Capital Governorate

The Capital Governorate (population 550,000) is Bahrain's financial nucleus—a 79 km² territory where the island kingdom concentrates its ambitions as the Gulf's alternative financial center. Centered on Manama, the governorate hosts the Central Bank of Bahrain and over 100 licensed financial institutions, including the Bahrain Financial Harbour complex where 84 banks operate across conventional and Islamic finance segments. This density creates the kingdom's highest population concentration at 6,873 people per square kilometer, with non-Bahrainis comprising 69% of residents—drawn by finance, hospitality, and service sector employment. The governorate's emergence as a financial hub traces to the 1970s when Bahrain positioned itself as a low-tax jurisdiction with early Sharia-compliant banking frameworks, now supporting total banking assets exceeding 50 billion dinars. Beyond finance, the Capital encompasses diplomatic missions, government ministries, and the commercial core that generates most of Bahrain's non-oil GDP—a calculated bet on services that hedges against hydrocarbon dependency.