Barbados

Barbados is an island in the Caribbean Sea.

It is shaped a bit like a triangle. People speak English. The capital city is Bridgetown.

Barbados is an island in the southeastern Caribbean, about 160 kilometers east of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is roughly triangle-shaped, about 32 kilometers long and 25 kilometers wide at its widest point.

English is the official language, and many people also speak Bajan, a local kind of English. Bridgetown, the capital, is the largest town and main seaport. Barbados has been independent since 1966, and the 2021 census counted 269,090 people. The photo shows Crane Beach.

Britannica describes Barbados as roughly triangular, about 32 km northwest to southeast and 25 km at its widest, about 160 km east of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Though usually grouped with the Lesser Antilles, it is a different geologic formation, less mountainous and with less variety of plants and animals. As the first Caribbean landfall from Europe and Africa, it has linked Britain, the eastern Caribbean and South America since the late 17th century.

The Barbados Statistical Service's census of August 1, 2021, counted 269,090 people, down from 277,821 in 2010. English is official and Bajan, a nonstandard English, is widely spoken. The currency is the Barbadian dollar.

Bridgetown is the capital city.

It has old streets and an old army fort. Ships come to its port. Speightstown and Holetown are smaller towns by the sea.

Bridgetown, on the southwest coast, is the capital, main port and center of business. More than one-third of Barbadians live in and around it. Its old town and the Garrison, a group of forts and army buildings that once protected the port, are a World Heritage Site.

Other towns include Speightstown and Holetown on the west coast and Oistins on the south coast. In the countryside, many families live in chattel houses: wooden houses that can be taken apart and moved to a new spot.

More than one-third of Barbadians live in and around Bridgetown, whose multistory buildings are changing the 19th-century town; Speightstown, Oistins and Holetown are the next largest settlements. UNESCO inscribed Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison in 2011: a semi-planned colonial town with brick architecture, warehouses and docks largely unchanged for 200 years, and St. Ann's Garrison, which UNESCO calls the most complete 18th- and 19th-century British garrison ensemble in the Atlantic World.

Because most farmland belongs to large estates, 'tenantries' of chattel houses on estate borders are as common as villages; the houses are usually owned by their occupants but stand on rented ground, so they can be moved.

Barbados is made of coral rock.

Coral reefs ring the island. Rain soaks into the rock. It is warm all year.

A layer of coral rock up to 90 meters thick covers most of Barbados. In the northeast, in an area called the Scotland District, rain and wind have worn the coral away. The highest point is Mount Hillaby, 340 meters high, and coral reefs surround most of the island.

There are no big rivers or lakes. Rain soaks quickly into the coral limestone and runs in underground streams, which give the island most of its water. It is warm all year, between about 22 °C and 30 °C, with a dry season from December to May.

Sedimentary shales, clays, sands and conglomerates laid down about 70 million years ago are overlain by chalky deposits capped with coral up to 90 m thick, except in the Scotland District (about 15% of the island), where erosion has stripped it. Wikidata gives Mount Hillaby 340 m (Britannica 336 m); terraces step down to the west coast, and Christ Church Ridge rises south of the St. George's Valley. Sewerage was built in the late 20th century to protect the surrounding reefs from runoff.

Rain percolates through the coralline limestone into underground streams, the main source of domestic water, supplemented by desalination. Temperatures stay between about 22 °C and 30 °C; about 1,525 mm of rain falls a year, mostly from June to November. Barbados lies on the southern edge of the hurricane zone; strong hurricanes struck in 1780, 1831, 1898 and 1955.

Flying fish swim in the sea near Barbados.

Hummingbirds and egrets fly over the island. Monkeys live on the island too.

Barbados has few wild land animals: monkeys, hares and mongooses, which farmers often see as pests. Birds include doves, hummingbirds, sparrows, egrets and yellow breasts.

The sea is richer. Flying fish, kingfish, barracudas, mackerels and parrotfish swim around the island. Very little of the original forest remains, and fields of sugarcane give the land its pale green color. The egret in the photo was photographed in Australia.

Britannica notes that the few wild mammals, such as monkeys, hares and mongooses, are considered pests by farmers, and lists doves, hummingbirds, sparrows, egrets and yellow breasts among the birds. Marine life includes flying fish, sprats, kingfish, barracudas, mackerels and parrotfish.

Very little original vegetation survives; cultivated sugarcane gives the landscape its characteristic pale green, while poinciana, mahogany, frangipani and cabbage palm are widespread. Britannica notes the island has less variety of plant and animal life than the volcanic Lesser Antilles nearby. The egret photo was taken in Sydney, Australia.

Cricket is the national sport.

Crop Over is a big summer festival with music and costumes. Many people speak Bajan.

More than nine out of ten Barbadians have African or mixed African and European ancestors, and there are smaller groups with British, Indian, Syrian, Lebanese and Chinese roots. Most people are Christian.

Cricket is the national sport, and Barbados has given many players to the famous West Indies team. Crop Over, a summer festival that began as a celebration of the end of the sugarcane harvest, fills weeks with calypso music, food and art and ends with the Grand Kadooment, a parade of costumed bands. Road tennis is believed to have been invented on the island.

People of African and mixed African-European descent make up more than nine-tenths of the population, with small European (mainly British), South Asian, Syrian, Lebanese and Chinese groups and a sizable expatriate community. Anglicanism is the largest single denomination, alongside Methodist, Moravian, Pentecostal and Seventh-day Adventist churches and smaller faiths. Family planning and emigration slowed growth after the mid-20th century.

Cricket is the national sport; Garfield Sobers and Frank Worrell are legends, and Kensington Oval hosted the 2007 World Cup final. Crop Over, rooted in sugarcane harvest celebrations and revived in the 1970s, culminates in the Grand Kadooment parade. Road tennis, played with wooden paddles and a de-fuzzed ball, is believed to have been invented here. Writers include George Lamming and Kamau Brathwaite.