Dubai has landed another global ranking, and this one says a lot about how the city feels to people who actually move there.
The emirate has been ranked 7th among the world’s most welcoming cities for expats, according to a 2026 global ranking by William Russell. The study looked at what makes a city easier for newcomers to settle into, including safety, happiness, social environment, and the kind of everyday confidence people feel after relocating.
Dubai Enters the Global Top 10
Dubai scored 7.61 out of 10, placing it behind cities such as Zürich, Singapore, Tokyo, Copenhagen, Munich, and Prague. It ranked ahead of Warsaw, Seoul, and Hong Kong in the top 10 list.
That is not a small thing. For many expats, Dubai is not just a city they visit for work or business meetings. It becomes the place where they rent a home, open bank accounts, send children to school, start companies, and slowly build a routine.
A “welcoming city” sounds soft as a ranking category, but it is actually very practical. It is about whether a newcomer can move around safely, meet people, manage daily life, and feel that the city is not working against them.
Safety Gives Dubai a Clear Advantage
Dubai’s strongest score came from safety. The city recorded the highest safety score globally at 83.8 out of 100, far above the global city average of 60.04 in the study.
That matters immediately for new residents. Safety affects small daily choices. Taking public transport. Walking late. Letting children move around. Visiting a new neighborhood. Meeting clients after hours. These are not luxury concerns. They shape whether a city starts to feel livable or stressful.
For entrepreneurs, investors, and free zone businesses, this also feeds into confidence. A stable city attracts people who are willing to stay longer, hire teams, and build something more permanent.
Why This Matters for Dubai’s Free Zone Economy
Dubai’s free zones already attract founders, consultants, digital businesses, trading companies, media firms, and regional headquarters. But company setup is only one part of relocation.
People also ask: Can I live here comfortably? Will my family settle? Is the city easy to navigate? Are there international communities? Can I build a network without feeling isolated?
This ranking helps answer some of that. Dubai’s appeal is not only tax structure, infrastructure, or global connectivity. It is also the day-to-day environment around those business advantages.
A city can offer licenses and office space. But if people do not feel safe, supported, or connected, they leave. Dubai’s ranking suggests the emirate is doing well on the human side of international mobility too.
Expats Are Looking Beyond Salary
The William Russell study noted that relocation decisions are no longer only about income or quality-of-life headlines. Newcomers also care about integration, employment access, healthcare, financial security, and whether they can build social connections after arriving.
That is where Dubai’s mixed international population works in its favor. The city is used to newcomers. Services, workplaces, schools, property agents, banking teams, and business setup consultants are often built around international residents.
Of course, settling anywhere still takes effort. Dubai can be fast, expensive, and competitive. But compared with many major global cities, the basic structure is familiar to expats from day one.
Dubai’s Global Image Keeps Expanding
This latest ranking adds to Dubai’s broader push as a global hub for business, talent, tourism, and investment. The city has already built a reputation around mobility, safety, luxury, trade, finance, and entrepreneurship.
Now the softer part of the story is becoming just as important. People do not only move where opportunity exists. They move where opportunity feels manageable.
Dubai’s place among the world’s most welcoming cities shows why the emirate keeps attracting founders, professionals, families, and investors from different parts of the world. It is not just selling ambition anymore. It is selling a place to live.