Barbados

• 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)

0-14 years:

17.8% (male 26,084 /female 26,090)

15-24 years:

12.53% (male 18,236 /female 18,479)

25-54 years:

43.69% (male 63,829 /female 64,249)

55-64 years:

13.62% (male 18,888 /female 21,043)

65 years and over:

12.36% (male 14,705 /female 21,528) (2018 est.)

total dependency ratio:

50.4 (2015 est.)

youth dependency ratio:

29.1 (2015 est.)

elderly dependency ratio:

21.3 (2015 est.)

potential support ratio:

4.7 (2015 est.)

at birth:

1.01 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

0-14 years:

1 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

15-24 years:

0.99 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

25-54 years:

0.99 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

55-64 years:

0.88 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

65 years and over:

0.66 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

total population:

0.94 male(s)/female (2017 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)

etymology:

named after a bridge constructed over the swampy area (known as the Careenage) around the Constitution River that flows through the center of Bridgetown

history:

adopted 22 November 1966, effective 30 November 1966 (2018)

amendments:

• proposed by Parliament;
• passage of amendments to constitutional sections such as citizenship, fundamental rights and freedoms, and the organization and authorities of the branches of government requires two-thirds majority vote by the membership of both houses of Parliament;
• passage of other amendments only requires a majority vote of both houses;
• amended several times, last in 2010 (2018)

citizenship by birth:

yes

citizenship by descent only:

yes

dual citizenship recognized:

yes

residency requirement for naturalization:

5 years

highest courts:

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 2005, Barbados acceded to the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final court of appeal, replacing that of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London

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

chief of state:

Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); represented by Governor General Sandra MASON (since 8 January 2018)

head of government:

Prime Minister Mia MOTTLEY (since 25 May 2018)

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

• Bajan Free Party [Alex MITCHELL]
• Barbados Integrity Movement [Neil HOLDER]
• Barbados Labor Party or BLP [Mia MOTTLEY]
• Democratic Labor Party or DLP [Freundel STUART]
• People’s Democratic Congress [Mark ADAMSON]
• People's Empowerment Party or PEP [David COMISSIONG]
• Solutions Barbados [Grenville PHILLIPS II]
• United Progressive Party or UPP [Lynette EASTMOND]

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

• 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;
• telecom sector across the Caribbean region remains one of the key growth areas;
• numerous competitors licensed, but small and localized (2017)

domestic:

fixed-line teledensity of roughly 48 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular telephone density about 116 per 100 persons (2017)

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 (2015)

paved:

1,700 km (2015)

• 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 zonejoins 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