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St. Kitts and Nevis
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Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis
Sovereign: Queen Elizabeth II
(1952)
Governor-General: Sir Cuthbert
Sebastian (1996)
Prime Minister: Denzil Douglas
(1995)
Current government officials
Total area: 101 sq mi (261 sq km). St. Kitts,
65 sq mi (168 sq km); Nevis, 36 sq mi (93 sq km)
Population (2007 est.): 39,349 (growth
rate: 0.6%); birth rate: 17.9/1000; infant mortality rate:
13.7/1000; life expectancy: 72.7; density per sq mi: 283
Capital (2003 est.):
Basseterre (on St. Kitts), 11,500
Largest town on Nevis: Charlestown,
1,300
Monetary unit: East Caribbean
dollar
Language: English
Ethnicity/race:
predominantly black; some British, Portuguese,
and Lebanese
Religions:
Anglican, other Protestant, Roman Catholic
Literacy rate: 97.8% (2003 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007
est.): $721 million; per capita $13,900. Real growth rate:
3.3%. Inflation: 4.5%. Unemployment: 4.5% (1997).
Arable land: 19%. Agriculture: sugarcane, rice, yams,
vegetables, bananas; fish. Labor force: 18,170 (June 1995).
Industries: sugar processing, tourism, cotton, salt, copra,
clothing, footwear, beverages. Natural resources: arable
land. Exports: $84 million (2006 est.): machinery, food,
electronics, beverages, tobacco. Imports: $383 million (2006
est.): machinery, manufactures, food, fuels. Major trading
partners: U.S., Canada, Portugal, UK, Ukraine, Trinidad and
Tobago (2004).
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 25,000 (2004); mobile cellular: 10,000 (2004). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 3, FM 3, shortwave 0 (2003).
Radios: 28,000 (1997). Television broadcast stations:
1 (plus 3 repeaters) (2003). Televisions: 10,000 (1997).
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 45 (2007). Internet
userss: 10,000 (2002).
Transportation: Railways: total: 50 km
(2002). Highways: total: 320 km; paved: 136 km; unpaved: 184
km (2006 est.). Ports and harbors: Basseterre, Charlestown.
Airports: 2 (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. Kitts, the larger of the two islands, is roughly oval in shape
except for a long, narrow peninsula to the southeast. Its highest point is
Mount Liamuiga (3,792 ft [1,156 m]). The Narrows, a 2-mile- (3-km-) wide
channel, separates the two islands. The circularly shaped Nevis is
surrounded by coral reefs and the island is almost entirely a single
mountain, Nevis Peak (3,232 ft [985 m]). A volcanic mountain chain
dominates the center of both islands.
Government
Constitutional monarchy.
History
When Christopher Columbus explored the islands in 1493, they were
inhabited by the Carib people. Today, most of the inhabitants are the
descendants of African slaves. The British settled on St. Kitts—formerly
St. Christopher—in 1623, and on Nevis in 1628. The French settled on St.
Kitts in 1627, and an Anglo-French rivalry lasted for more than 100 years.
After a decisive British victory over the French at Brimstone Hill in
1782, the islands came under permanent British control. The islands, along
with nearby Anguilla, were united in 1882. They joined the West Indies
Federation in 1958 and remained in that association until its dissolution
in 1962. St. Kitts–Nevis-Anguilla became an associated state of the United
Kingdom in 1967. Anguilla seceded in 1980, and St. Kitts and Nevis gained
independence on Sept. 19, 1983.
A drop in world sugar prices hurt the nation's economy through the
mid-1980s, and the government sought to reduce the islands' dependence on
sugar production and to diversify the economy, promoting tourism and
financial services. In 1990, the prime minister of Nevis announced that he
intended to seek an end to the federation with St. Kitts by 1992, but a
local election in June 1992 postponed the idea. In Aug. 1998, 62% of the
population voted for Nevis to secede, but the vote fell short of the
two-thirds majority required.
The country had been blacklisted by various international financial
agencies for improprieties in its off-shore financial-services industry,
but by 2002, it had been removed from all such lists.
See also Encyclopedia: St. Kitts and Nevis.
U.S. State Dept.
Country Notes: Saint Kitts and Nevis
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