AFP reported in a report published by Yahoo News that Qatar and the UAE are at the forefront of countries where the use of VPN applications to escape blocking and internet restrictions are prevalent.

VPN is an abbreviation for Virtual Private Network, which refers to a network that protects a user's privacy while accessing the internet. It enables users to access prohibited websites by the service provider while concealing the IP address, the user's private address, to protect his identity and location.

Qatar comes out on top, with nearly one of every two residents downloading a VPN software since the beginning of 2021.

VPN services have never been more popular. According to Atlas VPN, 616 million of such apps were downloaded globally in the first half of 2021 alone. This is more than double the total for all of 2020.

Qatar looks to be the country with the highest amount of VPN users, followed by the UAE and Singapore.

The majority of the top ten list is made up of Arab countries, whose regimes often limit internet access. By using a VPN, you can circumvent these restrictions and enjoy the web and social networks without censorship. 

Qatar comes out on top, with nearly one of every two residents using a VPN this year, which is rather astounding. In comparison, France ranks 57th in this list, with only 4.19 percent of the population participating. Japan and Madagascar are at the bottom of the list, with less than 1% of the population affected. It should be noted that China is not included in this analysis.

Top 10 countries that download the most VPNs (in % of their population)

1. Qatar (44.4%)
2. United Arab Emirates (39.9%)
3. Singapore (29.5%)
4. India (25.2%)
5. Oman (24.7%)
6. Saudi Arabia (23.1%)
7. Kuwait (18.7%)
8. Lebanon (17.6%)
9. Pakistan (16.6%)
10. Algeria (16.1%)

As a reminder, a VPN enables you to conduct safe online transactions while hiding your IP address, thereby protecting your identity and location.

Atlas VPN teams reviewed data from 85 countries, including the number of downloads from the top 45 VPN suppliers from Google Play Store and App Store, to reach this rating.

The use of VPNs is rapidly increasing in the UAE, with the latest estimates indicating that VPN app downloads in 2021 will outnumber those in 2018.

According to the data, the UAE remained one of the top VPN users in the world in the first half of 2021.

In the first half of 2021, around 3.9 million VPN apps were downloaded in the UAE, keeping its position as one of the top VPN downloading applications.
In 2020, the UAE ranked first in the world in terms of VPN downloads. VPNs were downloaded by up to 61.61 percent of the population, totaling more than six million downloads.

If this trend continues, the rate will be at its highest point in the country's history by the end of 2021, and VPN installs will reach around eight million this year, representing a two-million-person rise from 2020.

According to the Khaleej Times, VPN can be used for internal reasons by businesses, institutions, and banks in the UAE if used under government orders. Misusing the app, on the other hand, might result in severe penalties as well as imprisonment for violators.

According to Article 9 of the Amended UAE Cyber Law, anyone who uses a fraudulent computer network protocol address, a fake address, or a third party address by any other means to commit a crime or prevent its discovery shall be punished by temporary imprisonment and a fine of no less than 500,000 dirhams and not more than 2,000,000 dirhams - or one of these two penalties.