Emirate of Abu Dhabi is recorded in this encyclopedia from the source named below.
Overview
The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is one of seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates. It is the largest emirate, accounting for 87% of the nation's total land area or 67,340 km2 (26,000 sq mi). Abu Dhabi is also the second most populous of the seven emirates. In 2024, the emirate's population had grown to 4,135,985. The city of Abu Dhabi, after which the emirate is named, is the capital of both the emirate and the federation. In the early 1970s, two important developments influenced the status of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The first was the establishment of the United Arab Emirates in December 1971, with Abu Dhabi as its initially temporary political and administrative capital. The second was the sharp increase in oil prices after the Yom Kippur War, which accompanied a change in the relationship between the oil-exporting countries in the Middle East and foreign oil companies, leading to a dramatic rise in oil revenues. In 2024, Abu Dhabi had a nominal GDP of AED 1.132 trillion (US $308 billion), a nominal GDP per capita of US$84,900 (2023), and a government debt to GDP ratio of 16%. In 2022, the size of oil and mining trade increased by 54% and accounted for 48% of GDP. Construction was the next-largest contributor at 7.9%, followed by the financial sector at 6.1%.
Source and reuse
The descriptive text above is drawn from the English-language encyclopedia article Emirate of Abu Dhabi, reused under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence and attributed in the sources block on this page. Figures in the infobox come from Wikidata and carry that project's own provenance; they should be checked against the cited source before being relied on.
Editorial note
This record is a sourced summary, not original research. Where the underlying material is silent on a point, this article is silent too. Last reviewed 2026-09-23.