UAE Healthcare Statistics: Facilities, Beds and Doctors by Emirate
Short answer: The latest national UAE healthcare statistics from the Ministry of Health and Prevention count 173 operating hospitals with 18,497 beds, 7,029 health facilities and 31,844 doctors at the end of 2023. Abu Dhabi has the most hospitals and beds, Dubai has the most facilities and doctors, and the private sector runs about two thirds of hospitals and almost nine in ten facilities.
Last verified: October 2026 against the MOHAP UAE Statistical Annual Health Sector Report 2023 and the DHA Dubai Health Statistical Yearbook 2024.
Key Takeaways
- MOHAP’s 2023 report counts 173 operating hospitals (56 government, 117 private) and 18,497 beds, almost evenly split between the two sectors.
- Of 7,029 health facilities, 6,252 are private, and Dubai alone holds 46 percent of them.
- The UAE health workforce reached 155,618 people, including 31,844 doctors and 65,510 nurses, with Abu Dhabi and Dubai together employing about 81 percent.
- DHA’s own 2024 yearbook puts Dubai at 5,372 licensed facilities, 57 hospitals and 14,861 licensed physicians, because it counts pharmacies and uses a later year.
- Facility types are named differently by each regulator, so compare emirates on hospitals, beds and doctors rather than on clinic categories.
Hospitals and Beds by Emirate
Of all the UAE healthcare statistics, this is the table most clinic owners and investors ask us for. It comes from section 5.4 of the MOHAP report and shows operating hospitals and their beds at the end of 2023. The report notes that the number of operating hospitals differs from the number of licensed hospitals, so a hospital that holds a licence but has not opened is not in these figures.
| Emirate | Government Hospitals | Private Hospitals | Total Hospitals | Total Beds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abu Dhabi | 26 | 43 | 69 | 7,563 |
| Dubai | 7 | 45 | 52 | 6,177 |
| Sharjah | 8 | 20 | 28 | 1,892 |
| Ajman | 4 | 4 | 8 | 774 |
| Umm Al Quwain | 2 | 0 | 2 | 315 |
| Ras Al Khaimah | 6 | 3 | 9 | 1,194 |
| Fujairah | 3 | 2 | 5 | 582 |
| UAE | 56 | 117 | 173 | 18,497 |
Total beds fell from 19,102 in 2022 to 18,497 in 2023, with 9,514 in government hospitals and 8,983 in private ones. MOHAP puts bed occupancy at about 50 percent for 2023. Two patterns stand out. Government hospitals are much larger on average: Dubai’s seven government hospitals hold 2,273 beds between them, while its 45 private hospitals hold 3,904. And in Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah the public sector still carries most inpatient capacity, which matters if you are planning a private hospital or day surgery centre there.
Health Facilities by Emirate
Section 8.1 of the report counts every licensed health facility, from hospitals to clinics, labs, optical centres and school clinics.
| Emirate | Government | Private | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abu Dhabi | 514 | 1,478 | 1,992 |
| Dubai | 91 | 3,133 | 3,224 |
| Sharjah | 80 | 870 | 950 |
| Ajman | 15 | 294 | 309 |
| Umm Al Quwain | 10 | 47 | 57 |
| Ras Al Khaimah | 33 | 276 | 309 |
| Fujairah | 34 | 154 | 188 |
| UAE | 777 | 6,252 | 7,029 |
Dubai is almost entirely private at facility level, with 91 government facilities against 3,133 private ones. Abu Dhabi has far more government facilities (514), and 231 of those are school clinics.
Be careful with the clinic type breakdown in section 8.2. Each regulator uses its own categories. Dubai’s private facilities include 1,442 polyclinics, Abu Dhabi’s include 587 facilities classed simply as “Center”, and Sharjah and the northern emirates use “Medical Center” (690 private ones in total). A dental or GP clinic can sit under a different label in each emirate, so the categories do not line up for a direct comparison.
Doctors, Nurses and the Health Workforce
MOHAP counts 155,618 health workers at the end of December 2023: 31,844 doctors, 9,413 dentists, 16,263 pharmacists, 65,510 nurses and 32,588 technicians. Doctors rose from 27,268 in 2021.
| Emirate | Doctors | Dentists | Pharmacists | Nurses | Total Workforce |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abu Dhabi | 12,619 | 3,306 | 5,327 | 29,767 | 64,905 |
| Dubai | 13,211 | 4,069 | 6,469 | 23,654 | 61,236 |
| Sharjah | 3,192 | 1,041 | 2,258 | 6,381 | 15,391 |
| Ajman | 1,031 | 428 | 964 | 1,790 | 4,966 |
| Umm Al Quwain | 261 | 72 | 180 | 646 | 1,632 |
| Ras Al Khaimah | 884 | 299 | 661 | 1,865 | 4,360 |
| Fujairah | 646 | 198 | 404 | 1,407 | 3,128 |
| UAE | 31,844 | 9,413 | 16,263 | 65,510 | 155,618 |
The private sector employs 21,744 of the 31,844 doctors. Abu Dhabi has the largest total workforce (42 percent) and the most nurses, while Dubai has slightly more doctors, pharmacists and dentists. Against the preliminary 2023 population of 10,678,556 in the same report, that works out at roughly 3 doctors and 6 nurses for every 1,000 residents nationally.
