What is the difference in number of airline passengers per year between Spain and United Arab Emirates?

3.04 million, with Spain ahead.

How many years of comparable data are there for Spain and United Arab Emirates?

46 years are reported by both, from 1974 to 2023.

Where does this data come from?

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), via World Bank (2026) – processed by Our World in Data, published as Number of airline passengers per year. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Spain vs United Arab Emirates: Number of airline passengers per year

Spain

94.10 million

in 2023

United Arab Emirates

91.06 million

in 2023

Spain rank

11th

United Arab Emirates rank

12th

Number of airline passengers per year over time

Spain
United Arab Emirates

How they compare

Spain currently reports 94.10 million against 91.06 million in United Arab Emirates, a difference of 3.04 million.

The two have swapped places 2 times across 46 shared years of data; in 1974 it was Spain ahead.

Spain ranks 11th and United Arab Emirates ranks 12th of 183 countries.

Across the 6 decades both report, Spain averaged higher in 5 and United Arab Emirates in 1.

Head to head by decade

Decade	Spain	United Arab Emirates	Difference	Ahead
1970s	12.89 million	278,567	12.61 million	Spain
1980s	15.92 million	850,200	15.07 million	Spain
1990s	25.96 million	3.60 million	22.36 million	Spain
2000s	43.15 million	13.65 million	29.50 million	Spain
2010s	62.26 million	76.02 million	13.76 million	United Arab Emirates
2020s	61.25 million	53.52 million	7.73 million	Spain

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher number of airline passengers per year, Spain or United Arab Emirates?: Spain, at 94.10 million against 91.06 million in United Arab Emirates as of 2023.
What is the difference in number of airline passengers per year between Spain and United Arab Emirates?: 3.04 million, with Spain ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for Spain and United Arab Emirates?: 46 years are reported by both, from 1974 to 2023.
How do Spain and United Arab Emirates rank globally for number of airline passengers per year?: Spain ranks 11th and United Arab Emirates ranks 12th of 183 countries.
Where does this data come from?: International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), via World Bank (2026) – processed by Our World in Data, published as Number of airline passengers per year. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Individual pages

Share, cite or embed this page

Cite this page

Spain vs United Arab Emirates: Number of airline passengers per year. Statizoid, drawing on International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), via World Bank (2026) – processed by Our World in Data. Retrieved 28 September 2026, from https://reference.statizoid.com/compare/number-airline-passengers/spain/united-arab-emirates/

Embed or link this data

Paste this into a page to link back to these figures. The data itself is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data); please keep the attribution.

<a href="https://reference.statizoid.com/compare/number-airline-passengers/spain/united-arab-emirates/">Spain vs United Arab Emirates: Number of airline passengers per year</a> — Statizoid

About this data

Indicator: Number of airline passengers per year
Source: International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), via World Bank (2026) – processed by Our World in Data
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage: 183 places, 7,925 data points, 1970–2023
Last refreshed: 18 September 2026

This represents the total rather than unique passenger activity: this means a person who makes multiple trips is counted multiple times.