Dubai is One of the Selfiest Cities in MENA

If you still don’t have a clue what selfie is, you may ask ask your kid!

Social media and mobile technology produced one of the biggest trends which the world has witnessed in the last decade or so – selfies. This obsession has become so widespread, that even Oxford Dictionaries has added to their database. The official definition of the word “selfie” is a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website. However, after the Oscar selfie broke all retweet and share records across various social networks, we are pretty sure that you are already familiar with the term.

Inspired by the selfie obsession, Time magazine has created a list of the world’s selfiest cities. While Dubai did not make it to the top 10, it easily managed to find a place among MENA’s selfies cities.

Dubai ranks second on the selfie list for the Middle East and North Africa region. Selfie-takers in the city are estimated at 41 per 100,000 people. That places Dubai on the 61 spot on the global ranking. The selfie leader in MENA is Doha. With its 52 selfie-taker per 100,000 people, the city takes the 42nd place in the global list. Abu Dhabi is the third selfiest city in the region and the 87th in the world.

In contrast, Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh has barely 2 selfie-takers per 100,000 people. That ranks it at the 405th position in the world. Similar is the case with most of the cities in the region that participated in the research.

The world’s selfie capital is Makati City, the Philippines. There, the number of selfie-takers reaches nearly 260 per 100,000 people. Manhattan in New York City is second on the list with more than 200 selfie-takers per 100,000. As you can see, the difference between the first and the second city in the ranking is impressive.

Researchers behind this interesting raking have not tried to explains why the cities in the top 10 are so obsessed with selfies. However, it is noted that all of them are popular tourist destinations. For instance, Miami is a popular holiday spot with its beaches and sunny weather. Manhattan’s Times Square, on the other hand, is known as one of the world’s most photographed places.

Here is the full list of the 10 selfiest cities in the world:

1. Makati City and Pasig, Philippines – 258 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
2. Manhattan, N.Y. – 202 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
3. Miami, Fla. – 155 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
4. Anaheim and Santa Ana, Calif. – 147 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
5. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia – 141 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
6. Tel Aviv, Israel – 139 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
7. Manchester, England – 114 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
8. Milan, Italy – 108 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
9. Cebu City, Philippines – 99 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
10. George Town, Malaysia – 95 selfie-takers per 100,000 people