Barbados

agricultural land:

32.6%;

• arable land 25.6%;
• permanent crops 2.3%;
• permanent pasture 4.7%

forest:

19.4%

other:

48% (2011 est.)

• pollution of coastal waters from waste disposal by ships;
• soil erosion;
• illegal solid waste disposal threatens contamination of aquifers

party to:

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified:

none of the selected agreements

noun:

Barbadian(s) or Bajan (colloquial)

adjective:

Barbadian or Bajan (colloquial)

at birth:

1.01 male(s)/female

0-14 years:

1 male(s)/female

15-24 years:

0.99 male(s)/female

25-54 years:

0.99 male(s)/female

55-64 years:

0.88 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.66 male(s)/female

total population:

0.94 male(s)/female (2016 est.)

conventional long form:

none

conventional short form:

Barbados

etymology:

the name derives from the Portuguese "as barbadas," which means "the bearded ones" and can refer either to the long, hanging roots of the island's bearded-fig trees or to the alleged beards of the native Carib inhabitants

name:

Bridgetown

geographic coordinates:

13 06 N, 59 37 W

time difference:

UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)

citizenship by birth:

yes

citizenship by descent:

yes

dual citizenship recognized:

yes

residency requirement for naturalization:

5 years

chief of state:

Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); represented by Governor General Elliot BELGRAVE (since 1 June 2012)

head of government:

Prime Minister Freundel STUART (since 23 October 2010)

cabinet:

Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister

elections/appointments:

• the monarchy is hereditary;
• governor general appointed by the monarch;
• following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or leader of the majority coalition usually appointed prime minister by the governor general;
• the prime minister recommends the deputy prime minister

highest court(s):

Supreme Court (consists of the High Court with 8 justices) and the Court of Appeal (consists of the chief justice and president of the court and 4 justices; note - Barbados, a member of the Caribbean Court of Justice, replaced the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (in London) as the final court of appeal

judge selection and term of office:

• Supreme Court chief justice appointed by the governor-general on the recommendation of the prime minister and opposition leader of Parliament;
• other justices appointed by the governor-general on the recommendation of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission, a 5-member independent body consisting of the Supreme Court chief justice, the commission head, and governor-general appointees recommended by the prime minister;
• justices serve until mandatory retirement at age 65

subordinate courts:

Magistrates' Courts

• Barbados Labor Party or BLP [Mia MOTTLEY]
• Democratic Labor Party or DLP [Freundel STUART]
• People's Empowerment Party or PEP [David COMISSIONG]

• Barbados Secondary Teachers' Union or BSTU [Mary REDMAN]
• Barbados Union of Teachers or BUT [Karen BEST]
• Barbados Workers Union or BWU [Linda BROOKS]
• Clement Payne Labor Union [David COMISSIONG]
• Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados or CTUSAB, (includes the BWU, NUPW, BUT, and BSTU) [Leroy TROTMAN]
• National Union of Public Workers or NUPW [Walter MALONEY]

chief of mission:

Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Ad interim Jane E. BRATHWAITE

chancery:

2144 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008

telephone:

[1] (202) 939-9200

FAX:

[1] (202) 332-7467

consulate(s) general:

Miami, New York

consulate(s):

Los Angeles

• three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), gold, and blue with the head of a black trident centered on the gold band;
• the band colors represent the blue of the sea and sky and the gold of the beaches;
• the trident head represents independence and a break with the past (the colonial coat of arms contained a complete trident)

name:

"The National Anthem of Barbados"

lyrics/music:

Irving BURGIE/C. Van Roland EDWARDS

note: adopted 1966; the anthem is also known as "In Plenty and In Time of Need"

agriculture:

10%

industry:

15%

services:

75% (1996 est.)

lowest 10%:

NA%

highest 10%:

NA%

general assessment:

island-wide automatic telephone system

domestic:

fixed-line teledensity of roughly 55 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular telephone density about 115 per 100 persons

international:

• country code - 1-246;
• landing point for the East Caribbean Fiber System (ECFS) submarine cable with links to 13 other islands in the eastern Caribbean extending from the British Virgin Islands to Trinidad;
• satellite earth stations - 1 (Intelsat - Atlantic Ocean);
• tropospheric scatter to Trinidad and Saint Lucia (2015)

• government-owned Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) operates the lone terrestrial TV station;
• CBC also operates a multi-channel cable TV subscription service;
• roughly a dozen radio stations, consisting of a CBC-operated network operating alongside privately owned radio stations (2007)

total:

1,600 km

paved:

1,600 km (2011)

country comparison to the world: 177

• the Royal Barbados Defense Force includes a land-based Troop Command and a small Coast Guard;
• the primary role of the land element is island defense against external aggression;
• the Command consists of a single, part-time battalion with a small regular cadre deployed throughout the island;
• the cadre increasingly supports the police in patrolling the coastline for smuggling and other illicit activities

• Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago abide by the April 2006 Permanent Court of Arbitration decision delimiting a maritime boundary and limiting catches of flying fish in Trinidad and Tobago's exclusive economic zone;
• joins other Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's claim that Aves Island sustains human habitation, a criterion under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which permits Venezuela to extend its Economic Exclusion Zone/continental shelf over a large portion of the eastern Caribbean Sea