Manama, Bahrain

Manama is the capital and the largest city of the Kingdom of Bahrain (780 km2), a small island country located on the western shores of the Persian Gulf. Bahrain had a population of 1.34 million in 2014, up from 388,000 in 1980. Around 11% of the population of the country lives in Manama, which has approximately 155,000 inhabitants. Immigrants make up approximately half of the total population of Bahrain, according to the United Nations.

During the 1970s, Bahrain’s oil production was at its highest. Unlike the rest of the Gulf countries, Bahrain had limited oil resources, so during the 1990s it became the first post-oil economy in the Gulf to focus on diversification. The country began investing in heavy industry, Islamic banking (competing against Malaysia), and ...