1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
United Arab Emirates
Compare this sourced profile of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for Abu Dhabi—1,807,000, Asia/Dubai, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
Wikidata's localized description: capital city of the United Arab Emirates.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Abu Dhabi is GeoNames ID 292968. Its recorded administrative path is Abu Dhabi Municipality → Abu Dhabi → United Arab Emirates, and GeoNames classifies the place as a capital of a political entity. Abu Dhabi occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2026-06-30; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, Abu Dhabi ranks 239 by recorded population. Inside the 5 selected United Arab Emirates entries it ranks 2; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 54. Its 1,807,000 population value is 1.00 times the 1,800,000 median for the country cohort and 2.00 times the 902,588 regional median. Abu Dhabi is rank 2 among the 5 selected United Arab Emirates entries, so a percentage band would overstate this small cohort. Abu Dhabi's recorded value stays within one quarter of the country-cohort median used here. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Abu Dhabi's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Dubai at 115.462 km with 3,790,000 recorded people; Al Ain City at 141.149 km with 846,747 recorded people; Sharjah at 141.869 km with 1,800,000 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 26.407 km. Compared with Dubai, Abu Dhabi's recorded population is 0.48 times as large. Against Abu Dhabi, Dubai follows Dubai → United Arab Emirates in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected United Arab Emirates cohort, uses the shared Asia/Dubai identifier, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is above Abu Dhabi's. Against Abu Dhabi, Al Ain City follows Al Ain Municipality → Abu Dhabi → United Arab Emirates in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected United Arab Emirates cohort, uses the shared Asia/Dubai identifier, and carries populated place rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is below Abu Dhabi's. Against Abu Dhabi, Sharjah follows Sharjah → United Arab Emirates in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected United Arab Emirates cohort, uses the shared Asia/Dubai identifier, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is below Abu Dhabi's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 752 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Abu Dhabi's nearest-coordinate gap belongs to the wider half of atlas distances. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 292968, the coordinate pair 24.4512 / 54.3970, country rank 2 of 5, and neighbor GeoNames 292223 at 115.462 km bind Abu Dhabi to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Abu Dhabi's reference point is 24.4512° north and 54.3970° east. The IANA identifier Asia/Dubai is shared by 5 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLC is shared by 129 rows. Abu Dhabi's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Abu Dhabi's point falls in the lower-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Abu Dhabi's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Abu Dhabi, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Abu Dhabi's closest other entries in this atlas are Dubai (115.462 km), Al Ain City (141.149 km), Sharjah (141.869 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Abu Dhabi, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2026-06-30; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.