar, Karama, Deira, Al Qusais, Oud Metha), Sharjah and Ajman, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain
Gujarati-speaking merchants are the oldest Indian community on this coast: Hindu trading families financed pearling boats in Sharjah and Dubai in the nineteenth century, and their Krishna shrine beside Dubai Creek began in a cowshed in the early 1900s. Today about a quarter of a million Gujaratis live in the Emirates, from fourth-generation textile, gold and electronics traders in Bur Dubai and Deira to accountants, bankers and shopkeepers. Most are vegetarian Vaishnava Hindus devoted to Krishna or to the Swaminarayan movement, whose marble temple in Abu Dhabi drew four million visitors in its first two years, while Jains and Shia Bohra, Khoja and Sunni Memon Muslims form their own close-knit communities. Navratri turns Dubai's parks and halls into nights of garba and dandiya dancing that draw thousands.
Read more- Population
- ~210,000 (est. 170,000-250,000)
- Language
- Sinhala
- Religion
- Buddhism - Theravada
- Location
- Dubai (Karama, Satwa, Garhoud, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Jebel Ali) and the northern emirates; Abu Dhabi and Al Ain
About 200,000 Sinhalese live in the Emirates, the largest part of some 300,000 Sri Lankans, who have come since the 1970s and still leave Sri Lanka for the UAE more than for almost anywhere else. Unusually for the Gulf, about a third of Sri Lankans here hold office jobs in banks, hotels, hospitals and IT, beside drivers, factory hands and women domestic workers living in their employers' homes. As Theravada Buddhists in a country with no purpose-built Buddhist temple, they meditate and bring alms food to Sri Lankan monks in two Dubai villas turned into temples, and keep Vesak with lanterns and free food stalls for thousands at the Dubai consulate and the embassy in Abu Dhabi, where a sacred Bo tree grows in the grounds. A Catholic minority worships with the large Sri Lankan congregations of Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi.
Read more- Population
- ~200,000 (est. 170,000-240,000)
- Language
- English
- Religion
- Unaffiliated
- Location
- Dubai (Marina, JBR, Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah, Arabian Ranches, Emirates Hills, Springs, Dubai Hills), Abu Dhabi (Saadiyat, Al Reem, Yas, Khalifa City), Sharjah and the northern emirates, Al Ain; RAF at Al Minhad Air Base
Britons form the largest Western community in the Emirates, around 200,000 residents, most of them in Dubai's marina towers and villa suburbs and on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island. Britain was the protecting power of the Trucial States until the federation was born in 1971, and British oilmen, bankers and diplomats' families founded the first English-speaking schools, the oldest in a Dubai villa in 1963; today about a third of Dubai's private-school pupils study the British curriculum. Since the 2010s a new wave has come for tax-free salaries, sunshine and safety, from bankers and teachers to entrepreneurs, influencers and retirees, many of them British-born children of South Asian, Arab and African families. Most are nominal Christians or non-religious, and Anglican parishes that began as chaplaincies to oil workers now host congregations of every nationality. About one in eight left when Iranian missiles and drones struck the country in early 2026, many intending to return.
Read more- Population
- 150,000
- Language
- Levantine Arabic
- Religion
- Mixed Christian and Muslim
- Location
- Dubai (largest), Abu Dhabi, Sharjah; Al Ain and the northern emirates
Lebanese are one of the largest and most visible Arab communities in the United Arab Emirates, roughly 150,000 people, from about 90,000 Lebanese citizens to some 200,000 counting those who also hold Canadian, French or other passports. They came as traders, bankers and teachers before the federation was founded and in waves after Lebanon's civil war, its 2019 banking collapse, the 2020 Beirut port explosion and the 2024 war, and they are prominent in banking, advertising, media, hospitality and fashion in Dubai. Unlike most Arab expatriate communities they are religiously mixed: Maronite, Orthodox and Melkite Christians worship alongside Sunni, Shia and Druze compatriots, and Maronite Masses in Arabic are celebrated in Dubai's Catholic churches. Lebanese bakeries selling man'oushe flatbread and mezze restaurants are part of everyday life across the Emirates. Shia Lebanese live more quietly, since hundreds suspected of sympathy for Hezbollah have been deported since 2009.
