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St. Vincent and the Grenadines
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Sovereign: Queen Elizabeth II
(1952)
Governor-General: Frederick
Ballantyne (2002)
Prime Minister: Ralph Gonsalves
(2001)
Current government officials
Total area: 150 sq mi (389 sq km)
Population (2007 est.): 118,149 (growth
rate: 0.2%); birth rate: 16.0/1000; infant mortality rate:
14.0/1000; life expectancy: 74.1; density per sq mi: 903
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Kingstown, 17,600
Monetary unit: East Caribbean
dollar
Languages:
English, French patois
Ethnicity/race:
black 66%, mixed 19%, East Indian 6%, Carib
Amerindian 2%, other 7%
Religions:
Anglican 47%, Methodist 28%, Roman Catholic
13%, Hindu, Seventh-Day Adventist, other Protestant
Literacy rate: 96% (1970 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007
est.): $1.042 billion; per capita $9,800. Real growth rate:
6.6%. Inflation: 6.1%. Unemployment: 15% (2001
est.). Arable land: 18%. Agriculture: bananas,
coconuts, sweet potatoes, spices; small numbers of cattle, sheep,
pigs, goats; fish. Labor force: 41,680 (1991 est);
agriculture 26%, industry 17%, services 57% (1980 est.).
Industries: food processing, cement, furniture, clothing,
starch. Natural resources: hydropower, cropland.
Exports: $193 million (2006): bananas 39%, eddoes and dasheen
(taro), arrowroot starch, tennis racquets. Imports: $578
million (2006): foodstuffs, machinery and equipment, chemicals and
fertilizers, minerals and fuels. Major trading partners: UK,
Barbados, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, U.S.,
Grenada, Dominica (2004).
Member of Commonwealth of Nations
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 22,600 (2006); mobile cellular: 87,600 (2006) Radio
broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 6, shortwave 0 (2004).
Radios: 77,000 (1997). Television broadcast stations:
1 (plus three repeaters) (2004). Televisions: 18,000 (1997).
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 97 (2007). Internet
users: 10,000 (2005).
Transportation: Railways: 0 km.
Highways: total: 829 km; paved: 580 km; unpaved: 249 km
(2003 est.). Ports and harbors: Kingstown. Airports: 6
(2007).
International disputes: protests
Venezuela's claim to give full effect to Aves Island, which creates
a Venezuelan EEZ/continental shelf extending over a large portion of
the Caribbean Sea.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
St. Vincent, chief island of the chain, is 18 mi (29 km) long and 11 mi
(18 km) wide and is located 100 mi (161 km) west of Barbados. The island
is mountainous and well forested. St. Vincent is dominated by the volcano
Mount Soufrière, which rises to 4,048 ft (1,234 m). The Grenadines, a
chain of nearly 600 islets with a total area of only 17 sq mi (27 sq km),
extend for 60 mi (96 km) between St. Vincent and Grenada. The main islands
in the Grenadines are Bequia, Balliceau, Canouan, Mayreau, Mustique, Isle
D'Quatre, Petit Saint Vincent, and Union Island.
Government
Parliamentary democracy.
History
The Carib Indians inhabited St. Vincent before the Europeans arrived,
and the island still sports a sizable number of Carib artifacts. Explored
by Columbus in 1498, and alternately claimed by Britain and France, St.
Vincent became a British colony by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. In 1773,
the island was divided between the Caribs and the British, but conflicts
between the groups persisted. In 1776, the Caribs revolted and were
subdued. Thereafter the British deported most of them to islands in the
Gulf of Honduras. Sugarcane cultivation brought thousands of African
slaves and, later, Portuguese and East Indian laborers.
The islands belonged to the West Indies Federation from 1958 until its
dissolution in 1962, won home rule in 1969 as part of the West Indies
Associated States, and achieved full independence Oct. 27, 1979. Prime
Minister Milton Cato's government quelled a brief rebellion on Dec. 8,
1979, attributed to economic problems following the eruption of Mount
Soufrière in April 1979 (which had caused the evacuation of the northern
two-thirds of the island). The eruption, followed by Hurricane Allen in
1980, seriously damaged the nation's economy, particularly the important
banana crop, in the 1980s. But by the 1990s the economy had begun to
rebound. With the 1999 decision by the European Union to end its
preferential treatment of bananas imported from former colonies, St.
Vincent sought to diversify its economy, primarily through expanding
tourism.
In 2001 elections, the Unity Labour Party (ULP) won a landslide upset,
and Ralph Gonsalves, a lawyer, became the new prime minister. In 2005, he
was reelected.
See also Encyclopedia: St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
U.S. State
Dept. Country Notes: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Fact Monster/Information Please®
Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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