1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
United Arab Emirates
Compare this sourced profile of Dubai, 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 Dubai—3,790,000, 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: most populous city in the United Arab Emirates and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Dubai is GeoNames ID 292223. Its recorded administrative path is Dubai → United Arab Emirates, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Dubai 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 2026-04-13; 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, Dubai ranks 91 by recorded population. Inside the 5 selected United Arab Emirates entries it ranks 1; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 19. Its 3,790,000 population value is 2.11 times the 1,800,000 median for the country cohort and 4.20 times the 902,588 regional median. Dubai is rank 1 among the 5 selected United Arab Emirates entries, so a percentage band would overstate this small cohort. Dubai's recorded value reaches at least twice the country-cohort median in this snapshot. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Dubai's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Sharjah at 30.391 km with 1,800,000 recorded people; Ajman at 39.91 km with 490,035 recorded people; Al Ain City at 108.523 km with 846,747 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 78.132 km. Compared with Sharjah, Dubai's recorded population is 2.11 times as large. Against Dubai, 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 the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is below Dubai's. Against Dubai, Ajman follows Ajman → 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 the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is below Dubai's. Against Dubai, 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 first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Dubai's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 318 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Dubai's nearest-coordinate gap sits in the second quarter 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 292223, the coordinate pair 25.0773 / 55.3093, country rank 1 of 5, and neighbor GeoNames 292672 at 30.391 km bind Dubai to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Dubai's reference point is 25.0773° north and 55.3093° east. The IANA identifier Asia/Dubai is shared by 5 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Dubai's row carries a first-order administrative label but no second-order label. Dubai's point falls in the lower-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Dubai's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Dubai, 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
Dubai's closest other entries in this atlas are Sharjah (30.391 km), Ajman (39.91 km), Al Ain City (108.523 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Dubai, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2026-04-13; 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.