Distillers Bahrain
A one-page guide to Bahrain for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Manama
- Official languages
- Arabic
- Currency
- Bahraini dinar (BHD)
- Time zone
- UTC+3
- Area
- 800 km²
People
- Population
- 1.6 million (2025)
- Population growth
- 0.7% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 100%
- Aged under 15
- 18.4%
- Aged 65 and over
- 4.0%
- Life expectancy
- 81.4 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$49.0 billion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$30,597 (2025)
- Economic growth
- 3.48% (2025)
- Inflation
- -0.14% (2025)
Climate
Mild winters and very hot, humid summers (up to about 40 C); minimal rainfall (about 70.8 mm a year, mostly winter); dust storms in June-July.
Alcohol
- Legal drinking age
- 21 shown in the table's de jure column; not otherwise stated
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 2.01 litres of pure alcohol (2024)
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); World Bank API (population, area, GDP, growth, inflation); WHO GHO OData (SA_0000001688); UN Comtrade public preview API (HS 2208); Wikipedia: Bahrain; Wikipedia: Legal drinking age; PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries: Bahrain - other taxes; AGSIW - Bahrain hikes import tariffs on alcohol and tobacco (2016); Gulf Daily News - Import tariff on alcohol and tobacco doubled (9 Feb 2016). Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.