Bahrain

Where is Bahrain?

Located in the Middle East, east of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain is an island nation. It has a 161.00 km coastline.

From 1783 to 2002, Bahrain rulers changed titles from “Hakim” to “Emir” and currently “King.” The Kingdom of Bahrain is a Constitutional Monarchy with the King exercising all executive powers. The King also appoints close members of his family to powerful cabinet and security positions. Bahrain has a bicameral parliament, with each chamber having forty members. Members of the lower house get elected to represent constituencies whereas members of the upper house are the King’s appointees. For one to vote in the parliamentary election, he or she must be twenty years of age or above and be a citizen of the country. Both the current and new parliament buildings are in the capital city while the King’s palace is in Riffa. Being a monarchy, Bahrain has no political term limits.

Bahrain is an Asian country covering 760.00 km². This makes it the 23rd smallest country in the world and around 4 times smaller than Rhode Island. Its geographic coordinates are 26 00 N, 50 33 E and Manama is the capital city.

The name means "two seas" in Arabic, referring to the water bodies surrounding the archipelago.

Its ISO code is BH.

Geography

Bahrain has a mean elevation of 0 m above sea level.

It has an arid climate with mild winters and extremely hot summers. Its terrain has mostly low desert plains, which rises gently into low central escarpment.

Population

Bahrain has a population of 1,378,904 making it the 154th largest in the world. Most of the country lives in the far northern end of the island.

Arabic is the official language; English, Farsi and Urdu are also spoken. The major ethnic groups reported are Bahraini, Asian, other Arab, and Africa. The population is mostly Muslim, with some Christian groups.

Arabic is the official language of Bahrain in which two forms of the language exists. They are the majority-spoken Bahrani Arabic and Gulf Arabic. Arabic belongs to the Semitic language family and developed during the Iron Age. The Arabic language has 28 letters, all consonants, that are written from right going left in a form where some letters join together. Approximately all the people of Bahrain speak Bahrani Arabic as the country’s constitution puts more emphasis on the language, although a good number of people in Bahrain also speak English. Minority languages, mostly spoken by immigrant communities, include Persian, Malayalam, Nepalese, Hindi, and Tamil.

The dialing code for the country is 973.

Government

Bahrain is an independent country. It gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1971. Its constitution was last ratified in 2002.

From 1783 to 2002, Bahrain rulers changed titles from “Hakim” to “Emir” and currently “King.” The Kingdom of Bahrain is a Constitutional Monarchy with the King exercising all executive powers. The King also appoints close members of his family to powerful cabinet and security positions. The Current king, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has been the King since 2002. Bahrain has a bicameral parliament, each chamber having forty members. Members of the lower house get elected to represent constituencies whereas members of the upper house are the King’s appointees. For one to vote in the parliamentary election, he or she must be twenty years of age or above and be a citizen of the country. Both the current and new parliament buildings are in the capital city while the King’s palace is in Riffa. Being a monarchy, Bahrain has no political term limits.

Economy

Factoring in Purchasing Power Parity, Bahrain's GDP is $66,370,000,000.00 (USD) with $50,300.00 (USD) per capita. This makes it the 99th largest economy and its citizens the 23rd richest in the world. The currency of Bahrain is the Dinar (BHD).

Its major export partners are Saudi Arabi and the United Arab Emirates. Its main exports are petroleum and petroleum products. Its major import partners are Saudi Arabia, the United States, and China. Its major imports include crude oil, machinery, and chemicals.

Flag

The Bahrani flag consists of two colors, red and white, separated by five white triangles that form a vertical zigzag line. Bahrain officially adopted the flag in 2002 when the country became a Kingdom and has a width to length ratio of 3:5. The five triangles represent the five pillars of Islam, the red represents the regions Islamic history, and the white represents peace treaties signed with different parties. The Emir of Bahrain declared this flag after becoming King and from the look of it, it is a product of historical changes to previous versions of the flag so as to make it more appropriate for the Values of Bahrain and also unique to the country. Since the early 1820s to date, Bahrain has had a total of five flags.