Digital Dubai’s DDSE — the Dubai Data and Statistics Establishment — has launched a new cycle of its annual Dubai Economic Survey 2026. More than 16,000 economic establishments across the emirate, including companies in every free zone, are invited to participate. Fieldwork runs through 31 December 2026.
According to preliminary DDSE estimates, Dubai’s GDP at current market prices rose from AED 890bn ($242.3bn) in 2024 to AED 972bn ($264.7bn) in 2025. Employment climbed from 4.48m to 4.69m people, and total employee compensation rose from AED 397bn to AED 409bn. Final 2025 figures will be refined based on this year’s survey — DDSE headline numbers are routinely revised after primary business data comes in.
What DES 2026 actually measures
The Dubai Economic Survey is the baseline statistical exercise from which DDSE computes Dubai’s official GDP, as well as indicators on output, value added, intermediate consumption, employment, employee compensation and workforce numbers. In practice, almost any figure Digital Dubai cites when discussing the state of the emirate’s economy is derived from surveys like this one.
Coverage spans 13 sectors: industry, trade, services, financial and insurance activities, real estate, transport, construction, health, education, ICT, hospitality, and culture and the arts. Invitations reach not only mainland companies on the Department of Economy and Tourism’s register, but also entities based in free zones — a point DDSE flags explicitly, and one that matters because choosing between a free zone and mainland remains one of the key questions when incorporating in the UAE.
Early Q1 2026 numbers: 2.4% growth
DDSE has already published preliminary data for the first quarter of 2026: Dubai’s GDP at constant prices reached AED 232bn, up 2.4% year on year. The main drivers were human health and social work activities (+17.5%), electricity, gas, water supply and waste management (+8.4%), construction (+8.2%), financial and insurance activities (+6.5%) and real estate (+3.1%).
Commenting on the release: Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General of Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism; Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Director General of Digital Dubai; Younus Al Nasser, CEO of DDSE; and Hadi Badri, CEO of Dubai Economic Development Corporation. The same cluster of agencies is also responsible for delivery of D33 — the strategy to double Dubai’s economy by 2033.
Why business participants should care
A DDSE invitation is not an optional questionnaire — it is part of a company’s regular interaction with the public statistics system. The quality and timeliness of the data submitted shape not just the headline macro numbers but also how the emirate is presented to investors, and the overall resilience of the UAE economy in the face of global volatility feeds directly into international capital’s appetite for the market.
A sensible playbook for a company that receives an invitation: appoint an owner (typically the CFO or head of accounting), pre-collect data on revenue, value added, intermediate consumption, headcount and payroll, reconcile with closed 2025 accounts, and submit on the DDSE calendar. A useful side-effect is realigning your internal management metrics with what the regulator sees.
Source and context
Core data and definitions are drawn from Digital Dubai and DDSE press materials (digitaldubai.ae). The Q1 2026 release (AED 232bn, +2.4%) was published on 8 July 2026; DES 2026 invitations went out in the first days of August. All figures are preliminary DDSE estimates and may be refined once the survey is complete.
