Cost of living in United Arab Emirates

Transparent single-person basket from official UAE tariffs (DEWA, RTA) + Carrefour UAE published shelf prices, cross-checked against World Bank national-accounts household consumption per capita ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jul 4, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Built as a bottom-up single-person monthly basket (excl. rent), each line from a real source, converted at the CBUAE peg 3.6725 AED/USD (used elsewhere in this file for consistency). Inputs (AED/mo): groceries 950 (Carrefour UAE shelf prices — e.g. fresh milk 1L 4.99, eggs 30pcs 13.99–22.49, chicken 1kg ~23, basmati rice 5kg ~13 — scaled to a single-person cook-at-home basket, consistent with the widely reported AED 800–1,200 single grocery range); restaurants/eating out 500; communications 350 (etisalat/du home internet + mobile); recreation/culture 300; transport 230 (RTA Dubai Nol Silver 2-zone monthly pass, official rta.ae); utilities 186 (DEWA official residential slab: electricity ~500 kWh × (0.23 + 0.06 fuel surcharge) AED/kWh + water ~6 m³ × (0.77 + 1.10) AED/m³ + misc/sewerage); household goods & toiletries 150; clothing (amortised) 150; miscellaneous 150; health out-of-pocket 120. Total ≈ AED 3,086/mo = USD 840 at 3.6725. Cross-check (upper bound): World Bank national accounts give UAE households final consumption USD 234.51bn / 10,483,751 population (2023) = USD 1,864/mo per capita all-in; removing an ~30% shelter (rent/imputed-rent) share leaves ≈ USD 1,305/mo non-rent — but that per-capita MEAN is pulled up by a wealthy Emirati/high-earner minority, so it overstates a typical single remote worker; the bottom-up basket (USD 840) is reported to stay comparable with the one-person-household figures used for Poland/Slovakia. Curated: the ideal single official source (FCSC/DSC household budget survey category basket, and the MoET Essential Goods Prices Platform) is either unpublished in machine-readable form or a live tool that was down at verification, so this is a reproducible basket, not a single national statistic. National-level; Dubai runs higher than Abu Dhabi/Sharjah.

Dubai Land Department RERA Rental Index + Abu Dhabi ADREC Rental Index (official market indices; market-report ranges) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jun 30, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Dubai 1-bedroom city-average asking rent ≈ AED 80,000/yr (mid of the AED 60,000–100,000 market range benchmarked to the DLD/RERA Rental Index) = AED 6,667/mo; Abu Dhabi 1-bedroom ≈ AED 6,800/mo (ADREC Rental Index range AED 5,000–9,500, midpoint). Population-weighted across the two covered cities (Dubai ≈ 3.8m, Abu Dhabi region ≈ 2.82m) ≈ AED 6,720/mo ≈ USD 1,830 at the 3.6725 AED/USD peg; recorded as ~USD 1,815. Curated: the official DLD/ADREC indices are interactive (per-district) and were not captured as a single national number, so this is a benchmarked market midpoint over the two cities, not a national average.

UAE private medical insurance market (comprehensive inpatient+outpatient plans) — market midpoint; insurers quote on request. Mandate: u.ae health insurance for resident expatriates ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jul 4, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Health insurance is mandatory for residence-visa holders (Abu Dhabi and Dubai; extending to the other emirates from 2025). The official basic mandatory package is only ~AED 320/yr but is NOT comprehensive. Comprehensive plans covering both outpatient and inpatient care for a healthy ~35-year-old run roughly AED 3,000–7,000/yr at the mid tier (premium/worldwide plans AED 8,000–20,000+). Midpoint of the comprehensive mid tier ≈ AED 6,000/yr ≈ USD 1,633 at the 3.6725 AED/USD peg (range ≈ USD 815–1,900 mid tier). Curated market midpoint from public UAE insurance-market pricing summaries; premiums are quoted on request per applicant, not from a single public engine quote.