This paper provides a brief overview of the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven independent states lying along the east-central coast of the Arabian Peninsula, formerly called the Trucial States (from the Perpetual Maritime Truce signed with Great Britain in 1853), focussing on the demographics and economy of this country.
The states that compose the U.A.E. occupy a rather vaguely defined area formerly known as the Pirate Coast, as well as 50 miles of coast on the Gulf of Oman and are bounded on the north by Qatar and the Persian Gulf, on the east by the Gulf of Oman, and on the south and west by Saudi Arabia. The total area of the country is about 30,000 square miles ( The population grew rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s, largely because of alien workers, and was estimated (1999) at 2,344,400. Of these, 19 percent are Emiri, 23 percent are other Arabs and Iranians, 50 percent are South Asians (primarily Pakistanis), and 8 percent are Westerners and East Asians (U.S. Department of State website). The states are Abu Dhabi (Abu Zaby), Ajman, Dubayy, al-Fujayrah, Ras al-Khaymah, ash-Shariqah, and Umm al-Qaywayn. The town of Abu Dhabi is the union capital with the port of Dubayy serving as the commercial center of the union and northern Oman and has a large transshipment trade. The capitals of the states are on the Persian Gulf coast, except the capital of al-Fujayrah, which is on the coast of the Gulf of Oman ( The hinterland of the country is sandy and unproductive with the result that the population is very unevenly distributed. Most of the inhabitants live in the coastal towns and the rest in inland oases. The traditional occupations are date tending, pearl diving, camel breeding, and fishing but these have in large measure been replaced by the oil industry, which is now the major employer (Salloum, 1997). Most of the states have granted oil exploration concessions, but only Abu ...