St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Sovereign: Queen Elizabeth II (1952)

Governor-General: Frederick Ballantyne (2002)

Prime Minister: Ralph Gonsalves (2001)

Total area: 150 sq mi (389 sq km)

Population (2006 est.): 117,848 (growth rate: 0.3%); birth rate: 16.2/1000; infant mortality rate: 14.4/1000; life expectancy: 73.8; density per sq mi: 900

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 (2002 est.): $342 million; per capita $2,900. Real growth rate: 0.7%. Inflation: –0.4% (2001 est.). Unemployment: 15% (2001 est.). Arable land: 18%. Agriculture: bananas, coconuts, sweet potatoes, spices; small numbers of cattle, sheep, pigs, goats; fish. Labor force: 67,000 (1984 est.); agriculture 26%, industry 17%, services 57% (1980 est.). Industries: food processing, cement, furniture, clothing, starch. Natural resources: hydropower, cropland. Exports: $37 million (2004 est.): bananas 39%, eddoes and dasheen (taro), arrowroot starch, tennis racquets. Imports: $225 million (2004 est.): 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: 20,500 (1998); mobile cellular: n.a. Radio broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 3, shortwave 0 (1998). Radios: 77,000 (1997). Television broadcast stations: 1 (plus three repeaters) (1997). Televisions: 18,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 15 (2000). Internet users: 3,500 (2001).

Transportation: Railways: 0 km. Highways: total: 1,040 km; paved: 320 km; unpaved: 720 km (1999 est.). Ports and harbors: Kingstown. Airports: 6 (2002).

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.


 

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