Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia is one green island.

It has tall mountains, forests and beaches. The sea is all around it.

Saint Lucia is an island country in the Lesser Antilles, the curve of small islands in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The island is 43 kilometers long and up to 23 kilometers wide. It lies about 39 kilometers south of Martinique and 34 kilometers northeast of Saint Vincent.

English is the official language, and the money is the Eastern Caribbean dollar. The capital and main port is Castries. The 2022 census counted 172,948 people in its provisional results. The photo shows Petit Piton, one of the two Pitons.

Saint Lucia is the second largest of the Windward group of the Lesser Antilles: 43 km long and up to 23 km wide, about 39 km south of Martinique and 34 km northeast of Saint Vincent. It is a constitutional monarchy in the Commonwealth, with the British monarch represented by a governor-general, an elected House of Assembly and an appointed Senate.

The Central Statistical Office's provisional 2022 census results, from census night of March 12 to 13, 2022, give 172,948 residents, 3.9 percent more than the 166,526 of 2010. The office said in 2024 that the figures were still under review and could be revised. The photo shows Petit Piton above the sea.

Castries is the capital city. Big cruise ships visit its harbor.

Near the town of Soufrière, hot springs bubble from an old volcano.

Castries, on the northwest coast, has a deep, sheltered harbor that is the island's main port, and a cruise-ship complex opened nearby in 1987. An old fortress stands on Mount Fortune above the town. The photo shows a cruise ship in Castries harbor.

In the southwest, near the town of Soufrière, the two Pitons rise from the sea. Close to Petit Piton, boiling sulfur springs lie in the crater of an ancient volcano, and the town is named after them. The main international airport is at Vieux Fort, at the island's southern tip.

Castries, about 65 km south of Fort-de-France, Martinique, has a fine landlocked deepwater harbor on the northwest coast, the island's chief port; a fortress on Mount Fortune (260 m) overlooks the town, with Vigie Beach and a smaller airport for regional flights nearby. In 2022 Castries district was still the most populous, while Gros Islet, Vieux Fort, Laborie and Choiseul saw significant growth.

Near Petit Piton, in the crater of an ancient volcano, are the boiling sulfur springs that give Soufrière its name, a tourist site with substantial energy potential. Vieux Fort, at the southern tip, has the international airport.

The Pitons are two pointy mountains by the sea.

Bright orchids grow in the forest. Coral reefs lie under the water near the Pitons.

Saint Lucia was made by volcanoes. A ridge of wooded mountains runs down the middle from north to south, and the highest point, Mount Gimie, is about 950 meters high. Many streams flow from the mountains through fertile valleys.

The Pitons, Gros Piton and Petit Piton, are two volcanic spires rising side by side from the sea, joined by a ridge. UNESCO lists them as a World Heritage site, together with the coral reefs below them, which cover almost 60 percent of the site's sea area. The dry season runs from about January to April, and the rainy season from May to November.

The island is volcanic, bisected north to south by a wooded central ridge whose summit, Mount Gimie, reaches 959 m by Britannica's figure (952 m in Wikidata). UNESCO's Pitons Management Area (2004) covers 2,909 ha around Gros Piton (770 m) and Petit Piton (743 m), linked by the Piton Mitan ridge, with a geothermal field of sulfurous fumaroles and hot springs; Britannica gives the peaks as 798 m and 750 m. Coral reefs cover almost 60 percent of the marine area, where a survey found 168 species of finfish and 60 of cnidarians, including corals.

Rainfall ranges from 1,295 mm a year on the coast to 3,810 mm in the interior, and the mean temperature is about 27 °C, with highs near 31 °C and lows near 20 °C.

The Saint Lucia parrot is the national bird.

A furry rodent called the agouti is common in the forest.

Saint Lucia has rich birdlife. The Saint Lucia parrot is the national bird, and it is endangered. The Saint Lucia black finch and the Saint Lucia oriole are named for the island too, and there is a lizard found nowhere else. The agouti, a rodent, is common.

Gros Piton alone is home to some 27 kinds of birds, five of them endemic, along with native rodents, bats, reptiles and amphibians. Colorful orchids and anthuriums grow in the forest, though logging has made it smaller.

Britannica lists the endangered Saint Lucia parrot (the national bird), the Saint Lucia black finch and the Saint Lucia oriole among the island's rich birdlife, plus a lizard unique to Saint Lucia and the common agouti. The forest, reduced by lumbering, holds orchids and anthurium.

UNESCO's survey of the Pitons recorded at least 148 plant species on Gros Piton and 97 on Petit Piton and the ridge, including eight rare trees; some 27 bird species (five endemic), three native rodents, an opossum, three bats, eight reptiles and three amphibians on Gros Piton; and, offshore, 168 finfish species, eight molluscs, 14 sponges, 11 echinoderms, 15 arthropods and eight annelid worms.

People speak English, and many also speak a language with French roots.

Farmers grow bananas. Many visitors arrive on big cruise ships.

Most Saint Lucians are Black, with smaller groups of mixed, white and East Indian descent. English is the official language, but most people also speak a French-based patois, a reminder of the years when France held the island. Roman Catholicism is the main religion.

Bananas became the main crop after sugarcane ended in 1964, and farmers also grow coconuts, cacao, fruit, spices, cassava and yams. When the market for its bananas in Britain shrank, the government's export agency found buyers on nearby islands such as Antigua, Barbados and Trinidad (2023). Tourism has grown quickly since 1970. Primary school is free and compulsory, and the University of the West Indies has a branch in Castries.

The vast majority of Saint Lucians are Black, with small mulatto, white and East Indian minorities; no Caribs remain. A French patois spoken by most people is slowly giving way to English, the official language. Roman Catholicism is the main religion, with Seventh-day Adventists and other Protestants as important minorities; Britannica links the Catholic majority and the patois to French influence.

Sugar production ended in 1964, when most cane fields became banana farms. After the British market for Saint Lucian bananas declined, Export Saint Lucia reported in 2023 that islands such as Antigua, Barbados, St Kitts and Trinidad had high demand for them, and that sea-moss exports were rising. Tourism has grown since 1970. Two Saint Lucians have won Nobel Prizes: the economist Sir Arthur Lewis (1979) and the Castries-born poet and playwright Derek Walcott (literature, 1992).