Read more- Population
- ~150,000 (range 120,000-200,000)
- Language
- Arabic, Sudanese
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni
- Location
- Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Al Ain, Umm al-Quwain, Fujairah and Hatta
Sudanese have helped run the Emirates since before the federation: a Sudanese lawyer became Abu Dhabi's head judge and Sheikh Zayed's legal adviser in 1966, and Sudanese teachers, doctors, officers and engineers followed. About 150,000 Sudanese Arabs now live in the country, Sunni Muslims of the Maliki school with strong ties to Sufi brotherhoods, joined since April 2023 by relatives fleeing the war at home. Their Sudanese Social Club in Dubai, licensed in 1973 with branches across the emirates, is where men gather after evening prayer to play whist, follow the news and drink hilu mur. The war has made them a lifeline for families in Sudan, while the Emirates' alleged backing of the Rapid Support Forces and Sudan's break of relations in 2025 leave many afraid to speak.
Read more- Population
- ~134,000 (est. 60,000-140,000; Ethiopians other than the Amhara and Tigrayans)
- Language
- Amharic (primary), Oromo, Tigrinya, others
- Religion
- Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity and Sunni Islam (mixed)
- Location
- Dubai (Deira, Al Karama), Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Al Ain and the northern emirates, mostly in employers' homes
Ethiopians in the United Arab Emirates number roughly 200,000, about twice as many as in 2018; besides the Amhara and Tigrayans, they are Oromo, Gurage, Silte, Wolaita, Hadiya and others from southern and central Ethiopia, most of them young women working as live-in maids and nannies for Emirati and Arab families, with men as cleaners, guards, drivers and deliverymen. They share Amharic as their common language and on their day off fill the coffee shops, salons and injera restaurants of a small Ethiopian quarter in Dubai's Deira. More of them are Sunni Muslims than Christians, especially among the Oromo and Silte, while the Orthodox among them worship at the Ethiopian church that opened in Abu Dhabi in 2023 on land given by the state. Many came after Ethiopia reopened legal recruitment to the Emirates in 2019, and those who leave abusive employers easily fall out of legal status.
Read more
- Population
- ~130,000 (est. 100,000-160,000)
- Language
- English and Luganda (common languages); Swahili; Runyankore-Rukiga, Lusoga, Acholi, Ateso, Lugbara and others at home
- Religion
- Christianity (Catholic, Anglican and Pentecostal)
- Location
- Dubai (Deira, Al Barsha, Al Qusais, Karama, Al Quoz and Jebel Ali labour housing), Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Mussaffah, Ajman and the northern emirates; private homes across the country
Ugandans are one of the largest African communities in the United Arab Emirates, some 100,000 to 160,000 people, most of them young adults who came after 2010 to work as security guards, housemaids, cleaners, hotel, mall and restaurant staff. Women outnumber men among those recruited, and many live in their employers' villas, while men share flats in Deira, Al Qusais, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi's Mussaffah. Drawn from Uganda's many peoples, they speak English and Luganda among themselves and organise as Ugandans through an association with committees in all seven emirates and a diaspora savings cooperative. Most are Catholic, Anglican or Pentecostal Christians who worship on Fridays in the churches of Dubai and Sharjah and in African-led fellowships that close their services with Luganda songs, while a sizeable Muslim minority grows as some domestic workers embrace Islam in Emirati homes.
