Nation Runner

Flag of United Arab EmiratesCountry desk · updated 12 Nov

United Arab Emirates

40 seats, and Members elected by the electoral college holds 20.

Key takeaways

  1. 1

    Parliament. Members elected by the electoral college holds the most seats: 20 of 40 (50%). A majority needs 21.

  2. 2

    Headlines. The tone is brightening: 8% of the last 14 days' headlines read grim, 15% upbeat. Top topic: Politics (32%).

  3. 3

    Government. Government barometer 58/100 (Builder). 0 of 2 moves on file read as smart, 0 as harmful.

Headline mood · 14 days

Line: mood · bars: stories

12 Nov · 3 stories · neutral0 upbeat · 3 neutral · 0 grim

What the headlines are about

  • Other 35%
  • Politics 32%
  • Climate 12%
  • Economy 10%
  • Security 7%
  • Society 5%

A simple word-list estimate from the daily wire headlines. Not a judgement.

Who holds the seats · Federal National Council

40 seats · 21 for a majority (line)

Members elected by the electoral college

20 seats · 50%

20 of 40 seats. IPU Parline records that an electoral college of 398,879 Emiratis elected 20 of the 40 members on 7 October 2023. 175,487 voted, a turnout of 44.0 percent. There are no political parties; all candidates ran as independents. The figure in the poll column is that turnout, not a share of support.

Map · mood compared

United Arab Emirates

Overall mood: 8% grim, 15% upbeat · today +0

What changed today

12 Nov

  • 12 Nov: 3 stories (average 4); tone grimmer than usual.

New headlines

Earlier this week: 10 more headlines

Headlines and summaries come from the linked sources; the selection is automatic.

Go deeper

Parties, people, promises, money

Seats 7 October 2023 · votes at that election

40 seats, and Members elected by the electoral college holds 20.

The seat map is IPU Parline, Federal National Council, election of 7 October 2023. It shows 40 seats: Members elected by the electoral college 20, Members appointed by the rulers 20. A majority of 40 is 21. Seats are split by emirate: Abu Dhabi and Dubai 8 each, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah 6 each, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah 4 each, half elected and half appointed. The next election is due in 2027. There are no parties and no vote shares. The trend line is electoral college turnout from IPU Parline for 2015, 2019 and 2023, not a poll.

A score on this desk is an editorial average of six work topics, times ten, with the method written on the row.

The room

Federal National Council

40 seats · 20 elected by the electoral college · 20 appointed by the rulers · no parties

The deal

20 seats elected, 20 appointed, no parties

The Federal National Council has 40 seats. An electoral college of 398,879 Emiratis elected 20 in 2023; the rulers of the seven emirates appoint the other 20. There are no parties and no governing majority: the council advises, and the Federal Cabinet is appointed.

The mood

Election vs now

The left bar is the vote share. The right bar is seats divided by 40. They are different counts.

  • Elected
    44.0%
  • Appointed
    0.0%

The UAE has no parties and no opinion polls on party support, so this line is not a poll. It is turnout in the electoral college that elects 20 of the 40 members, as IPU Parline records it: 79,157 of 224,279 in 2015, 117,592 of 337,738 in 2019 and 175,487 of 398,879 in 2023.

The trend

From election night to now

Public pollster blend — not a forecast

The split

Seat share beside the vote share

The right bar is seats divided by 40. The left bar is the vote share. The electoral system means the two differ.

The mismatch

Seats they hold vs the poll

The seat bar is seats divided by 40. The other bar is electoral college turnout in 2023 as IPU Parline records it.

The rude gauge

Growth king or a fight with work

Who grows the pie, who picks a fight with work. Cabinet sits at 58 / 100. The number is an editorial reading, not an official index. Six topics are averaged and multiplied by ten: energy supply, hiring, keeping and investing money, building, hours in paid work, and paperwork. Ten means the public record makes that easier for work. Zero means it makes it harder. The band is a label for that average, not a court ruling.

Against the workBuilderGrowth king

Full causal chains live on every promise

This week

The pulse

Parliament

20 of 40 seats elected

IPU Parline records that 175,487 of 398,879 electoral college members voted, a turnout of 44.0 percent, up from 34.8 percent in 2019.

Taxes

Corporate tax stays at 9 percent

The published UAE summary, reviewed on 9 September 2026, keeps the federal corporate tax at 9 percent above AED 375,000.

Politics 101

How this country actually works

What this chamber drawing is

40 seats. 21 to govern alone.

The seat map is IPU Parline, Federal National Council, election of 7 October 2023. It shows 40 seats: Members elected by the electoral college 20, Members appointed by the rulers 20. A majority of 40 is 21. Seats are split by emirate: Abu Dhabi and Dubai 8 each, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah 6 each, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah 4 each, half elected and half appointed. The next election is due in 2027. There are no parties and no vote shares. The trend line is electoral college turnout from IPU Parline for 2015, 2019 and 2023, not a poll.

Who holds the offices this desk names

Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President; Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister.

Office holders come from the CIA World Leaders list for the UAE, updated 25 June 2025. Party leaders are named from the press reports linked on each bio.

How foreigners are seen

Openness in United Arab Emirates

Published surveys only. Each figure shows its source and year.

Who's welcomed

Share of adults in United Arab Emirates with a favourable opinion of each country Pew asked about. A view of a country, not of its people.

UnknownNo country view on file

Pew's 2025 Global Attitudes survey did not poll in United Arab Emirates, and no other survey of views of other countries is on this desk yet. Nothing is guessed. The other measures here, and the comparison below, still work.

Welcoming index

Derived from the two published measures below, not a survey result. Each input keeps its own year.

