|RConstitution:|N Independent country within the Commonwealth of Nations. Recognizes the queen as head of state.
|RNational holiday:|N Independence Day, February 22.
|RNature and climate:|N Small island in the eastern West Indies between Martinique and Saint Vincent.
Average temperature 27°C around the year.
Percipitation varies between 1500 and 3500 mm depending on the elevation above sea level.
|RPeople:|N 90% of African descent, 6% mixed, 3% East Indians.
|REconomy:|N Agriculture is the most important industry and occupies more than 40% of the labour force, different services occupies close to 40% and trade and manufacturing close to 20%.
The most important crops are bananas, coconuts, sugar, cacao and spices.
Bananas usually accounts for more than 50% of the export revenues, but most plantations were destroyed by hurricane Allen in 1980 and Saint Lucia still suffers economically from that disaster.
Tourism is also an important source of income and manufacturing have been rapidly developed in the last decades. Textilemanufacturing is considerable and there are quite a few factories for assembling electronic components.
|RHistory:|N The island was discovered about 1500 and the British made the first attempts of colonizing in the early 17th century.
Not until the French arrived in 1650 the colonization speeded up.
France ceded the island to UK in 1814.
Saint Lucia was a member of the Federation of the West Indies from 1958 to 1962.
It gained internal self-governing in 1967 and became a full independent country in 1979. It has enjoyed a stable development since then.
