Five years in a row, that is how long UAE has held its top position in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. GEM is the world’s most comprehensive study of entrepreneurial activity, the 2025/2026 edition of the report confirms so. The UAE’s entrepreneurship ecosystem outperformed multiple advanced economies, and reinforced its position as the best place in the world to start a business. The success is a Remarkable story of a sustained ecosystem building that deserves to be examined not just ask ranking but as a blueprint
What The GEM Report Measures
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor is the world’s most comprehensive study of entrepreneurship, now in its 27th year. It draws data from 53 different economies that represent around 43 percent of the global population and 57 percent of global GDP. It is different from the business registration that simply counts the registered companies.
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GEM collects data directly from the individuals through surveys. It captures the lived experience of entrepreneurs, something beyond the headlines the government chooses to publish. The 2025/2026 edition covers 53 economies using extensive expert data. The UAEs top score means it did not top a weak list, but outperformed a large credible field.
Eight Indicators, One Winner
The UAE ranked first across eight major indicators. These include infrastructure, government policies, taxation systems, entrepreneurship programs, research and development transfers, market dynamics, regulatory ease, and entrepreneurship education. Individually, many developed economies performed well in one or two of these areas, while the UAE stood out in the competition by performing first across all its areas simultaneously.
The UAE is one of the four countries that reached or exceeded the declared “sufficiency” level across GEM’s entrepreneurship framework conditions. It is a benchmark that highlights the depth and maturity of UAE’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. Other countries on the list are India, Lithuania, and Saudi Arabia. The United Arab Emirates also ranked second in both entrepreneurial finance and ease of access to funding globally. This highlights the strength and flexibility of the UAE’s financial system.
Who Is Starting Businesses?
The ranking is not based on policy documents alone, the human activity behind it is also significant. with more than 20 percent adults involved in starting new business, the UAE’s total early-stage entrepreneurial activity rate reached 19.2 percent. The activity noted at 19.6 percent among citizens and 22.4 percent among residents. This is an indicator that the UAE’s entrepreneurship ecosystem is actively attracting talent from beyond its national population.
The report also presented strong and growing female entrepreneurial participation. More than half of entrepreneurs surveyed cited family traditions as a key for starting a business. This reflects what GEM described as a deeply embedded entrepreneurial culture, not just a purely transactional business environment.
UAE’s Entrepreneurship Ecosystem; The Next Chapter
The United Arab Emirates is among only six countries where entrepreneurs consider AI to be critically important, highlighting the readiness for a digital economy. This alignment is not considered accidental. The government has invested a considerable amount in AI infrastructure and national AI strategies along with educational pipelines to prepare citizens and residents for technology-driven business models.
Along with Taiwan, Norway, and Sweden, the UAE also received an excellent rating in sustainability priorities and AI awareness. This shows the integration of innovation and sustainability in the business ecosystem. The positioning of UAE in sustainability and AI is a deliberate pivot for a country whose economy has always been anchored in hydrocarbons.
What Does The Government Say?
The minister of Economy and Tourism, Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, connected the ranking directly to national policy. He noted that this achievement is a direct result of the leadership vision of placing entrepreneurship and small and medium-size enterprises central to building a competitive economy that is driven by innovation. He linked the results to “We the UAE 2031” vision, which targets the UAE’s position as a global hub for the economy across sectors like technology, AI, and renewable energy.
The UAE’s entrepreneurship ecosystem has proven its consistency over five consecutive reporting cycles. It went through a global pandemic, a period of regional conflict, and sustained economic freshers on multiple fronts. Staying consistent at the top of a global benchmark across that kind of turbulence is not luck, but infrastructure, policy and execution working in alignment. The GEM report for the fifth year running confirms that the alignment is holding.
