|
Bahrain Population
In 1992 an estimated 550,000 people lived in Bahrain.
This
number included 363,000 Bahraini citizens and 187,000
foreign
nationals. Citizens accounted for 66 percent of the total
population, a decline from the 70 percent they represented
in the
1981 census and the 82.5 percent they represented in 1971.
The
unofficial estimate indicated that the population had
increased
by 57 percent, or at an average annual growth rate of 5.2
percent, since 1981. In 1992 the growth rate was 3.1
percent. The
non-Bahraini community, which grew from 112,000 in 1981 to
187,000 in 1992, increased by 67 percent, while the number
of
citizens increased by 52.5 percent in the same eleven-year
period.
In 1992 an estimated 58 percent of the population was
male
and only 42 percent female. The gender disparity resulted
from
the exceptionally high number of men among Bahrain's
foreign
residents: 76 percent of foreign residents were male. The
maleto -female ratio was more balanced among Bahraini citizens:
about
50.3 percent were male and 49.7 percent female. The age
distribution also was skewed: about 80 percent of the
foreign
population was more than fourteen years of age, but less
than 60
percent of citizens were more than fourteen. For the total
population, 33.4 percent were in the age-group of zero to
fourteen; 62.8 percent were in the age-group of fifteen to
fiftynine ; and a mere 3.8 percent were in the age-group of
sixty years
and older. Life expectancy for Bahraini children born in
1990 was
seventy years for males and seventy-five years for
females.
The population of Bahrain is overwhelmingly urban.
About 85
percent of the people live in cities or suburbs. Most
working-age
men who reside in villages commute to jobs in urban areas.
The
largest city, Manama, is the principal commercial and
cultural
center. It had an estimated population of 152,000 in 1992.
Manama's expansion since 1960, when its population was
only
62,000, resulted in entire villages, fields, and palm and
fruit
groves--located to the east, north, and south of the
city--being
incorporated as part of the urban sprawl. Manama also
spread to
the west through the reclamation of hundreds of hectares
from the
sea. Traditional brick houses, built with central
courtyards and
wind towers in the architectural style of southern Iran,
and
covered bazaars are found in the old sections of the city.
In the
newer and less congested neighborhoods, multistory
apartment
complexes, high-rise hotels and office buildings, and
supermarkets predominate. Because most of Bahrain's
foreign
workers tend to live in the city, their presence provides
Manama
with a cosmopolitan atmosphere.
The city of Al Muharraq, which had an estimated
population of
75,000 in 1992, is the country's only other major city.
Until the
1930s, the ruler lived in Al Muharraq; thus, for more than
a
century, the city served as Bahrain's political center,
and its
commercial importance rivaled that of Manama. Al Muharraq
declined after the Al Khalifa family moved to the island
of
Bahrain, and for nearly forty years the city stagnated.
During
the 1970s, however, the construction of the US$60 million
Arab
Shipbuilding and Repair Yard adjacent to the fishing
village of
Al Hadd, located southeast of Bahrain International
Airport,
helped to stimulate an investment and development boom in
the
city.
Bahrain's main towns are Jidd Hafs, Ar Rifaa, Sitrah,
and
Madinat Isa. Throughout the nineteenth century and during
the
first half of the twentieth, Jidd Hafs was a relatively
prosperous village renowned for its extensive date palm
groves
and the manufacture of medicinal drugs from the buds,
flowers,
and pollen of palm trees. By 1975, however, Jidd Hafs had
been
transformed into Manama's largest suburb. Ar Rifaa, which
originally consisted of two adjacent villages--Ar Rifaa
ash
Sharqi and Ar Rifaa al Gharbi, established in the
nineteenth
century near natural springs in the central region of
Bahrain--
grew rapidly after 1952 when Shaykh Salman ibn Hamad
established
his official residence there. Ar Rifaa's importance as the
country's political center has continued under Shaykh Isa
ibn
Salman, who constructed his palace in the town, as did
several
other members of the Al Khalifa. The town of Sitrah
formerly
consisted of several palm-cultivating villages, but
extensive
residential construction during the 1970s fused the
villages into
one large suburban town. Madinat Isa was a planned
community
built to relieve the congestion in Manama and such close
suburbs
as Jidd Hafs and Sanabis.
Data as of January 1993
|
