Religion and demographics

Main article: Demographics of Bahrain

See also: Ethnic, Cultural and Religious Groups of Bahrain

Religion in Bahrain
religion			percent
Islam			81.2%
Christian			9%
Other			9.8%

The official religion of Bahrain is Islam, which the majority of the population practices. However, due to an influx of immigrants and guest workers from non-Muslim countries, such as India, Philippines and Sri Lanka,^[83] the overall percentage of Muslims in the country has declined in recent years. According to the 2001 census, 80% of Bahrain's population was Muslim, 10% were Christian, and 10% practiced other religions. There are no official figures for the proportion of Shia and Sunni among the Muslims of Bahrain. Unofficial sources, such as the Foreign Commonwealth Office,^[84] estimate it to be approximately 33% Sunni and 66% Shia. Political Reformation of the population including naturalisation of mercenaries had an impact on decreasing shia numbers. Bahrain has transformed into a cosmopolitan society with mixed communities; two thirds of Bahrain's population consists of Arabs and a large contingent of people are Persians. Community includes immigrants and guest workers from South Asia and Southeast Asia are present. A Financial Times published on 31 May 1983 found that "Bahrain is a polyglot state, both religiously and racially. Leaving aside the temporary immigrants of the past ten years, there are at least eight or nine communities on the island". The present communities may be classified as: