Barbados
Capital: Bridgetown
History
The island was uninhabited when first settled by the British in 1627. African 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.
Geography
Metric Units
Economy
Budget & Debt
Trade
| Exports |
$491.1 million |
| Export Items |
manufactures, sugar and molasses, rum, other foods and beverages, chemicals, electrical components |
| Export Partners |
Trinidad and Tobago 18.9%, France 10.7%, US 9.7%, St. Lucia 8.8%, St. Vincent and the Grenadines 5.4%, Venezuela 4.9%, Antigua and Barbuda 4.5%, St. Kitts and Nevis 4.2% (2011) |
| Imports |
$1.63 billion |
| Import Items |
consumer goods, machinery, foodstuffs, construction materials, chemicals, fuel, electrical components |
| Import Partners |
Russia 26.6%, Trinidad and Tobago 24.8%, US 18.6%, China 6.1% (2011) |
People
| Population |
288,725 |
| Population Growth |
0.34% |
| Ethnic Groups |
black 93%, white 3.2%, mixed 2.6%, East Indian 1%, other 0.2% (2000 census) |
| Religion |
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.) |
| Life Expectancy |
74.75 years |
| Infant Mortality |
0.94 deaths/1,000 live births |
| Maternal Mortality |
1.7 deaths/100,000 live births |
Energy
