The population registry will collect and safeguard important data on the emirate’s population…

Being able to serve and improve the lives of a population to the fullest, requires you to understand that population. And that certainly seems to be at the heart of Executive Council Resolution No. (50) of 2024, which calls for “the creation of a unified Dubai population registry” with “real-time data on Dubai’s residents”.

The mandate has come from His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the UAE, and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, and seeks to provide the government with the best, and most accurate information on the population of Dubai. Equipped with this data, the authorities will then be able to make more reliable forecasts, develop policy that reflects the needs of the people and govern with optimum efficiency.

This rigid information-capturing process will consolidate and solidify detailed population data into one seamless operation.

An interesting case

According to a 2024 survey, Dubai’s population is 88.5 per cent expat. That ratio of citizen to migrant, represents a rare and fascinating statistic amongst the global demographic. This multicultural make-up, along with the protective mantra of tolerance being issued by the leadership, gives Dubai a unqiue cultural profundity and inspires a diverse cosmos of talent and ideas.

The world really would benefit from studying Dubai’s population and leadership.

Safe as houses

The task of collecting, linking, reconciling, auditing and setting permission for accessing the information contained within the population registry will be fulfilled by the Dubai Data and Statistics Establishment.

They will work in unison with Dubai Cyber Security Centre whose core responsibilities include maintaining data protection to the highest levels. The Cyber Security team will regularly perform audits to ensure best policy is best applied.

Next steps

As soon as we have information on what the data collection process loos like and and when it starts, we’ll issue an update. But it’s likely to include typical census style questions.