Bahrain Ranks First in the Gulf for Empowering Women

Bahrain has achieved a high ranking in human development with

regards to women’s rights, education, health and income, according to the 2009 UN Human Development Report. Bahrain was ranked fourth out of 155 countries for exerting efforts to develop the capacity of women. The report stressed that despite the fact that Bahrain scored 39 out of 182 countries and fell one place due to the entry of 3 new countries in the report, it has still achieved a high score in the main indicators of human development which are health, education and income, thus gaining its first place among the Gulf states in the empowerment of women particularly for occupying leadership positions.

The report also affirms that there has been a positive increase in human development in Bahrain since 1985. The report data ranks Bahrain first in spending on education among other Arab states (Bahrain spends 9.5% of its budget on education), and in the ratification of international agreements. The report also states that the percentage of people attending primary, secondary and university education has reached 90% which is the highest in the Gulf area and ranks 28th in the world. It also shows that 88% of the youth aged 15 and above were interested in reading and writing. The life expectancy of the Bahraini citizen has reached 77 years and the GDP per capita was US$30,000 for 2007.