Read more- Population
- 120,000
- Language
- Standard Arabic
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni
- Location
- Dubai and Abu Dhabi; Sharjah, Al Ain, Ras al-Khaimah
Jordanians have helped run the United Arab Emirates since its founding in 1971, when Jordanian and Palestinian teachers, doctors, engineers and officials staffed the new federation's schools, hospitals and ministries. Today more than 200,000 Jordanian passport holders live in the country, about half of them East Bank Jordanians with roots in towns such as Irbid, Salt and Karak, the rest Jordanians of Palestinian origin. They are among the best-educated Arab communities in the Emirates, working as professors, bankers, doctors, engineers and managers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and the Emirates is now the largest source of the money Jordanians abroad send home. Jordanian social clubs in Dubai and Ras al-Khaimah gather families for Independence Day on 25 May, where mansaf, lamb cooked in dried yoghurt and served over rice, is the centrepiece. Most are Sunni Muslims, with a small Orthodox and Catholic Christian minority.
Read more- Population
- 120,000
- Language
- Russian
- Religion
- Christianity
- Location
- Dubai (Dubai Marina, JLT, JBR, Palm Jumeirah, Business Bay, Downtown), Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and the northern emirates
Russians are one of the newest large communities in the UAE. A few thousand lived in Dubai before 2022, mostly in tourism, trade and property, but after the invasion of Ukraine and the mobilisation that followed, tens of thousands of Russians moved their families, businesses and savings to Dubai, which kept flights open and asked no political questions. Russian is now heard everywhere in Dubai Marina, nicknamed 'Marinagrad', with Russian cafes, schools and clubs, and Russians are among the largest foreign buyers of Dubai property, with about 13,500 Russian-owned companies registered in the country. Most are Orthodox by heritage but often secular in practice; the five-domed Church of St Philip the Apostle in Sharjah, opened in 2011 on land given by Sharjah's ruler, was the first Russian Orthodox church in Arabia, and a second parish was approved for Abu Dhabi in 2026.
Read more- Population
- ~110,000 (est. 80,000-150,000)
- Language
- Sindhi
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni
- Location
- Dubai (Bur Dubai, Meena Bazaar, Karama, Deira, Jebel Ali), Sharjah, Abu Dhabi (city and Mussaffah), Ajman, Al Ain
Sindhis in the Emirates are two communities that share a language. The older is Hindu merchant families from Sindh, above all the Bhatias of Thatta, who came to Dubai's Creek as traders before the oil era and made Bur Dubai's textile souq their own; their descendants, over 25,000 people, run trading, gold and exchange businesses and worship at the Jebel Ali Hindu temple run by their Sindhi Guru Darbar trust. The larger is Sunni Muslims from Pakistan's Sindh province, working as drivers, crane operators, labourers and technicians in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, who carry the Sufi devotion of Shah Abdul Latif's poetry with them. Every December both meet at Sindhi Cultural Day in Dubai, wearing the block-printed ajrak shawl and mirrored topi cap and dancing to Sindhi folk songs.
Read more- Population
- 109,000
- Language
- English
- Religion
- Christianity - Protestantism
- Location
- Dubai (most), Abu Dhabi, Sharjah; Al Dhafra Air Base south of Abu Dhabi
Americans in the Emirates are mostly professionals and their families in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, working in finance, consulting, energy, aviation, technology, real estate, medicine and teaching, alongside faculty at New York University Abu Dhabi and the American University of Sharjah and several thousand airmen at Al Dhafra Air Base. Their numbers grew from 2023 as Americans moved to Dubai for tax-free salaries, safety and opportunity, some after federal job cuts at home. Most are Christians who worship in English-language evangelical, Anglican, Catholic and Latter-day Saint congregations in the licensed church compounds, with a large secular share. Iran's strikes on Al Dhafra from February 2026 led Washington to close its embassy and consulate, order diplomats' families out and urge citizens to consider leaving.
