Country Profiles: Bahrain

Bahrain is located in the Middle East. Originally held by the Persians, Bahrain eventually became a British protectorate, but it gained independence in 1971. With an area of 760 sq km, Bahrain is 3.5 times the size of Washington, D.C.


Bahrain is an archipelago in the Persian Gulf. It is mostly low desert plains that rise gently to low central escarpment.





People who live in Bahrain are called Bahraini, which is also the adjective used to describe items from that country. As of July 2011, there are 1,214,705 people in Bahrain. The official language of Bahrain is Arabic, though English, Farsi, and Urdu are also spoken there. Most Bahraini are Muslim (81%), and some are Christian (9%).


The country's official name is Kingdom of Bahrain. The capital is Manama, and the country is divided into five governorates. The Bahrain constitution can be found here through Constitution Finder. The current king of Bahrain is King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. Information about the leaders of Bahrain's government can be found here. The currency in Bahrain is the Bahraini dinar (abbreviated BHD), which stands at .376 BHD per USD as of 2010.





All of this information was gathered from the CIA World Factbook. For more information, check out these resources...

Bahrain, CIA World Factbook

Bahrain, U.S. Department of State

Bahrain 2010 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, U.S. Department of State.

You can also check out the Country Studies tab on our Fed Docs libguide here for more resources on all of the countries.

Sonnet Ireland
Head of Federal Documents
Reference & Instruction Librarian
Subject Specialist: Legal Research, Political Science
Urban and Transportation Studies, Engineering