The island was uninhabited when first settled by the British in 1627. Slaves worked the sugar plantations established on the island until 1834 when slavery was abolished. The economy remained heavily dependent on sugar, rum, and molasses production through most of the 20th century. The gradual introduction of social and political reforms in the 1940s and 1950s led to complete independence from the UK in 1966. In the 1990s, tourism and manufacturing surpassed the sugar industry in economic importance.

Caribbean, island in the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Venezuela

13 10 N, 59 32 W

Central America and the Caribbean

2.5 times the size of Washington, DC

0 km

97 km

tropical; rainy season (June to October)

relatively flat; rises gently to central highland region

petroleum, fish, natural gas

50 sq km (2003)

0.1 cu km (2003)

infrequent hurricanes; periodic landslides

pollution of coastal waters from waste disposal by ships; soil erosion; illegal solid waste disposal threatens contamination of aquifers

easternmost Caribbean island

black 93%, white 3.2%, mixed 2.6%, East Indian 1%, other 0.2% (2000 census)

English

Protestant 63.4% (Anglican 28.3%, Pentecostal 18.7%, Methodist 5.1%, other 11.3%), Roman Catholic 4.2%, other Christian 7%, other 4.8%, none or unspecified 20.6% (2008 est.)

287,733 (July 2012 est.)

0.354% (2012 est.)

12.23 births/1,000 population (2012 est.)

8.39 deaths/1,000 population (July 2012 est.)

-0.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2012 est.)

BRIDGETOWN (capital) 112,000 (2009)

51 deaths/100,000 live births (2010)

1.68 children born/woman (2012 est.)

6.8% of GDP (2009)

1.811 physicians/1,000 population (2005)

7.6 beds/1,000 population (2008)

1.4% (2009 est.)

2,100 (2009 est.)

fewer than 100 (2009 est.)

6.7% of GDP (2009)

parliamentary democracy and a Commonwealth realm

11 parishes and 1 city*; Bridgetown*, Christ Church, Saint Andrew, Saint George, Saint James, Saint John, Saint Joseph, Saint Lucy, Saint Michael, Saint Peter, Saint Philip, Saint Thomas

30 November 1966 (from the UK)

Independence Day, 30 November (1966)

30 November 1966

English common law; no judicial review of legislative acts

accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations; accepts ICCt jurisdiction

18 years of age; universal

bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (21 seats; members appointed by the governor general - 12 on the advice of the Prime Minister, 2 on the advice of the opposition leader, and 7 at his discretion) and the House of Assembly (30 seats; members are elected by direct popular vote to serve five-year terms)

Supreme Court of Judicature consists of a High Court and a Court of Appeal (judges are appointed by the Service Commissions for the Judicial and Legal Services); Caribbean Court of Justice or CCJ is the highest court of appeal; based in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

Barbados Labor Party or BLP [Owen ARTHUR]; Democratic Labor Party or DLP [Freundel STUART]; People's Empowerment Party or PEP [David COMISSIONG]

Barbados Secondary Teachers' Union or BSTU [Patrick FROST]; Barbados Union of Teachers or BUT [Herbert GITTENS]; Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados or CTUSAB, (includes the BWU, NUPW, BUT, and BSTU) [Leroy TROTMAN]; Barbados Workers Union or BWU [Leroy TROTMAN]; Clement Payne Labor Union [David COMISSIONG]; National Union of Public Workers [Joseph GODDARD]

ACP, AOSIS, C, Caricom, CDB, CELAC, FAO, G-77, IADB, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), gold, and blue with the head of a black trident centered on the gold band; the band colors represent the blue of the sea and sky and the gold of the beaches; the trident head represents independence and a break with the past (the colonial coat of arms contained a complete trident)

Neptune's trident

Historically, the Barbadian economy was dependent on sugarcane cultivation and related activities. However, in recent years the economy has diversified into light industry and tourism with about four-fifths of GDP and of exports being attributed to services. Growth has rebounded since 2003, bolstered by increases in construction projects and tourism revenues, reflecting its success in the higher-end segment, but the sector faced declining revenues in 2009 with the global economic downturn. The country enjoys one of the highest per capita incomes in the region. Offshore finance and information services are important foreign exchange earners and thrive from having the same time zone as eastern US financial centers and a relatively highly educated workforce. The government continues its efforts to reduce unemployment, to encourage direct foreign investment, and to privatize remaining state-owned enterprises. The public debt-to-GDP ratio rose to over 100% in 2009-11, largely because a sharp slowdown in tourism and financial services led to a wide budget deficit.

