In the last five and a half years, the UAE has registered the greatest use of virtual private network (VPN) applications in the world.
As reported by Cybernews, the VPN adoption rate in UAE was 65.78 percent during 2020 to first half of 2025, followed by Qatar (55.43 percent), Singapore (38.23 percent), Nauru (35.49 percent), Oman (31 percent), Saudi Arabia (28.93 percent), Netherlands (21.77 percent), UK (19.63 percent), Kuwait (17.88 percent) and Luxembourg (17.3 percent).
In the first six months of 2025, 6.11 million VPN apps were downloaded by residents in the UAE, which compares to 9.2 million downloaded in 2024, 7.81 million downloaded in 2023, and 6.54 million downloaded in 2022.
In the current situation, the yearly downloads should exceed the previous year’s downloads.
According to Worldometer statistics, the further increase in the use of VPN can also be associated with the increased population of the UAE, which achieved a peak of 11.44 million.
Is VPN legal to use?
UAE residents can make use of VPN applications, and their misuse may lead to strict penalties for the offenders.
According to the Federal Decree Law No. (34) 2021 on combating rumors and cybercrimes, it is a capital offense to use a VPN in an illegal manner, such as committing a crime or hiding an IP address to get access to websites, calling applications, or games banned by the UAE government.
Those who violate the law and misuse VPNs may be imprisoned with a penalty between Dh500,000 and Dh2 million.
VPN with high adoption rates in GCC
The statistics released by the Apple App Store and Google Play also indicated that other Gulf countries were in the top VPN user category.
The UAE was next in the list, followed by Qatar (39.6 percent), Oman (36.7 percent), Nauru (33.2 percent), Singapore (27.5 percent), Saudi Arabia (19.7 percent), Netherlands (15.6 percent), UK (15.4 percent), Maldives (15 percent), and Jordan (14.9 percent).
This high adoption rate of VPN in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries can be explained by the fact that voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services like those of WhatsApp, Skype, and FaceTime are restricted.
CyberNews further reported that the use of VPN is also increasing around the world due to a number of reasons, such as internet censorship and personal privacy issues.
The study discovered that VPN usage is most prevalent in areas that have significant internet restrictions at the state level, especially in the Middle East.
However, Africa had the lowest VPN use, with none of the 21 countries surveyed making it to the top 50, and eight of those with the lowest adoption rates were African.