Read more- Population
- ~90,000-100,000
- Language
- Arabic, Ta'izzi-Adeni
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni
- Location
- Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Al Ain and Ras al-Khaimah
Yemenis in the Emirates, roughly 90,000 to 100,000 people, are traders, shopkeepers, restaurant workers, drivers, teachers and professionals from Aden, Taiz, Hadramawt and the north, whose mandi rice restaurants are part of everyday Emirati life. Their situation has been shaped since 2015 by the war at home, in which the UAE fought in the south, armed tens of thousands of Yemeni fighters and backed the southern separatist movement, until it withdrew its last troops in January 2026 after a public rift with Saudi Arabia. Southerners who support independence and northerners wary of Abu Dhabi's role live side by side and speak of politics with care. Most are Shafi'i Sunni Muslims, with a Zaydi Shia minority from the northern highlands, and since 2025 the UAE has stopped issuing new work and visit visas to Yemenis, so families rely on the residence permits they already hold.
Read more- Population
- ~80,000 (60,000-100,000)
- Language
- Arabic, Mesopotamian
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni and Shia
- Location
- Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, with smaller numbers in Ajman and Al Ain
Iraqi Arabs in the United Arab Emirates are a mostly educated, well-off community of roughly 80,000, among the oldest Arab expatriates in the country: Iraqi businesses began moving to Dubai after the 1968 coup in Baghdad, and later waves fled the Iran-Iraq war, the 1991 war, the 2003 invasion and the Islamic State. Engineers, doctors, teachers, jewellers, traders and media figures, they helped build the young federation, and many families now have children and grandchildren born in the Emirates who have rarely seen Iraq. Sunni and Shia Iraqis, with a few Arabic-speaking Christians, mix more easily here than at home, keeping Baghdadi customs such as the Friday-morning subheih gathering of friends over tea, Iraqi dolma and masgouf fish, and poetry. In October 2025 more than 15,000 of them filled Dubai's first Iraq Day festival.
Read more- Population
- ~80,000 (est. 40,000-110,000)
- Language
- Indonesian
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni
- Location
- Abu Dhabi (city, Al Ain, Ruwais), Dubai and the northern emirates (Sharjah, Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah)
About 80,000 Indonesians live in the Emirates, spread across all seven emirates. Many came as live-in maids and nannies from Java and the other islands, and since Indonesia stopped sending new domestic workers to Middle Eastern households in 2015 newer arrivals work mainly in hotels, spas, airlines, hospitals, schools and the oil and gas plants at Ruwais. Most are Shafi'i Sunni Muslims who keep Indonesian customs such as communal Quran recitation and visits of forgiveness after Eid. They gather at the embassy in Abu Dhabi for Ramadan iftars and Eid feasts of lontong sayur and opor ayam, after prayers at a mosque the Emiratis named after President Joko Widodo. A small Catholic and Protestant minority meets in the church compounds of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Read more- Population
- ~75,000 (50,000-100,000)
- Language
- English
- Religion
- Christianity - Neo-Pentecostalism
- Location
- Dubai (Deira, Al Satwa, Al Barsha, International City), Sharjah (Al Nahda, Al Taawun, Rolla), Abu Dhabi, Ajman
Nigerians in the United Arab Emirates, roughly 50,000 to 100,000 people, are traders, professionals, students and service workers drawn from Africa's most populous country. Igbo merchants from Nigeria's south-east built a wholesale trade in Dubai's Deira district, shipping electronics, textiles, phones and auto parts to the markets of Lagos and Onitsha, while Yoruba, Edo and northern Hausa Nigerians work in finance, aviation, hospitality and security. Most are Pentecostal, Catholic or Anglican Christians who fill rented halls in the church compounds of Dubai and Sharjah, alongside a large Muslim minority from the north and south-west. The community shrank when the Emirates stopped issuing visas to Nigerians from 2022 to 2024, and Afrobeats stars such as Burna Boy, Davido and Rema now headline Dubai's arenas.
