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United Arab Emirates

OFFICIAL NAME: United Arab Emirates

DATE OF FORMATION: 1971

POPULATION: 3.1 million

DENSITY: 96 people per square mile

LANGUAGES: Arabic, Farsi, Indian and Pakistani languages, English

RELIGIONS: Muslim (mainly Sunni) 96%, Christian, Hindu, and other 4%

ETHNIC MIX: Asian 60%, Emirian 25%, Other Arab 12%, European 3%

GOVERNMENT: No legislative elections

CURRENCY: UAE dirham

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The United Arab Emirates (UAE), created in 1971, is the Arab world's only working federation. Six of its seven emirates cluster around the northeastern corner of the country, while Abu Dhabi has a larger hinterland of semiarid desert relieved by occasional oases. The cities, watered by extensive irrigation systems, have lavish greenery. Prosperity once relied on pearls, but the UAE is now a sizable gas and oil exporter, and has a growing services sector.