United Arab Emirates has taken first place worldwide in 10 healthcare competitiveness indicators for 2025, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Health and Prevention in coordination with the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre, with the standings drawn from the Sustainable Development Goals report, the Prosperity Index and the Global Gender Gap Report. The result places the country at the top of a cluster of measures spanning maternal care, disease prevention, immunisation and civil registration, while also keeping it inside the global top 10 in seven other health-related indicators.
The first-place indicators cover sex ratio at birth, birth registration for children under five, tuberculosis incidence, maternal mortality ratio, prenatal care coverage, absence of deaths and injuries from natural disasters, availability of national early-detection programmes, healthcare coverage, low household air pollution from fuel use and measles immunisation. Officials presented the rankings as evidence that the country’s health model is being judged not only on hospital treatment capacity but also on prevention, basic public health systems and the reach of essential services. The same assessment cycle also placed the country among the top 10 worldwide in indicators including wasting among children under five, health infrastructure, healthy life expectancy and satisfaction with healthcare services.
The announcement lands at a time when the wider competitiveness machinery of the state is being more tightly organised. The Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre says the National Competitiveness Committee, established in 2024, is designed to monitor global trends, integrate national data and improve standing across international benchmarks. That matters in healthcare because many of the indicators used by global bodies are only partly about hospitals; they also test how well governments collect data, register births, detect risk early and maintain broad access to essential services. By that standard, the latest rankings suggest the UAE has become especially strong in the administrative and preventive foundations of health policy.
Underlying capacity has expanded over time. The Ministry of Health and Prevention’s annual health sector report for 2023 recorded 173 operating hospitals across the country, including 56 in the government sector and 117 in the private sector, with 18,497 beds in total. The same report counted 155,618 health workers, including 31,844 medical doctors, 9,413 dentists, 16,263 pharmacists, 65,510 nurses and 32,588 technicians. Hospital attendances reached 25.6 million in 2023, while visits to government health centres exceeded nine million. Those figures help explain why the country has been able to push both high-end treatment capacity and broad service coverage at the same time, especially in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which together account for the largest share of facilities, workforce and patient volumes.
Yet the rankings also need to be read carefully. Several of the measures in which the UAE came first are public-health or social indicators rather than a blanket verdict that every part of the system outperforms every other country. International datasets still show structural pressures familiar across wealthy Gulf states, particularly the burden of non-communicable disease. World Health Organization data show the UAE as a high-income country with health expenditure equal to 5.31 per cent of GDP in 2021, while WHO and related international health sources continue to flag non-communicable diseases as the leading cause of death. Diabetes remains a major challenge: the International Diabetes Federation estimates adult diabetes prevalence at 20.7 per cent in 2024, equivalent to about 1.27 million people. Global nutrition and obesity trackers also point to elevated overweight and obesity rates, signalling that preventive success in vaccination and maternal care does not remove the longer-term strain posed by lifestyle-linked illness.
That tension is becoming central to the next phase of policy. The same official narrative that celebrates leadership in prenatal care, measles coverage and early detection also stresses artificial intelligence, patient safety, workforce performance and adherence to international accreditation standards. MoHAP has tied part of that drive to innovation, including award-winning projects aimed at clinical excellence, while federal and local authorities continue to position the UAE as both a healthcare delivery hub and a destination for medical tourism and advanced treatment. For policymakers, the message is that headline rankings can strengthen the country’s global brand and attract investment, but maintaining that edge will depend on whether the system can convert strong prevention and infrastructure scores into measurable progress on chronic disease, healthy life expectancy and long-term cost pressure.
The first-place indicators cover sex ratio at birth, birth registration for children under five, tuberculosis incidence, maternal mortality ratio, prenatal care coverage, absence of deaths and injuries from natural disasters, availability of national early-detection programmes, healthcare coverage, low household air pollution from fuel use and measles immunisation. Officials presented the rankings as evidence that the country’s health model is being judged not only on hospital treatment capacity but also on prevention, basic public health systems and the reach of essential services. The same assessment cycle also placed the country among the top 10 worldwide in indicators including wasting among children under five, health infrastructure, healthy life expectancy and satisfaction with healthcare services.
The announcement lands at a time when the wider competitiveness machinery of the state is being more tightly organised. The Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre says the National Competitiveness Committee, established in 2024, is designed to monitor global trends, integrate national data and improve standing across international benchmarks. That matters in healthcare because many of the indicators used by global bodies are only partly about hospitals; they also test how well governments collect data, register births, detect risk early and maintain broad access to essential services. By that standard, the latest rankings suggest the UAE has become especially strong in the administrative and preventive foundations of health policy.
Underlying capacity has expanded over time. The Ministry of Health and Prevention’s annual health sector report for 2023 recorded 173 operating hospitals across the country, including 56 in the government sector and 117 in the private sector, with 18,497 beds in total. The same report counted 155,618 health workers, including 31,844 medical doctors, 9,413 dentists, 16,263 pharmacists, 65,510 nurses and 32,588 technicians. Hospital attendances reached 25.6 million in 2023, while visits to government health centres exceeded nine million. Those figures help explain why the country has been able to push both high-end treatment capacity and broad service coverage at the same time, especially in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which together account for the largest share of facilities, workforce and patient volumes.
Yet the rankings also need to be read carefully. Several of the measures in which the UAE came first are public-health or social indicators rather than a blanket verdict that every part of the system outperforms every other country. International datasets still show structural pressures familiar across wealthy Gulf states, particularly the burden of non-communicable disease. World Health Organization data show the UAE as a high-income country with health expenditure equal to 5.31 per cent of GDP in 2021, while WHO and related international health sources continue to flag non-communicable diseases as the leading cause of death. Diabetes remains a major challenge: the International Diabetes Federation estimates adult diabetes prevalence at 20.7 per cent in 2024, equivalent to about 1.27 million people. Global nutrition and obesity trackers also point to elevated overweight and obesity rates, signalling that preventive success in vaccination and maternal care does not remove the longer-term strain posed by lifestyle-linked illness.
That tension is becoming central to the next phase of policy. The same official narrative that celebrates leadership in prenatal care, measles coverage and early detection also stresses artificial intelligence, patient safety, workforce performance and adherence to international accreditation standards. MoHAP has tied part of that drive to innovation, including award-winning projects aimed at clinical excellence, while federal and local authorities continue to position the UAE as both a healthcare delivery hub and a destination for medical tourism and advanced treatment. For policymakers, the message is that headline rankings can strengthen the country’s global brand and attract investment, but maintaining that edge will depend on whether the system can convert strong prevention and infrastructure scores into measurable progress on chronic disease, healthy life expectancy and long-term cost pressure.
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