Read more- Population
- 70,000
- Language
- Arabic, Moroccan
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni
- Location
- Dubai (about two-thirds), Abu Dhabi, Sharjah; smaller numbers in the northern emirates
Moroccans are one of the largest North African communities in the United Arab Emirates, roughly 70,000 people, about two-thirds of them in Dubai. Most are young and arrived with Dubai's boom in tourism, hotels and services, coming from Casablanca, Rabat, Fez, Marrakech and the north, and an unusually large share are women working on their own in hospitality, beauty, retail, hospitals and offices; Morocco also seconds several hundred police officers to Abu Dhabi. Moroccan restaurants serving tagines, Friday couscous and mint tea are a fixture of Dubai, and a volunteer network called Moroccans in the Emirates gathers the community for a yearly Ramadan iftar, a football league and blood drives. They are Sunni Muslims of the Maliki school, and Moroccan women in the Gulf live with a persistent stereotype that questions their morals.
Read more- Population
- 50,000
- Language
- Odia
- Religion
- Hinduism
- Location
- Dubai (Bur Dubai, Karama, Al Qusais, Jebel Ali), Sharjah, Abu Dhabi (city, Mussaffah), Fujairah, Ajman
Odias from Odisha on India's east coast form a community of tens of thousands in the United Arab Emirates, the largest in the Gulf. Professionals and business owners live with their families in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, while single men from Ganjam and the coastal districts work in construction, plumbing and welding, some of them left unpaid or confined by employers after being recruited by private agents. Devotion to Lord Jagannath of Puri holds the community together: since about 2011 Odias have pulled a hand-built chariot through a Dubai school ground each June, with more than a hundred families cooking the fifty-six dishes offered to the deity. Western Odias also hold the Nuakhai harvest festival in Dubai, the largest outside India, with new rice flown in from Sambalpur.
Read more- Population
- ~50,000 (est. 30,000-100,000)
- Language
- Somali
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni
- Location
- Dubai (Deira: Al Ras Somali souq, Murshid Bazaar, Naif, Al Muraqqabat), Sharjah, Ajman, Abu Dhabi
Somalis have come to the Emirates since the 1960s, and after Somalia's state collapsed in 1991 Dubai became the commercial capital of the Somali world: the money-transfer firms that carry remittances home, several Somali airlines and hundreds of traders shipping rice, cloth, electronics and cars to Berbera, Bosaso and Mogadishu are based here. Behind Deira's gold souk the Al Ras quarter is known as the Somali market, with Somali cafes, cargo agents and dozens of small gold and fabric shops, many run by women who rebuilt their lives here after the civil war. They come from every region and clan, from Mogadishu to Somaliland, and many hold British, Canadian or Scandinavian passports. Their stay depends on visas the UAE has suspended for Somalis several times, most recently in 2025.
Read more- Population
- ~40,000 (est. 25,000-50,000)
- Language
- Beary (mal)
- Religion
- Islam
- Location
- Dubai above all; Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman
The Bearys are Muslims of the Mangalore coast of Karnataka who speak their own tongue, Beary, a form of Malayalam shaped by Tulu, and who have traded across the Arabian Sea for centuries. Since the oil boom of the 1970s tens of thousands have come to the Emirates, where shopkeepers and workers stand alongside some of the Gulf's best-known Indian businessmen, among them the founder of Ajman's Thumbay medical group. They are among the most visible small communities in Dubai: in November 2025 about 1,400 Bearys in matching red T-shirts carried a 30-metre Emirati flag down Sheikh Zayed Road in the Dubai Run, and their Beary Mela drew more than 10,000 people the same year. Their associations in Dubai and Abu Dhabi fund scholarships and mass weddings back home in Dakshina Kannada.
Read more- Population
- ~40,000 (25,000-60,000)
- Language
- Arabic, Egyptian
- Religion
- Christianity - Coptic Orthodox (Oriental Orthodox)
- Location
- Abu Dhabi (Al Mushrif), Dubai, Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah, with smaller numbers in Al Ain and Fujairah
Coptic Egyptians are the Christian minority within the UAE's large Egyptian community, perhaps 25,000 to 60,000 people, most of them engineers, doctors, teachers and accountants living with their families in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. They share the dialect and workplaces of their Muslim compatriots but gather around six churches of their own, led by the four-storey St Antonios Cathedral in Abu Dhabi, built in 2007 on land given by the state after years of renting rooms by the hour in Anglican churches. On Fridays and feast days Copts from Al Ain and Fujairah drive in for liturgy in Arabic and Coptic, and Christmas Eve on 7 January fills the cathedral. The community has grown with Egyptian migration since the 1970s, and UAE ministers attend its Easter and Christmas services as a public sign of the country's religious tolerance.
