Digital 2027 UAE: 99% online, with YouTube and LinkedIn ad audiences growing fastest.

DataReportal has published its Digital 2027 report for the United Arab Emirates, part of the Global Digital Reports series produced with Meltwater and We Are Social. It puts almost the whole population online and shows ad audiences on YouTube and LinkedIn growing fastest over the past year.

Most platform figures are advertising reach numbers taken from each company's own ad tools. They are not monthly active users, and several exceed the UAE's population or its adult population, which DataReportal reports as published and flags as anomalies.

Key findings

• The UAE had 11.6m people in October 2026, up 1.9% in a year, with a median age of 31.6. Men made up 63.6% of the population.
• There were 11.5m internet users at the end of 2026, a penetration rate of 99%, which is DataReportal's cap.
• Cellular mobile connections reached 24.9m, equal to 215% of the population, up 7.6% in a year.
• Ookla's median mobile download speed was 675.51 Mbps, up 9.9% in the twelve months to August 2026, and the median fixed speed 382.40 Mbps.
• Social media user identities numbered 13.7m in October 2026, equal to 117% of the population and up 1.1m (9.1%) on late 2025. DataReportal stresses these may not be unique individuals.

Ad reach by platform, late 2026, according to each company's ad tools:

• TikTok: 13.7m users aged 18 and over, up 9.1% in a year and 4.0% between July and October.
• LinkedIn: 12.0m registered members, up 20.0% in a year. LinkedIn counts members, not active users.
• Facebook: 10.2m, up 5.2% in a year but down 4.2% between July and October.
• YouTube: 9.91m, up 18.4% in a year and equal to 86.1% of internet users.
• Instagram: 8.90m, up 10.6% in a year but down 5.8% between July and October; 93.3% of adults, by Meta's figures.
• Snapchat: 5.09m, down 0.8% in a year.
• Pinterest: 3.08m, down 6.6% between July and October.
• X: 2.08m, down 27.2% in a year and 5.7% between July and October; DataReportal warns X's figures are volatile.

Most platforms' ad audiences skew male, from 61.8% on Snapchat to 74.0% on Facebook, broadly in line with a population that is 63.6% male. Pinterest is the exception, with an audience 62.9% female.

How the research was done

DataReportal's figures combine sources rather than a single survey. Population data comes from the United Nations, mobile connections from GSMA Intelligence and speeds from Ookla. Internet users are estimated by Manochi, the analysis firm behind the series, from the ITU, GSMA Intelligence, national regulators and statistics offices, and Google's and Meta's planning tools. Social media figures are Manochi's analysis of platforms' advertising resources, and platform usage among adults online comes from GWI's survey for Q2 2026. DataReportal warns that source changes and revisions mean the numbers may not be comparable with earlier reports, and advises using the change figures it publishes rather than recalculating growth.

What it means for marketers

The main lesson is caution with reach. When TikTok's adult ad audience equals 143.9% of the UAE's adults, the figure says more about how platforms count residents, visitors and duplicate accounts in a mobile, expatriate market than about real people, so planners should not add platform reaches together. The direction is more useful: YouTube's ad audience grew by 1.54m in a year and LinkedIn's by 2m, while Meta's two apps both slipped in the latest quarter, which DataReportal notes can reflect Meta's own data revisions rather than lost users. Our read: for B2B brands and recruiters, LinkedIn's growth stands out. For consumer brands, Instagram slipped in the latest quarter while YouTube and TikTok kept growing, so planning video across all three looks safer than leaning on one. DataReportal had not published a Digital 2027 report for Saudi Arabia when this was written.

About this report

Published by DataReportal (Kepios), with Meltwater and We Are Social, November 2026. Free. Get the full report from DataReportal

Sources

• DataReportal, "Digital 2027: The United Arab Emirates" (4 November 2026)