THE GEOGRAPHY (Foreign Office UK)
Area: 430 sq km; 166 sq mi
Population: 275 330 (July 2001
estimate)
Capital City: Bridgetown
People: About 80% of Barbados's
population are of African descent, 4%
European descent, and 16% mixed.
Barbados's population growth rate has
been very low, less than 1% since the
1960s.
Languages: English
Religion(s): Protestant 67% (Anglican
40%, Pentecostal 8%, Methodist 7%,
other (e.g. also small Jewish and
Muslim communities) 12%), Roman
Catholic 4%, other 12%, none 17%.
Currency: Barbadian Dollar (BBD)
Major Political Parties: Barbados
Labour Party (BLP); Democratic
Labour Party (DLP); National
Democratic Labour Party (NDP)
Government: Barbados is an
independent state within the
Commonwealth. It has a bicameral
parliament consisting of a House of
Assembly, with 28 members directly
elected to serve a five-year term, and
a Senate, with 21 members appointed
by the Governor General (12 on the
advice of the prime-minister, 2 on the
advice of the opposition, 7 by the
Governor General alone). Executive
power is vested in the Prime Minister,
who is generally the leader of the
majority party in the Assembly.
Universal suffrage was introduced in
1951. The three political parties are all
moderate. The BLP is a party of the
centre, but lies to the right of the
Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in the
political spectrum. The parties have no
major ideological differences: electoral
contests and political disputes often
have personal overtones. The legal
system is based on Common law. The
final appeal rests with the UK Privy
Council, which will be replaced by the
Caribbean Court of Justice, when it
becomes operational.
GEOGRAPHY
Barbados is the most easterly of the
Caribbean islands. Most of the island is
relatively flat, with low, gentle hills in
the interior, except for the
north-east, which rises up to 340
metres. The west coast has white
sandy beaches and calm turquoise
waters. The east side of the island
faces the more turbulent Atlantic.
Coral reefs surround most of the
island.
THE HISTORY (Foreign Office UK)
The original inhabitants of Barbados
were Arawak Indians, who were driven
off the island around AD 1200 by
invading Carib Indians from Venezuela.
The Carib Indians in turn abandoned the
island around 1500. Portuguese
explorer Pedro a Campos in 1536
named the island Los Barbados
(Bearded Ones), presumably after the
long, hanging aerial roots of the island's
fig trees, which resemble beards. The
island's first European settlement was
established in 1627 by English settlers.
In the 1640s the colonists planted their
fields with sugarcane and brought
slaves to the island to work on the
sugar plantations. The sugar industry
continued to boom until the 19th
century. Even after the abolition of
slavery, large estates owned almost all
the arable land and most black
islanders had to stay working on the
plantations, for lack of better
opportunities. Barbadians emigrated to
other countries in the Caribbean and to
work on the Panama Canal. Barbados
gained internal self-government in 1961
and became an independent nation on
30 November 1966. Since independence,
Barbados has been a stable democracy.
THE ECONOMY (Foreign Office UK)
After eight years of steady growth in
Barbados, the economy contracted by
2.8%. in 2001. In 2002, the GDP declined
by a further 1.8. The downturn was
mainly caused by a slump in the key
tourist industry, with falling overall
numbers in tourist arrivals and low
hotel occupancy, partly as a result of 11
September 2001, a poor performance
in the agricultural sector and a slow
down in the construction sector. The
government deficit rose to 4.25%.
Unemployment rose to an estimated
10.5% in 2002. The government of
Barbados has launched a series of
tourism initiatives to increase airlift
capacity and earmarked a substantial
amount of money for an advertising
campaign aimed at the US and
European markets. With the recent
introduction of direct flights to/from
Manchester, the authorities hope that
tourist figures will recover. The
tourism sector depends to a high
degree on the UK market. As a whole,
Barbados has a well-managed economy
that is better placed than most in the
region to cope with external shocks.
However, experts have drawn to
attention that Barbados may face
long-term problems if the economic
sectors outside tourism, such as sugar,
domestic agriculture, manufacturing,
IT and offshore financial services, do
not recover.
Barbados was taken off the OECD's list
of tax havens in January 2002.
Basic Economic Facts
GDP (2002 est.):
US$ 2.6 billion
GDP per head (2002 est.): US $ 9700
Annual Growth (2002 est.): - 1.8%
Inflation (2002 est.): 2.0 %
Major Industries: tourism, offshore
financial services, sugar, light
manufacturing, component assembly
for export
Major trading partners:
Export partners: UK 14.8%, US 11.6%,
Trinidad and Tobago 7.6%, Venezuela
6.1%, Jamaica 5.8% (1998)
Import partners: US 30.7%, Trinidad
and Tobago 10.2%, Japan 8.3%, UK 7.7%,
Canada 2.2% (1998)
Flags Of The World: Barbados
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