Religion in the United Arab Emirates is recorded in this encyclopedia from the source named below.
Overview
As per the United Arab Emirates constitution, Islam is the official religion professed by 75% of the population as of 2020. 63% are Sunni, 7% are Shia and 4% follow another branch of Islam. The royals families of Al Nahyan and Al Maktoum ruling families adhere to the Maliki school of jurisprudence. As such, the Maliki school remains the UAE's dominant school of thought and is sometimes used in legal sharia rulings. The other main religions present in the country include Christianity (13%), Hinduism (6%), and Buddhism (3%). Zoroastrians, Druze, Baha'i, Judaism, and Sikhism are also practiced by some non-nationals. 1% of the population is agnostic.
Source and reuse
The descriptive text above is drawn from the English-language encyclopedia article Religion in the United Arab Emirates, 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.