Dubai’s population swelled by nearly 73,000 in just seven months to top 1.92 million before the end of February and maintain its position as the most populated UAE emirate, official data showed Tuesday.

At the end of Monday, Dubai’s “population clock” ticked at 1,923,403, adding at least 300 people over the past week.

The figures published by Dubai’s Statistics Centre showed there was an increase of nearly 73,000 people compared with the start of August 2010, when the clock ticked at 1,850,595.

Experts attributed the high growth to economic recovery in the emirate and a steady decline in rents, which are attracting tenants and businesses from other emirates and outside the UAE.

During the peak business hours of the day, Dubai become much more crowded, with its active population exceeding 2.87 million, according to officials in the emirate.

Dubai had a population of around 1.59 million at the end of 2009 and this means growth through 2010 and the first six weeks of 2010 was as high as 20.7 per cent.

Abu Dhabi, the largest and wealthiest emirate, has not yet published updated population data but previous statistics showed its population stood at around 1.559 million at the end of 2009. The UAE’s total population stood at 5.066 million at the end of 2009.