Read more- Population
- ~40,000 (est. 33,000-55,000)
- Language
- French
- Religion
- Christianity - Roman Catholicism
- Location
- Dubai (Jumeirah, Umm Suqeim, Al Barsha, Dubai Marina, Mirdif, Oud Metha), Abu Dhabi (Saadiyat, Al Bateen, Al Reem), Sharjah, Al Ain; French forces at Al Dhafra Air Base, Mina Zayed and Zayed Military City
About 40,000 French citizens live in the Emirates, one of the fastest-growing French communities in the world, up by an eighth in 2025 alone. Most are engineers, bankers, teachers, luxury and hotel managers and entrepreneurs in Dubai's villa suburbs and on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island, alongside a younger wave of founders and influencers drawn by tax-free income. France keeps its only permanent Gulf base in Abu Dhabi, and the Louvre Abu Dhabi and Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi make the capital a showcase of French culture. Family life revolves around four large French lycées whose classrooms mix French children with Lebanese, Maghrebi and Emirati pupils. Most French residents are Catholic in name only or secular, while a sizeable minority of North African descent is Muslim.
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- ~40,000 (est. 25,000-60,000)
- Language
- Turkish
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni
- Location
- Dubai (over 85%: Dubai Marina, JLT, Business Bay, Downtown, Al Barsha, Jumeirah), Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and the northern emirates
Turks in the United Arab Emirates are a young community of professionals and entrepreneurs rather than labourers: engineers, bankers, architects, contractors, traders and restaurateurs, more than four in five of them in Dubai. Their numbers roughly tripled after 2010, and more than half of those in Dubai arrived in the five years before 2022, as Turkey's currency crisis and inflation pushed skilled people and capital abroad and thousands of Turkish firms opened offices in the city. Most are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school, but many live a secular, urban lifestyle, and in the 2023 election those registered in the UAE voted two to one for the secular opposition candidate. Community life runs through business councils, women's networks, weekend Turkish classes for children and celebrations of Republic Day each October.
Read more- Population
- ~35,000 (est. 30,000-50,000)
- Language
- English
- Religion
- Christianity - Neo-Pentecostalism
- Location
- Mostly Dubai; also Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman
Some 30,000 to 50,000 Kenyans live in the Emirates, most of them in Dubai, a community that has grown since a 2018 labour agreement opened recruitment for domestic and service work. They work as hotel and restaurant staff, security guards, drivers and delivery riders, airport and aviation staff, IT workers and housemaids, and nearly 600 Kenyan firms trade from Dubai. Drawn from all of Kenya's peoples, they speak Swahili and English among themselves and gather as Kenyans rather than by tribe. Most are Christians, and on Sundays many fill African-led churches such as one meeting in an events hall in Deira, where Kenyans are the majority and worship songs are sung in several African languages.
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- 30,000
- Language
- Arabic, Tunisian
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni
- Location
- Dubai and the northern emirates, Abu Dhabi; spread over all seven emirates
Tunisians in the Emirates, about 30,000 people, are a professional community of engineers, doctors, teachers, bankers and hotel and airline staff that grew steadily after Tunisia's 2011 revolution sent graduates to the Gulf. Among themselves they speak Tunisian Arabic mixed with French, a North African dialect Emiratis find hard to follow, and they follow the Maliki school of Sunni Islam, the same school as the official Islam of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Their numbers have risen as the two governments drew closer, with 52,000 Emirati visas issued to Tunisians in 2024, though memories remain of December 2017, when Emirates Airline barred Tunisian women from its flights and Tunisia suspended the airline's service in response. Community life runs through the consulate in Dubai and informal networks rather than associations, from a Dubai exhibition selling homes back in Tunisia to a community walk held in a Dubai mall in 2026.
