Dubai population continues to expand rapidly

Dubai continues to be one of the fastest expanding cities on the planet, with new figures showing the population increased by five per cent last year.According to the Dubai Statistics Centre, there were 2.1 million people living in the emirate in 2012 and men made up more than three-quarters of the population, the National reports.This gender imbalance was attributed to male expats who are moving to Dubai without their families.Director of population and social statistics at the centre Juma Al Hosani told the news provider that the city has managed to maintain a solid rate of annual growth, although this has slowed slightly since 2008.He said the organisation is always monitoring immigration patterns in the UAE and also keeps tabs on which people are living in particular towns and cities."Sometimes you might see in a year locals moving to another new area and this area is dominated by labourers, et cetera," Mr Al Hosani was quoted as saying."We keep monitoring them and we do regular surveys to go into the field and check the correct data."The figures showed that Muhaisnah 2 was the most populated neighbourhood in Dubai, while there were more than one million daily visitors to Dubai during the course of last year - up by two per cent on 2011.People from all over the world are moving to Dubai on a permanent basis thanks to the excellent job opportunities, favourable tax system and relatively low cost of living.A study recently undertaken by the Economist Intelligence Unit suggested that Dubai is only the 96th most expensive major metropolis in the world.The organisation scrutinised the price of everyday goods in a plethora of cities and it emerged that Dubai is a far more affordable place to live than other popular places like London, Tokyo and Sydney.With this in mind, it will be no surprise to see the emirate's population grow yet again in 2013.