46.7/100

Mean of Gallup 5.79 of 9 (2016), rescaled to 64.3, and MIPEX 29 of 100 (2019).

The measures behind it (shown separately)

What expats say

InterNations Expat Insider 2025: rank out of 46 destinations, 1 is best.

  • Ease of settling in11 of 46
  • Culture and welcome8 of 46
  • Local friendliness11 of 46
  • Finding friends14 of 46

InterNations, Expat Insider 2025

All desks side by side

Pick a measure. Countries without a published figure show Unknown and sit at the end; they are not counted in the average.

Average of the 20 of 22 desks with a figure: 63.3 of 100. Unknown left out: Georgia, Thailand.

  1. Canada85.72024
  2. United States80.72020
  3. Portugal78.42023
  4. Australia76.82019
  5. Spain73.32024
  6. Ireland72.52023
  7. Netherlands69.92023
  8. Switzerland65.12019
  9. Italy65.12023
  10. United Kingdom64.72020
  11. Germany64.62023
  12. South Korea64.12020
  13. France63.62024
  14. Japan59.22019
  15. Mexico51.92019
  16. Malta51.52024
  17. Cyprus50.62024
  18. United Arab Emiratesthis desk46.72019
  19. Greece43.12024
  20. Estonia38.72024
  21. GeorgiaUnknownMIPEX does not cover this country, so the index cannot be built.
  22. ThailandUnknownMIPEX does not cover this country, so the index cannot be built.

In plain words

  • Expats ranked United Arab Emirates 11 of 46 for ease of settling in (2025); its best sub-score was culture and welcome at 8.
  • No published survey here asks people about other countries, so who's welcomed is unknown for this country.

Sources and method are listed under “How we source this” at the bottom of the page.

What it means for you

What it means for you

Only figures with a source and a date. Each source is listed under “How we source this” at the bottom of the page. Anything not listed here is not on file.

  • Taxes

    The general rate is 5 percent, with some goods and services at 0 percent or exempt.

  • Business

    The headline federal corporate tax rate is 9 percent on taxable income above AED 375,000.

  • Pay

    The portal states that the UAE does not levy income tax on individuals, so the rate is 0 percent.

Sources, licences and image credits

Data

  • Wire (public RSS feeds): The National, X.
  • The left bar is the vote share. The right bar is seats divided by 40. They are different counts.
  • Editorial economic-competence gauge, not a court and not a Nobel. Six axes: energy, hiring, capital, building, hours in work, red tape. Scores are a judgement from public records of this term and the last — not a bribery charge, not a voting recommendation.

Survey sources

  • United Arab Emirates — Gallup Migrant Acceptance Index 2016: Gallup. Neli Esipova, John Fleming and Julie Ray, “New Index Shows Least-, Most-Accepting Countries for Migrants”, Gallup, 23 August 2017. The full-country table lists United Arab Emirates at 5.79. The survey-methods note says the index was asked in 138 countries in 2016, so the year used here is 2016. Source. Gallup allows a contextual citation when the publication date and a link are given. The table and graphics are not reproduced.
  • United Arab Emirates — MIPEX overall score 2019: MIPEX. Migrant Integration Policy Index, United Arab Emirates country page. The block headed 2019 prints “MIPEX Score (with Health): 29” and the label “Integration denied”. Source. The overall score is cited from the country page. The report is not reproduced.

Image credits

  • Members elected by the electoral college mark — Nation Runner · Original geometric mark. Not an official party logo. Public domain. Source
  • Members appointed by the rulers mark — Nation Runner · Original geometric mark. Not an official party logo. Public domain. Source
  • Federal Cabinet (no FNC seat) mark — Nation Runner · Original geometric mark. Not an official party logo. Public domain. Source
  • Flag of United Arab Emirates — Wikimedia Commons · Public domain Source
Questions the desk actually answers

FAQ

Questions the desk actually answers

Is the United Arab Emirates desk live on Nation Runner?
Yes. It draws IPU Parline, Federal National Council, election of 7 October 2023, IPU Parline's electoral college figures for 2015, 2019 and 2023, and the CIA World Leaders list for the UAE, updated 25 June 2025. It is an editorial dashboard, not an official record.
Which culture figures does the United Arab Emirates desk show?
Gallup’s Migrant Acceptance Index for United Arab Emirates in 2016 (5.79 out of 9) and the Migrant Integration Policy Index score of 29, with 2019 printed beside that score. No Pew row for the UAE is on the perceptions page, so none is added here.
Does the money tab score political donations in United Arab Emirates?
No. Zeros mean the access scale is not filled. A zero is not a finding that a party has no donors.
How we source this

Seats: IPU Parline, Federal National Council, election of 7 October 2023. Votes: IPU Parline's electoral college figures for 2015, 2019 and 2023. Ballot support: FNC election 2019 (turnout); FNC election 2023 (turnout). Offices: the CIA World Leaders list for the UAE, updated 25 June 2025. Culture: Gallup 2016 and the Migrant Integration Policy Index block headed 2019.

How foreigners are seen

Pew asks adults for their opinion of a country. That is a view of the country, not of its people or of any visitor. We never estimate a pair that was not asked; it shows as unknown.

InterNations ranks come from expats living in the country (46 destinations in 2025). Gallup's Migrant Acceptance Index runs from 0 to 9. MIPEX scores integration law and policy from 0 to 100.

Welcoming index: the mean of the Gallup index rescaled to 0–100 (score ÷ 9 × 100) and the MIPEX overall score, rounded to one decimal. It is derived, not a survey result, and the two inputs come from different years. If either input is missing the index is unknown: it is not estimated, it sorts last and it is left out of the average.

What it means for you

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