Bahrain is a small island nation located in the Persian Gulf with a population of around 1.4 million people. The majority of the population is ethnically Bahraini, with a notable minority of Indians and other ethnicities. Islam is the predominant religion, with over 70% of citizens identifying as Shia Muslims while the remaining 30% are Sunni Muslims or followers of other religions. The official language is Arabic, but English and Farsi are also commonly spoken. Most Bahrainis live in urban areas and work in industry or services rather than agriculture. Poverty levels have been steadily decreasing since 2010, with the unemployment rate currently at 4%. Check hyperrestaurant to learn more about Bahrain in 2009.
Social conditions
Bahrain is a welfare state that offers comprehensive free health insurance even for non-Bahrainians. Visit AbbreviationFinder to see the definitions of BHR and acronym for Bahrain. There are special care programs for the elderly and disabled. The state of health has improved significantly after the country’s independence in 1971, and most tropical diseases have been eradicated. The government spends about 10 percent of the budget annually on health care and another 2 percent on other social welfare, for example, general old-age pensions and special tax breaks for families with children have been introduced. The government has assisted in the construction of a number of homes, and with the assistance of Saudi Arabia, was funded a three-year project that built low-cost housing in the new city of Hamad, where the first tenants could move in in 1984. About 40 percent of the unemployed women work. In 2013, unemployment was estimated at less than 4 percent.
BAHRAIN
In 1971, the year in which the archipelago achieved independence, the population was 216,078 residents, With a clear prevalence of Arabs (178,193) followed by Persians, Indians, Pakistanis and finally groups of Europeans among which the prevailing British. This significant heterogeneity, already quite evident in previous censuses, has been increasingly accentuated by the exploitation of oil resources.
The population lives for the most part (168,819 residents) In urban centers and only 20% is considered rural. In the capital alone, more than 40% of the residents are concentrated.
The activities of the primary sector, which in the past had offered good opportunities both for the fertility of the land, both for the numerous sources of fresh water that can be used for irrigation, and for the abundance of fishing for pearl oysters, have now passed into second level with respect to industrial activities, to which 50% of the active population is dedicated, and to commercial activities, favored at all times by the excellent geographical position, to which 40% is dedicated.
Of the industries, those linked to oil naturally have the greatest weight; the oil extracted (3,756,000 t in 1971) is refined locally (Awali), together with large quantities of crude oil from the nearby oil fields of ad-Damman (Saudi Arabia). Alongside the oil industries, numerous other industrial complexes have sprung up: nautical constructions, small manufacturing and textile industries, cement factories, an important aluminum metallurgical plant, various food industries (drinks, fish, preserved milk). Foreign trade (mainly the United Kingdom, Japan, United States) sees manufactured goods, electrical machinery, textile products as the main imported products; mainly oil as export products.
Manama
Manama, Arabic al-Manāma, capital of Bahrain; 157,500 residents (2010). Check to see Bahrain population. Manama is located on the northern tip of Bahrain Island. The city is a commercial and financial center with a port, shipyards and oil refinery. Manama also has an airport.