British Virgin Islands

The British Virgin Islands are in the warm Caribbean Sea.

There are four bigger islands and many small ones. The main town is Road Town.

The British Virgin Islands lie in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with Puerto Rico to the west. They are part of a chain called the Virgin Islands. Four islands are larger: Tortola, Anegada, Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke. There are also 32 smaller islands and islets, and more than 20 of them have no one living on them.

The islands are a British overseas territory. A governor is appointed by the British monarch, and an elected premier leads the islands' own government. English is the official language, and people pay with the US dollar.

Britannica places the territory at the northeastern end of the Greater Antilles, in the island chain called the Virgin Islands, with Puerto Rico to the west. Besides the four larger islands there are 32 smaller islands and islets, more than 20 of them uninhabited, among them Great Tobago, Salt, Peter, Cooper, Norman, Guana, Beef and Marina Cay.

A constitution that came into effect in 2007 gave the islands greater internal self-government. The governor, appointed by the British monarch, is the chief executive officer. The premier is elected by the majority party in the House of Assembly and appointed by the governor, and presides over a cabinet; Britannica gives the House 13 members elected by universal adult suffrage. English is official, and the currency is the US dollar.

Road Town sits by a big harbor on Tortola.

Tortola is the biggest island. Most people live there.

Road Town is the chief town and port. It lies on Tortola, the largest island, a long chain of steep hills about 5 kilometers wide. About four out of every five people in the territory live on Tortola. The photo shows Road Town from a green hillside, with boats in a marina and two cruise ships in the harbor.

Virgin Gorda is two rectangle-shaped parts joined by a spit of land. Jost Van Dyke is small and rugged, and Anegada, far to the north, is flat. The main airport for travelers flying in, Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport, is on Beef Island, which a bridge joins to Tortola.

Road Town, on Tortola, is the chief town and port. Tortola is a long chain of steep hills about 5 km wide with no valley crossing it; at the 2010 census it held 23,419 of the territory's 28,054 people, about four-fifths. Port Purcell and West End, both on Tortola, are deepwater ports.

Virgin Gorda, about 21 km², forms two rectangles joined by a spit of land; its northern hills reach 414 m at Virgin Peak. Jost Van Dyke is a rugged island of about 8 km². Anegada, the northernmost island, is flat coral. Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport, the main entry point by air, is on Beef Island, connected by bridge to Tortola.

Most of the islands have green hills.

Anegada is different. It is flat and made of coral. There are no rivers anywhere.

Most of the islands are hilly. The highest point is Mount Sage on Tortola, 521 meters high. At the southwest end of Virgin Gorda, enormous granite boulders lie scattered over the ground, some taller than 9 meters. Anegada is the odd one out: it is made of coral and limestone and rises only 3 to 5 meters above the sea, with dangerous reefs all around it.

The weather is warm, about 26 °C on average, cooled by trade winds. There are no rivers, and fresh water is scarce. For a long time, islanders relied on their own rain tanks, called cisterns, and wells.

Britannica describes the islands as a geologic extension of Puerto Rico's central fault-block mountains: low mountains, lagoons with coral reefs and barrier beaches, and landlocked harbors. All except Anegada are hilly. Mount Sage on Tortola is 521 m in the territory article (543 m in Britannica's Tortola article). Virgin Gorda's southwestern peninsula is flat and strewn with granite boulders, some over 9 m high. Anegada is coral and limestone, never more than 3 to 5 m above sea level.

The climate is subtropical, averaging 26 °C, with northeast trade winds, a dry season from February to July and a wet season from September to December. Rain averages about 1,270 mm a year but varies widely, from under 760 mm in the driest parts to perhaps 2,030 mm on Mount Sage's upper slopes. Islanders long depended almost entirely on their own cisterns and wells. Tortola also keeps a fragment of drought-tolerant forest with species found nowhere else on the island.

Pink flamingos live on Anegada again.

A rare iguana lives there too. People help its babies grow big and safe.

Flamingos once lived on Anegada's salt ponds, but by the 1960s only a few old birds were left. In 1992, 22 flamingos were flown in from Bermuda and set free on Anegada, and by 2014 the flock had grown to hundreds. The flock in the photo was taken in Mexico. Herons, terns and ospreys also live in Anegada's bird sanctuary.

The Anegada iguana is critically endangered. Its natural home is Anegada, though people have also moved a few to other islands. Wild cats catch the young ones, so each fall hatchlings are raised in a safe place until they are big enough to be set free. Sailfish, tarpon, marlin and wahoo swim in the waters around the islands.

The Conservation Agency says the greater (roseate) flamingo, Phoenicopterus ruber, was once common on Anegada's salt ponds but had dwindled to a few old birds by the 1960s. In 1992, 22 birds brought from Bermuda were released on Anegada; by 2014 the flock numbered hundreds. The flock pictured is in Celestún, Mexico. Britannica lists herons, terns and ospreys in Anegada's bird sanctuary.

The Anegada iguana (Cyclura pinguis) is Critically Endangered. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance explains that it once lived across the Puerto Rican Bank but became restricted to Anegada as sea levels rose. Small introduced groups on private islands all descend from eight adults taken from Anegada in the mid-1980s. Feral cats had nearly ended the survival of young iguanas by the 1990s; since 1998 nests have been protected and hatchlings head-started, and since 2003 nearly 190 have been released, with 80% survival.

People here speak English.

Many children learn to sail. People also play football and cricket.

Most people in the British Virgin Islands are descended from enslaved Africans. English is the official language, but many people more often speak Virgin Islands Creole English. The culture mixes European, African and Caribbean ways.

Sailing is the favorite sport, and the islands have been called the sailing capital of the Caribbean. Football (soccer) and cricket are popular too. Tourism and financial services, such as registering companies from other countries, are the main ways the islands earn money, and farming was the most important work until the 1970s.

Britannica describes a population mostly descended from enslaved Africans, with a European-descended minority that grew after 1960 with immigrants from the United States and Britain. English is official, but an English-based creole, Virgin Islands Creole English, is used far more in practice.

The economic mainstays are tourism and financial services. Agriculture was the backbone of the economy until tourism replaced it in the 1970s; from the mid-1980s the government collected fees from foreign businesses that registered in the islands, some 400,000 of them by the start of the 21st century. Sailing is the favorite sport, alongside football, cricket, baseball and softball. H. Lavity Stoutt Community College opened in 1990.