$6.576 billion (2011 est.)

$6.544 billion (2010 est.)

$6.53 billion (2009 est.)

$4.478 billion (2011 est.)

0.5% (2011 est.)

0.2% (2010 est.)

-4.2% (2009 est.)

$23,700 (2011 est.)

$23,700 (2010 est.)

$23,700 (2009 est.)

175,000 (2007 est.)

12% (2011 est.)

10.7% (2003 est.)

NA%

27.9% of GDP (2011 est.)

-4% of GDP (2011 est.)

95.9% of GDP (2011 est.)

98.5% of GDP (2010 est.)

9.1% (2011 est.)

5.4% (2010 est.)

7% (31 December 2010 est.)

7% (31 December 2009 est.)

8.7% (31 December 2011 est.)

8.7% (31 December 2010 est.)

$1.876 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$1.698 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$5.711 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$5.239 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$5.291 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$4.739 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$4.571 billion (31 December 2011)

$4.366 billion (31 December 2010)

$4.39 billion (31 December 2009)

sugarcane, vegetables, cotton

tourism, sugar, light manufacturing, component assembly for export

NA%

-$370.3 million (2011 est.)

-$258.6 million (2010 est.)

$447.3 million (2011 est.)

$430.7 million (2010 est.)

manufactures, sugar and molasses, rum, other foods and beverages, chemicals, electrical components

Trinidad and Tobago 18.7%, France 10.6%, US 9.6%, St. Lucia 8.7%, St. Vincent and the Grenadines 5.4%, Venezuela 4.8%, Antigua and Barbuda 4.4%, St. Kitts and Nevis 4.2% (2011)

$1.55 billion (2011 est.)

$1.507 billion (2010 est.)

consumer goods, machinery, foodstuffs, construction materials, chemicals, fuel, electrical components

Russia 26.6%, Trinidad and Tobago 24.8%, US 18.6%, China 6.1% (2011)

$745.1 million (31 December 2011 est.)

$833.5 million

$668 million (2003)

Barbadian dollars (BBD) per US dollar -

2 (2011 est.)

2 (2010 est.)

1 April - 31 March

1.037 billion kWh (2010 est.)

955 million kWh (2009 est.)

0 kWh (2010 est.)

0 kWh (2010 est.)

239,100 kW (2009 est.)

100% of total installed capacity (2009 est.)

0% of total installed capacity (2009 est.)

0% of total installed capacity (2009 est.)

0% of total installed capacity (2009 est.)

1,000 bbl/day (2011 est.)

0 bbl/day (2009 est.)

0 bbl/day (2009 est.)

2.26 million bbl (1 January 2012 est.)

0 bbl/day (2008 est.)

8,339 bbl/day (2011 est.)

0 bbl/day (2008 est.)

7,686 bbl/day (2008 est.)

29.17 million cu m (2010 est.)

29.17 million cu m (2010 est.)

0 cu m (2010 est.)

0 cu m (2010 est.)

113.3 million cu m (1 January 2012 est.)

1.57 million Mt (2010 est.)

140,700 (2011)

347,900 (2011)

government-owned Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) operates the lone terrestrial TV station; CBC also operates a multi-channel cable TV subscription service; roughly a dozen radio stations, consisting of a CBC-operated network operating alongside privately-owned radio stations (2007)

.bb

1,522 (2010)

188,000 (2008)

1 (2012)

gas 33 km; oil 62 km; refined products 4 km

Bridgetown

Royal Barbados Defense Force: Troops Command, Barbados Coast Guard (2011)

17 years of age for voluntary military service (younger volunteers require parental consent); no conscription (2009)

0.8% of GDP (2009)

the Royal Barbados Defense Force includes a land-based Troop Command and a small Coast Guard; the primary role of the land element is island defense against external aggression; the Command consists of a single, part-time battalion with a small regular cadre deployed throughout the island; the cadre increasingly supports the police in patrolling the coastline for smuggling and other illicit activities (2007)

Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago abide by the April 2006 Permanent Court of Arbitration decision delimiting a maritime boundary and limiting catches of flying fish in Trinidad and Tobago's exclusive economic zone; joins other Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's claim that Aves Island sustains human habitation, a criterion under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which permits Venezuela to extend its Economic Exclusion Zone/continental shelf over a large portion of the eastern Caribbean Sea

one of many Caribbean transshipment points for narcotics bound for Europe and the US; offshore financial center