This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (January 2017)
Regarding the ethnicity of Bahrainis, a Financial Times article published on 31 May 1983 found that "Bahrain is a polyglot state, both religiously and racially. Discounting temporary immigrants of the past ten years, there are at least eight or nine communities on the island". These may be classified as:
Urbanized Sunni Bahrainis of Bedouin ancestry, such as the Utoob, Dawasir etc.
Non-nationals make up more than half of the population of Bahrain, with immigrants making up about 52.6% of the overall population.[2] Of those, the vast majority come from South and Southeast Asia: according to various media reports and government statistics dated between 2005 and 2012 roughly 350,000 Indians,[3] 150,000 Bangladeshis,[4] 110,000 Pakistanis,[5] 40,000 Filipinos,[6] and 8,000 Indonesians.[7] In 2023, about 4,000 people from the United Kingdom live in Bahrain,[8] although some estimates are double this number.[9]
* CBR = crude birth rate (per 1000); CDR = crude death rate (per 1000); NC = natural change (per 1000); IMR = infant mortality rate per 1000 births; TFR = total fertility rate (number of children per woman)
Registered data
Birth registration of Bahrain is available from 1976, death registration started in 1990. Between 1976 and 2011 the number of baby births roughly doubled but the birth rate of babies decreased from 32 to 13 per 1,000. The death rate of Bahrain (1.9 per 1,000 human beings in 2011) is among the lowest in the world.
Islam is the official religion forming 74% of the population.[10] Current census data does not differentiate between the other religions in Bahrain, but in 2022, the country was approximately 12%[21]Christian and had about 40[22][23]Jewish citizens.
According to the website of Ministry of Information Affairs, 74% of the population are Muslim, with Christians being the second largest religious group, forming 10.2% of the population, Jews making up 0.21%. The percentage of local Bahraini Christians, Jews, Hindus and Baha’is is collectively 0.2%.[24][10]
Bahraini citizens of Muslim faith belong to the Shi'a and Sunni branches of Islam. The last official census (1941) to include sectarian identification reported 52% (88,298 citizens) as Shia and 48% as Sunni of the Muslim population.[25] Unofficial sources, such as the Library of Congress Country Studies,[26] and The New York Times,[27] estimate sectarian identification to be approximately 45% Sunni and 55% Shia. An official Bahraini document revealed that 51% of the country's citizens are Sunnis, while the Shiite population has declined to 49% of the Muslim population.[28]
^"Relation". Embassy of Bangladesh in Bahrain. Archived from the original on 2021-10-27. Retrieved 2021-10-27.
^"Archived copy"(PDF). www.mofa.gov.pk. Archived from the original(PDF) on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2022.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^"Archived copy"(PDF). www.moh.gov.bh. Archived from the original(PDF) on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2022.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
