Where to live in Bahrain
We track one city in Bahrain: Manama. It averages 27°C over the year. We estimate a couple needs €2,883 a month to live centrally. Bahrain sits in our zero or very low tax tier. For citizens from outside the Gulf Cooperation Council states, long-term residency is possible, with conditions.
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- Tax tier
- Zero or very low
- Little to no personal income tax
- Languages
- Arabic, English
- Some English
- Safety
- 80/100
- country-level
- Healthcare
- 70/100
- country-level
- Internet
- ~130 Mbps
- median fixed broadband
The city we track
| City | Size | Setting | Avg temp | Rain a year | Est. cost a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manama | smaller | coastal | 27°C | 89 mm | €2,883 |
Source: City size from GeoNames, temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages), rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals), coast distance from Natural Earth. Cost is our model estimate for a couple living centrally.
Taxes
Bahrain sits in our zero or very low tax tier: little to no personal income tax. The tier applies to every city here, and couples who cap tax below it will not see these cities in their results.
Source: OurNextCity tax tiers, assigned by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation, with no fixed rate cut-offs. Coarse by design; not tax advice.
Residency and visas
Possible, with conditions, for people from outside the Gulf Cooperation Council states. Realistic long-term routes are self-sponsorship residence permits (property ownership, business investment, or a 15-year-career retiree on modest stable income) and the 10-year Golden Residency for property owners, high-income retirees, or long-serving professionals; working-age applicants without capital still need an employer sponsor.
Citizens of the Gulf Cooperation Council states have freedom-of-movement or simplified residency rights here.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Bahrain:
- Income: about $1,330 a month (Bahrain self-sponsorship Retired Foreigner residence permit, BHD 500/mo stable income (no property purchase needed but requires a retirement certificate showing 15+ years' service); BHD pegged at 1 BHD = USD 2.659 (CBB peg 0.376 BHD/USD); as of June 2026)
- Investment: about $133k (Bahrain self-sponsorship Property Owner residence permit, BHD 50,000 minimum real estate (cheaper than the BHD 130,000 Golden Residency property route reduced Dec 2025); also requires BHD 500/mo income; 1 BHD = USD 2.659; as of June 2026)
For short visits, 5 of 198 passports can enter visa-free, 192 can get an e-visa or visa on arrival and 1 need a visa in advance.
Source: OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed approximations researched against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. Not legal advice: check the official source before you apply. Short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT).