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 (Acting) Sir Philip GREAVES (since 1 July 2017)

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 High Court chief justice and president of the court and 4 justices; note - in 2010, 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 [Pedro SHEPHERD]
• 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) [Cedric MURRELL]
• National Union of Public Workers or NUPW [Akanni MCDOWALL]

chief of mission:

Ambassador Selwin Charles HART (since 18 January 2017)

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 ultramarine blue (hoist side), gold, and ultramarine 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 50 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 (2016)

• 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 (2009)

total:

1,700 km

paved:

1,700 km (2015)

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