Bahrain Country Overview
Where is Bahrain located? The Kingdom of Bahrain is an island country located in the Persian Gulf. On the time zone map, countries are divided into world time zones along their longitude. The allocation to a specific time zone provides information on how much the regional time deviates from the world time. In Bahrain, this time difference is three hours. This means that the clocks are 3 hours ahead of the world clock. In Bahrain, there is no clock change to daylight saving time in summer.
Bordering Countries of Bahrain
According to abbreviationfinder, Bahrain is a small island nation located in the Persian Gulf, bordered by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Despite its small size, Bahrain is an important regional hub for trade and transportation. It has well-developed infrastructure, including two international airports, a deep-water port, and a bridge connecting it with Saudi Arabia.
The Kingdom of Bahrain consists of 33 islands in total, the largest of which is Bahrain Island. This main island is divided into five governorates: Muharraq Governorate, Central Governorate, Northern Governorate, Southern Governorate and Capital Governorate. The islands of Bahrain are surrounded by the Persian Gulf to the east and south; Saudi Arabia to the west and north; Qatar to the northwest; and United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the southeast.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia borders Bahrain to the west and north across the Arabian Gulf. This relationship between both countries is strong as they share similar religious beliefs as well as a common language – Arabic. The two countries also maintain close economic ties through trade agreements such as free trade agreements signed between them in 2004. Additionally, both countries are members of several regional organizations such as Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) or Organization for Economic Cooperation (OECD).
Qatar borders Bahrain to its northwest across the Arabian Gulf coast. Like with Saudi Arabia, Qatar shares a strong relationship with Bahrain due to its cultural ties as well as their common language – Arabic. There have been numerous joint projects between them over recent years such as an oil pipeline linking Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial city with Bahrain’s Al-Dur power station or construction work on new bridges connecting both countries over their shared waters.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) borders Bahrain to its southeast across the Arabian Sea coast line. This relationship between both countries has strengthened over recent years due to their joint initiatives such as a free trade agreement signed in 2003 or several defense agreements signed between them since then that have allowed them to cooperate more closely on matters such as military exercises or counter-terrorism operations in the region.
Finally, there are several other nations that share maritime borders with Bahrain including Kuwait further north; Oman further east; Iran further south along Strait of Hormuz; Yemen even farther south along Bab el Mandeb Strait; Madagascar far southwest across Mozambique Channel; Seychelles even farther southwest across Indian Ocean; Maldives even farther southwest across Laccadive Sea; India even farther west across Arabian Sea. All these nations play an important role in providing resources such as oil or seafood for Bahrain while also allowing it access to other regional ports for trade purposes.
Population Distribution
As of 2023, the latest population of Bahrain is 1,505,003, based on our calculation of the current data from UN (United Nations).
| Total population | 1,505,003 |
| Population growth rate | 2.08% |
| Birth rate | 13.30 births per 1,000 people |
| Life expectancy | |
| Overall life expectancy | 78.43 years |
| Men life expectancy | 76.28 years |
| Women life expectancy | 80.63 years |
| Age structure | |
| 0-14 years | 18.88% |
| 15-64 years | 78.04% |
| 65 years and above | 3.08% |
| Median age | 31.80 years |
| Gender ratio (Male to Female) | 1.54 |
| Population density | 1,980.27 residents per km² |
| Urbanization | 90.00% |
| Ethnicities | |
| 54% foreigners | |
| Religions | |
| Shiites 70%, Sunnis 30% | |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | 0.838 |
| HDI ranking | 45th out of 194 |
People in Bahrain
Most of the people live in the north of the main island of the state of Bahrain. And most of them live again in the capital Manama. 90 out of 100 people live in cities. Half of the people in Bahrain are not originally from there, but from abroad. A large part of this comes from other countries in Arabia such as Iran, others come from Pakistan, India or the Philippines.
Languages in Bahrain
In Bahrain, Islam is the state religion. Most Muslims are Shiites, but the country’s ruling class is made up of Sunnis, who make up around a third of the population. The King of Bahrain is also a Sunni. Due to the proportion of foreigners, Christians and Hindus also live in Bahrain. Few Jews live there either, there is even a synagogue, which is an absolute exception for an Arab country. The so-called per capita income of the people is quite high, the health system is well developed and there is also investment in schooling. The income from oil production makes this possible.
Religions in Bahrain
The official language is Arabic and the commercial language in Bahrain is English.