Read more- Population
- ~30,000 (est. 20,000-40,000 residents)
- Language
- Ukrainian
- Religion
- Christianity - Eastern Orthodox
- Location
- Dubai (Dubai Marina, JLT, JVC, Business Bay, Downtown, Al Barsha), Abu Dhabi, Sharjah
Ukrainians in the United Arab Emirates are a young, urban community of about 30,000 residents, double their number before Russia's full-scale invasion of 2022, when Ukrainian firms moved staff and families to Dubai's business free zones to keep working. Many run or staff IT, real estate, finance, beauty and hospitality businesses, and about 1,500 Ukrainian companies were already registered in Dubai before the war. Most also speak Russian, but they keep a careful distance from the far larger Russian community that shares their towers and cafes, and they gather around business councils, charity drives for Ukraine and festivals of embroidered vyshyvanka shirts. Most are Orthodox by tradition but have no parish of their own, while Greek Catholics have held a liturgy in Ukrainian at St Mary's Church in Dubai since 2014.
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- ~20,000-30,000
- Language
- Arabic, Algerian
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni
- Location
- Dubai, Sharjah and the northern emirates, Abu Dhabi
Algerians in the Emirates are a community of some 20,000 to 30,000 engineers, managers, doctors, academics, media workers and business owners with their families, most of them in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. They speak Algerian Arabic laced with French, which sets them apart from the Egyptians and Levantines who make up most of the country's Arab residents, and they share the Maliki Sunni tradition of Dubai's own mosques. Around 200 Algerian firms trade from Dubai, and the community has gathered at the consulate there to vote in Algerian elections. Since Algeria cut diplomatic ties with the UAE in September 2026 and closed its airspace to Emirati aircraft, their passports, papers and journeys home have become uncertain.
Read more- Population
- ~25,000 (range 15,000-40,000)
- Language
- Arabic, Omani
- Religion
- Islam - Ibadi and Sunni
- Location
- Al Ain (beside Buraimi), Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Dibba and Fujairah
Omanis in the United Arab Emirates are citizens of the neighbouring sultanate who live, study and work across a border that their tribes, families and the shared oasis of Al Ain and Buraimi have always straddled. About 25,000 live in the country, with thousands more crossing daily from Buraimi, Musandam and Dibba; in 2020 more than 9,000 Omani children attended Emirati state schools. Most are Ibadi Muslims, following a branch of Islam that is neither Sunni nor Shia and is the majority only in Oman, alongside Sunni tribesmen from the border regions. Their tasselled dishdasha and embroidered kumma cap set them apart from Emiratis in white headcloths, and every November the residency offices at Hatta and Dubai airport greet Omani travellers with flags and sweets for Oman's National Day.
Read more- Population
- ~19,000 (est. 15,000-22,000)
- Language
- Thai
- Religion
- Buddhism - Theravada
- Location
- Dubai (over 60%), Abu Dhabi city and Musaffah, Al Ruwais, Sharjah and Ajman
About 19,000 Thais live in the United Arab Emirates, more than half of them in Dubai, working in hotels, restaurants, spas and airlines, and as technicians at the oil refineries of Ruwais and in the factories of Musaffah. They come from every part of Thailand, including many from the north-east who speak a Lao dialect at home, and a minority of Muslims from the south. With no Thai temple or resident monks in the country, Buddhist rites gather at the Thai embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate in Dubai, where at the April New Year festival of Songkran Thais pour water over Buddha statues and over the hands of their elders to ask their blessing. Recruitment for spa and massage jobs has drawn some Thai women into trafficking, and many workers lack proper papers.