Patient Activity: Visits and Admissions
UAE hospitals recorded 25,642,705 attendances in 2023, about 75 percent of them in private hospitals, plus 953,364 inpatient admissions. The split by emirate is revealing:
- Abu Dhabi: 12,736,544 hospital visits and 282,955 admissions with 1,242,211 days of stay.
- Dubai: 9,186,070 hospital visits and 472,713 admissions with 1,116,018 days of stay.
- Sharjah: 1,770,517 hospital visits and 99,828 admissions.
Dubai admits far more patients than Abu Dhabi but each stay is shorter: on these figures, a little over 2 days on average in Dubai against more than 4 in Abu Dhabi. For anyone modelling a new inpatient or day care service, that difference in case mix and length of stay changes the bed numbers you need.
Why Dubai’s Figures Differ Between MOHAP and DHA
DHA publishes its own Dubai Health Statistical Yearbook. The 2024 edition counts 5,372 licensed facilities, 57 hospitals, 66,070 licensed health workers, 14,861 physicians and 25,066 nurses, for a population of 3,863,600. Those numbers are higher than MOHAP’s Dubai row for three reasons: they are a year later, DHA counts licensed rather than operating hospitals, and its facility total includes 1,588 pharmacies, which do not appear as a category in the MOHAP facility tables. Of DHA’s 5,372 facilities, 1,665 are polyclinics, 473 are optical centres and 60 are day surgery centres.
Our advice for anyone reading UAE healthcare statistics is to use the MOHAP report when you compare emirates, because it applies one method to all seven, and use the DHA yearbook when you need the latest and most detailed Dubai picture. Do not mix the two in one table.
How We Chose These Figures
We started from the latest national edition we could find of the MOHAP UAE Statistical Annual Health Sector Report (the 2023 edition, prepared by the MOHAP Statistics and Research Center), because it is the only official source that covers all seven emirates on the same basis. We added the DHA Dubai Health Statistical Yearbook 2024 for the more recent Dubai detail. We did not find a comparable current statistics release from the Department of Health Abu Dhabi, so Abu Dhabi figures come from the MOHAP report. Emirates are listed in the same order the official tables use, not ranked. The per resident ratios and averages are our own arithmetic from the published totals, and we used no news articles, private databases or vendor reports as a source. OzaniX Partners is independent and is not paid by any hospital, authority or company named here.
Frequently Asked Questions.
How many hospitals are there in the UAE?
MOHAP’s 2023 statistical report counts 173 operating hospitals, 56 government and 117 private, with 18,497 beds. Abu Dhabi has 69, Dubai 52 and Sharjah 28. Licensed but not yet operating hospitals are not included.
How many doctors work in the UAE?
There were 31,844 doctors at the end of December 2023, up from 27,268 in 2021, plus 9,413 dentists. Dubai had 13,211 and Abu Dhabi 12,619. DHA’s own 2024 yearbook counts 14,861 licensed physicians in Dubai.
How many healthcare facilities are in Dubai?
DHA’s 2024 yearbook counts 5,372 licensed facilities including 1,588 pharmacies and 57 hospitals. MOHAP’s 2023 report shows 3,224 facilities for Dubai, a lower figure because it is a year earlier and does not count pharmacies as a facility category.
Is UAE healthcare mostly private?
At facility level, yes: 6,252 of 7,029 facilities are private, and private hospitals handled about 75 percent of hospital visits in 2023. Beds are closer to even, with 9,514 government and 8,983 private.
Where can I find official UAE healthcare statistics?
The MOHAP open data portal publishes the national Statistical Annual Health Sector Report, and DHA publishes the Dubai Health Statistical Yearbook on its website. Both are free PDF downloads.
Where This Comes From.
How OzaniX Partners Can Help.
UAE healthcare statistics like these are where a feasibility study starts, not where it ends. Our M&A, Expansion and Strategy team turns official capacity and workforce data into a market check for your specialty and emirate, with competitor mapping, payer checks and a realistic budget, so you know whether a new clinic, branch or hospital project has room to grow before you commit.
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