The Seven Emirates: A Simple Guide for Young Children

The United Arab Emirates is made up of seven Emirates: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, and Fujairah. They joined together to form one country in 1971. With young children, the best place to start is the Emirate you live in, then the ones nearby.

What are the seven Emirates of the UAE?

The seven Emirates are Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, and Fujairah. Together they make up the United Arab Emirates, and you can see all seven listed on the UAE government's own overview of the seven Emirates.

An Emirate is a region with its own ruler. Each of the seven has its own leader, its own government for local matters, and its own personality, while they all share one flag, one currency, and one federal government. For a young child, it is enough to begin with the simple structure: the UAE is one country made up of seven Emirates, and each Emirate has its own name.

My niece and nephew live in Abu Dhabi and love coming to stay with me in Sharjah, and that short trip turned out to be the easiest way to explain the country to them. I never reached for the word “federation” or tried to explain how the government works. I just asked them where they live, then where they were standing right now. Two Emirates, two names, one drive between them. The country got bigger in their minds one Emirate at a time, which is how it should be.

When did the seven Emirates become one country?

The seven Emirates came together to form the UAE on 2 December 1971, which is why the country celebrates its National Day on 2 December every year. The late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan became the country's first President and is known as the Father of the Nation.

For children, National Day is the natural way in, because they already know it. It means flags, decorations at nursery, and celebrations they can feel before they can explain. Linking the seven Emirates to a day they enjoy gives the whole idea a hook. You're not teaching a fact in isolation; you're explaining something behind a day they already love.

A simple guide to each of the seven Emirates

Here's a short, child-friendly way to describe each one. The goal isn't to memorise statistics. It's to give your child one or two things they can picture and recognise.

Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE and the largest Emirate. It is home to the country's government, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, and long stretches of desert in the Al Dhafra region. If your child has seen the big white mosque, they have already met Abu Dhabi.

Dubai is the Emirate many children recognise first, thanks to the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. It is a busy place of tall towers, beaches, and one of the world's busiest airports.

Sharjah is widely known as the cultural heart of the UAE. UNESCO named it the Cultural Capital of the Arab World in 1998, and it is full of museums, heritage areas, and old souqs. If you want your child to see what the region looked like long ago, Sharjah is the Emirate to visit.

Ajman is the smallest Emirate. It sits right next to Sharjah and has a relaxed corniche. Because it's so close to its bigger neighbour, it's an easy way to show a child how a small Emirate and a large one can sit side by side in the same country.

Umm Al Quwain is one of the quietest Emirates, known for its lagoons, mangroves, and birdlife. It is a good one to connect to nature and animals rather than buildings.

Ras Al Khaimah sits in the north and is home to Jebel Jais, the highest mountain in the UAE. For children who love the idea of mountains in a country famous for desert, this is the surprising one.

Fujairah is the only Emirate on the country's east coast, facing the Gulf of Oman rather than the Arabian Gulf. It has mountains, beaches, and one of the oldest mosques in the country, which makes it easy to talk about as the Emirate “on the other side.”

I've lived in three of these Emirates over the years, and what struck me with my niece and nephew is that I rarely had to explain how the Emirates differ, because they felt it themselves. They'd clock that Sharjah's old souqs and museums feel nothing like the wide modern roads they know in Abu Dhabi. Between the trips and the conversations along the way, they understood that the country has seven distinct parts well before they'd learn it at school.

How do you teach the seven Emirates to a young child?

Start with the Emirate your child lives in, then move to the ones nearby, and treat it as something you build over weeks rather than in one sitting. Young children learn place through experience and repetition, not lists, so the lightest touch tends to work best.

A few approaches that work well at home:

•       Begin with “ours.” Point out your own Emirate first, then its neighbours, so the country grows outward from something familiar.

•       Use a map they can handle. A physical, tactile map lets a child connect a name to a shape and a place to a position, which is far stickier than pointing at a screen. When you want to go deeper on a particular Emirate, our interactive UAE map lets children tap a spot to discover a child-friendly fact, then scroll to a colourful picture and a little more detail.

•       Tie each Emirate to one landmark or feature. Dubai has the tall tower, Sharjah has the museums, Ras Al Khaimah has the mountain. One memorable hook per Emirate is plenty.

•       Connect it to a real trip. A drive to another Emirate for the weekend turns an abstract name into a memory.

•       Keep it light and repeat often. A two-minute chat in the car beats a long lesson at the table.

This is also where culturally relevant learning tools earn their place. When the map, the pictures, and the names a child handles reflect the country they live in, the learning sticks in a way that a generic world map never quite manages.

Frequently asked questions

How many Emirates are there in the UAE?

There are seven Emirates: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, and Fujairah. They came together as one country in 1971.

What is the capital of the UAE?

Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE and also its largest Emirate. It's home to the federal government and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

Which is the smallest Emirate?

Ajman is the smallest of the seven Emirates by area. It sits next to Sharjah on the country's western coast.

At what age can children learn the seven Emirates?

Children as young as three can begin recognising the Emirate they live in and naming one or two others, especially with a map or a puzzle to handle. Most children build a fuller picture of all seven gradually through the early years, helped by repetition, trips, and everyday conversation.