Read more- Population
- ~15,000 (est. 10,000-20,000)
- Language
- German
- Religion
- Unaffiliated
- Location
- Dubai (Jumeirah, Al Barsha, Dubai Marina, Arabian Ranches, Dubai Hills), Abu Dhabi (Al Reem, Saadiyat, Khalifa City), Sharjah
Around 15,000 Germans live in the Emirates, most of them engineers, managers, doctors, pilots and hotel professionals with their families, working for some 2,000 German companies that run their Middle East, Africa and South Asia business from Dubai. A newer wave of entrepreneurs, property agents and retirees has come for low taxes and sunshine. Family life centres on the German international schools of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, and on Oktoberfest nights, Christmas markets and chamber of commerce gatherings. Most Germans are nominal Protestants or Catholics or have no religion; the German-speaking Protestant congregation has no church of its own and often holds its services among the desert dunes.
Read more- Population
- 8,500
- Language
- Korean
- Religion
- Non-Religious
- Location
- Dubai; Abu Dhabi city, Barakah and Al Ain; Ras al-Khaimah, Fujairah, Sharjah and Ajman
About 8,500 South Koreans live in the Emirates, most of them engineers, managers and professionals with their families. Korean firms built many of the country's landmarks, from the Burj Khalifa to the four-reactor Barakah nuclear power plant on the western desert coast, where Korean operators still help run the reactors, while Korean doctors staff a specialty hospital in Ras al-Khaimah and a Korean special forces unit trains Emirati troops in Al Ain. The community is now shifting from company postings in Abu Dhabi to entrepreneurs and professionals settling in Dubai. About half are not religious, while Christians, the largest faith group, attend Korean-language Masses and services in the church compounds of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Read more- Population
- ~6,000-10,000
- Language
- Armenian
- Religion
- Christianity - Armenian Apostolic
- Location
- Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi (Musaffah), with scattered families elsewhere
Armenians in the Emirates, perhaps 6,000 to 10,000 people, are a Christian community that began in the 1960s with engineers, managers, jewellers and traders whose families had survived the genocide and settled in Lebanon and Syria, joined in the last fifteen years by newcomers from Armenia, Iran and Russia. On land granted by the rulers of Sharjah and Abu Dhabi they built the St Gregory the Illuminator church in Sharjah (1998) and the Holy Martyrs church in Abu Dhabi (2014), and a third church is rising in Dubai. Each complex houses a one-day-a-week school, where some 280 children, many of them from mixed marriages, learn Western Armenian, history and the faith from volunteer teachers. The established Lebanese and Syrian Armenian families run the church and school life, while many newcomers from Armenia keep apart from it.
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- ~7,000 (est. 4,000-10,000)
- Language
- North Azerbaijani
- Religion
- Islam - Shia
- Location
- Dubai (most), Sharjah and the northern emirates, Abu Dhabi
Azerbaijanis from the Republic of Azerbaijan began arriving in the Emirates in 1992, just after independence from the Soviet Union, and grew from a few dozen people to about 7,000 by 2019, most of them in Dubai. They are bankers, oil and gas engineers, traders, doctors, media workers and real-estate investors, linked to Baku by daily flights, and they gather at their consulate for national days, for the remembrance of the 1992 Khojaly massacre and for open-air concerts on World Azerbaijanis Solidarity Day. They speak North Azerbaijani and Russian, and most are Shia Muslims by heritage who live their faith in a secular, post-Soviet way. They are a different community from the Turkic-speaking Azeris of Iran, whose Iranian passports, homeland and politics set them apart.
Read more- Population
- 5,000
- Language
- Malay (individual language)
- Religion
- Islam - Sunni
- Location
- Dubai and the northern emirates, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah
The Malays in the Emirates are a small community of about five thousand, almost all Malaysian professionals and their families, with a few Singaporean and Bruneian Malays. They work as engineers in oil and gas, in aviation, banking and Islamic finance, construction and education, and around Malaysia's embassy, consulate and trade offices, living in family apartments in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. They are Sunni Muslims of the Shafi'i school, for whom being Malay and being Muslim are one identity. Hari Raya is the high point of their year, when families keep open house with rendang, ketupat and kuih, and the consulate gathers Malay, Chinese and Indian Malaysians for a shared feast.
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