Saint Barthélemy

Saint Barthélemy is an island in the warm Caribbean Sea.

It is part of France. People there speak French.

Saint Barthélemy is a small, hilly island in the Lesser Antilles, a long chain of islands in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It lies about 200 kilometers north of the main islands of Guadeloupe. Many people call it Saint-Barth for short.

Saint Barthélemy is part of France. Since 2007 it has been an overseas collectivity, which means it makes many of its own decisions about local laws and taxes. Before that, it was part of Guadeloupe.

Britannica describes Saint-Barthélemy as an island of the Lesser Antilles, about 200 km north of Guadeloupe's main islands, mountainous yet fertile despite relatively little rain. It was a commune and, with Saint-Martin, an arrondissement of the French département of Guadeloupe until voters approved a change of status in 2003; it became an overseas collectivity in February 2007.

The collectivity remains part of France but has broad authority over its own fiscal and legislative affairs. The president of France is head of state, represented by a prefect; a 19-member Territorial Council, led by its president, makes local laws, and an eight-member Executive Council is chosen by it. Saint-Barthélemy elects a representative and a senator to the French Parliament.

Gustavia is the island's only town.

Many boats float in its harbor. Red roofs cover the hills.

Gustavia is the capital and the only town. It stands on a well-sheltered harbor and was named after King Gustav III of Sweden. In the photo, sailboats and yachts fill the harbor, and houses with red roofs climb the green hills around it.

In Swedish times, four forts guarded the town. The remains of Fort Carl, built in 1789, still stand on a rocky hill southwest of Gustavia. From the top you can see the town, small islets and other islands such as Saint Martin and Saba.

Gustavia, the capital and only town, stands on a well-sheltered harbor and is named for Sweden's King Gustav III (Britannica). Four forts framed it in the Swedish era: Gustav, Carl, Anglais and Octav. Fort Carl, a light battery built in 1789 to defend the town from the south, survives as ruins on a dry-forest hill southwest of Gustavia; the Conservatoire du littoral took it over in 2007 and restored parts of it, and since 2021 Gustavia elementary pupils have helped care for the site. Its summit looks over the town, the islets and Saba, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sint Eustatius and Saint Martin.

In 2025 the IEDOM's annual report, as summarized by Outremers360, counted 232,548 passengers at the island's airport and 219,558 arrivals at the port of Gustavia. The photo shows the harbor crowded with sailboats and motor yachts, red-roofed houses on the slopes and a white wooden bell tower in the foreground.

Long ago, the sea was much lower.

Then this island was part of a much bigger island.

Saint Barthélemy is hilly, and its highest point, Morne du Vitet, rises to 286 meters. The land is covered in dry forest or wetlands, and the coast has rocky shores and beaches.

About 18,000 years ago the sea was 100 meters lower than today. Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin and Anguilla were then joined in one big island, almost twice the size of Guadeloupe. That helps explain why some animals live only on these islands today.

At Grand Cul-de-Sac, a reef of elkhorn coral helped create a calm, shallow lagoon where young sea creatures grow.

The island sits at the northern end of the Lesser Antilles arc on the Anguilla Bank, with Saint-Martin, Tintamarre and Anguilla. Its rocks, marine and volcanic formations with later deposits, date from about 51 to 24 million years ago. About 18,000 years ago sea level stood 100 m lower, and the bank formed a single island almost twice the size of Guadeloupe; the territorial environment agency (ATE) says this helps explain the endemic reptiles and other wildlife found only on these islands.

Morne du Vitet reaches 286 m (Wikidata; Britannica gives a maximum of 281 m). A reef of elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) helped create the Grand Cul-de-Sac lagoon, a calm, shallow nursery for sea life; the ATE reports that it was affected by global warming in October 2024. Eighteen islets surround the island, half of them privately owned. As towns grew, seabirds moved away from the main island and now nest only on the islets, so some islets are closed to visitors all year.

Three kinds of sea turtles lay eggs on the beaches.

Dogs are not allowed on the beaches, to keep turtles and birds safe.

Hawksbill, green and leatherback turtles come ashore to lay their eggs on Saint Barthélemy's beaches. If you see a turtle nesting, stay at least 20 meters away, and keep 3 meters from baby turtles. Dogs have been banned from every beach since 1986, partly to protect birds and turtles. The hawksbill in the photo was swimming over a reef in Egypt.

The Saint-Barthélemy Nature Reserve, created in 1996, protects 1,200 hectares of sea around the island.

The ATE lists three sea turtles nesting on the island's beaches: hawksbill, green and leatherback. Watchers must keep at least 20 m from a laying female and 3 m from hatchlings, never touch a turtle, and keep light and noise low, with red light preferred. Dogs have been banned from all beaches since a 1986 by-law, partly because they can disturb birds and turtles or damage nests. Beach plants, which hold dunes together, also serve as turtle nesting sites. The hawksbill pictured was photographed in Ras Muhammad National Park, Egypt.

The Saint-Barthélemy Nature Reserve, created on 10 October 1996 as France's 132nd nature reserve, covers 1,200 ha of sea and is managed by the ATE. Some of the island's species are strictly endemic, and others are found only on the Anguilla Bank islands; they are protected under the island's Environmental Code.

About 10,000 people live on the island.

Many visitors come by plane and by boat.

INSEE counted 10,660 people living in Saint Barthélemy (on 1 January 2023, the official figure since 2026). French is the official language. Britannica notes that the island's rocky, dry soil never supported plantations worked by enslaved people.

Tourism drives the island's economy. In 2025 it welcomed 333,052 visitors, more than ever before, reports France's overseas issuing institute, the IEDOM. Building work and hotels and restaurants employ many people, and a few farms grow flowers and other plants.

INSEE's legal population for Saint-Barthélemy is 10,660 (statistical reference 1 January 2023, in force from 1 January 2026); the IEDOM notes decades of growth driven largely by workers arriving from outside. Britannica notes that the island's rocky, arid soil never supported plantations worked by enslaved people.

The IEDOM's 2025 annual report, summarized by Outremers360, calls tourism the main engine of the economy: a record 333,052 visitors in 2025 (+6.5%), a high-end hotel sector and 17.2 million euros in tourist tax. Construction employed nearly one worker in five at the end of 2025. Farming is marginal: six farms in 2020, twice as many as ten years earlier, turning to flowers and horticulture on scarce land.