Saudi Arabia vs United Arab Emirates

Why people mix them up

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are neighbours on the Arabian Peninsula, both Arabic-speaking monarchies with economies built on oil and gas, and both flags feature green and white. The cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi are often thought of as part of Saudi Arabia, and many people are unsure where one country ends and the other begins, or how much bigger Saudi Arabia is.

How to tell them apart

• Saudi Arabia is much larger, about 2.15 million km², more than 25 times the area of the UAE.
• Saudi Arabia's flag is green with white Arabic script and a sword; the UAE's has a vertical red band at the hoist and horizontal green, white and black stripes.
• The capitals are Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) and Abu Dhabi (UAE). Dubai is the UAE's largest city but not its capital.
• The UAE is a federation of seven emirates, including Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah; Saudi Arabia is a single kingdom.
• Saudi Arabia has coasts on both the Red Sea and the Gulf; the UAE faces the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
• The currencies are the riyal (Saudi Arabia) and the dirham (UAE).

Memory hook

Saudi Arabia has the Sword on its flag and fills most of the peninsula; the UAE is the small United group of seven Emirates on the Gulf coast.

On the map

Find the Arabian Peninsula. The huge country covering most of it, from the Red Sea to the Gulf, is Saudi Arabia. The UAE is the small, roughly triangular country on the southeastern Gulf coast, below Qatar and next to Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz. If the country you are tapping touches the Red Sea, it is Saudi Arabia.