|RConstitution:|N Independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations.
The Senate has 21 members appointed by the Governor and the House of Assembly has 28 members elected every five years by universal suffrage.
|RDefense:|N No military service. The strength is 1 000 men.
|RNational holiday:|N Independence Day, November 30.
|RNature and climate:|N The most eastward of the West Indian islands. A fairly low coral island, surrounded by coral reefs, with a highest point of 340 m.a.s.l.
Average temperature between 25°C and 27°C over the year. Percipitation 1500 mm.
|RPeople:|N To the greatest extent negroes, descendants of the slaves brought to work at the sugar plantations.
|REducation:|N Compulsory between 5 and 16 years. There is a college of the University of the West Indies and a polytechnic institute.
|REconomy:|N Intensive agriculture. Close to 75% of the island is cultivated. Foremost crops are sugar canes, potatoes, pepper, melon, breadfruit and ginger.
Stockfarming and fishing also important industries.
Many tourists visit the island.
Manufacturing of food, clothes, furniture, household machines, electric and electronic components and plastic products.
Electronic components account for most of the export value.
Oil and natural gas is extracted both on and off shore.
|RHistory:|N In 1528 Spaniards discovered the island and exterminated the Arawak Indians that lived at Barbados.
British settlements, on the then inhabited island, from 1627. British colony till independence in 1966, with internal selfgoverning from 1961.
