Saint Martin

Saint Martin is on an island in the warm Caribbean Sea.

The island has two parts. Saint Martin is the northern part, and it is French.

The island of Saint Martin lies near the northern end of the Lesser Antilles, a long chain of islands in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It is only about 19 kilometers from north to south. Its northern two-thirds is Saint-Martin, part of France, and its southern third is Sint Maarten, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Saint-Martin is an overseas collectivity, which means it is part of France but makes many of its own decisions about local laws and taxes. French is the official language, and English is widely spoken.

Britannica describes the island of Saint Martin as lying at the northern end of the Leeward group of the Lesser Antilles, about 19 km across in each direction, with an area of 88 km². The northern two-thirds is tied historically and administratively to France, the southern third to the Netherlands.

Until February 2007 Saint-Martin was a commune of the French département of Guadeloupe and, with Saint-Barthélemy, one of its arrondissements. As an overseas collectivity it remains part of France but has broad authority over its fiscal and legislative affairs. The president of France is head of state, represented by a prefect; a 23-member Territorial Council, led by its president, makes local laws and elects a seven-member Executive Council, both for five-year terms. Saint-Martin sends a representative and a senator to the French Parliament. French is the official language, and Britannica notes that English is widely spoken.

The capital is Marigot. It has red roofs and a harbor full of boats.

Green hills rise behind the town.

Marigot is the capital. The photo looks down over the town: houses with red roofs, a waterfront with market stalls, a harbor full of boats and green hills behind. Fort Louis, a former fort dating from 1789, is in Marigot.

Grand Case, near Marigot, has an airport. Princess Juliana International Airport, in the Dutch part, serves both parts of the island. Pic Paradis, at 424 meters, is the highest point on the whole island.

Marigot, the capital, is described by Britannica as an important port and trade center; Fort Louis, a former military fort dating from 1789, stands in the town (Wikidata). An airport at Grand Case serves the French side, while Princess Juliana International Airport, west of Philipsburg in the Dutch part, serves both parts of the island.

Pic Paradis (424 m) is the island's highest point and lies in the French part (Wikidata). The photo looks down on Marigot: red-roofed houses, a waterfront promenade with colorful market stalls, a harbor with moored boats and, beyond, a wide bay and green hills.

Saint Martin has green hills and quiet ponds.

Coral reefs and sea grass grow in the sea nearby.

Saint-Martin has beaches and hills covered in forest. Much of its natural plant life is dry forest, with fan palms called latania and cactuses. The island gets about 1,140 millimeters of rain a year.

The Saint-Martin Nature Reserve, created in 1998, protects about 2,900 hectares of sea in the northeast, along with coastal land and ponds. It looks after five kinds of habitat: coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass meadows, ponds and dry coastal forest. Fourteen protected ponds have been on the Ramsar list of important wetlands since 2012.

Britannica describes Saint-Martin's vegetation as primarily dry forest with groves of latania (a fan palm) and cactus, on beaches and forest-covered hills; the whole island receives about 1,140 mm of rain a year. Pic Paradis rises to 424 m.

The Saint-Martin Nature Reserve, created in 1998 in the island's northeast, covers about 2,900 ha of sea on the shelf between Anguilla, Saint Martin and Saint-Barthélemy, plus 154 ha of coastal land (11 km of shoreline) and 198 ha of wetlands administered by the Conservatoire du littoral. It protects the island's five main ecosystems: coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds, ponds and dry coastal forest. Its 14 protected ponds, listed under the Ramsar Convention since 1 May 2012, soften floods, protect the coast and filter water before it reaches the sea, but face dumping and untreated wastewater. Reefs protect the coast from swell; boats must use moorings or anchor on sand, because anchors and chains destroy corals that take decades to recover.

From January to May, big whales sing in the sea near Saint Martin.

Many seabirds and sea turtles live here too.

Nine kinds of sea mammals can be seen in Saint-Martin's waters. From January to May, divers may hear male humpback whales singing; one song can last up to half an hour before the whale comes up to breathe. The young humpback in the photo was swimming off French Polynesia.

Eighty-five kinds of birds live around the island, including pelicans, egrets and red-billed tropicbirds. Early figures showed that 2023 was a very good nesting season for sea turtles, especially hawksbills. On the French side, digging up or disturbing the wild Pope's head cactus is against the law.

The reserve lists nine marine mammal species; from January to May divers may hear male humpback whales, which can sing underwater for up to half an hour before surfacing, and a 2012 survey between Saint Martin, Anguilla and Saint-Barthélemy recorded four dolphin species and several sperm whales. Eighty-five bird species occur, 55 of them protected, among them the great and snowy egrets, red-billed tropicbird, bridled tern, Audubon's shearwater, least tern and pelican; brown noddies nest on Tintamarre's cliffs, and because a frightened noddy may destroy its nest, boats may no longer anchor in North Cove bay or land people there. The humpback pictured is a calf off Moorea, French Polynesia.

Volunteers and reserve staff track turtle nests each year; preliminary data showed that the 2023 season, which ended on 30 November, was particularly good, especially for hawksbills. On Tintamarre, 150 automatic traps were used to control introduced rats between July 2022 and October 2023, and the reserve is working toward bringing back the Lesser Antillean iguana. Disturbing or uprooting wild Pope's head cactus (Melocactus intortus) is prohibited on the French side, and in 2026 the reserve and the Nature Foundation Sint Maarten completed the first island-wide survey of the species.

About 31,000 people live in Saint Martin.

They speak French and English.

INSEE counted 31,160 people living in Saint-Martin (on 1 January 2023, the official figure since 2026). Britannica notes that most people are of African or mixed African and European heritage. French is the official language, and English is widely spoken.

Tourism is the main business. In 2025 the whole island welcomed about 2.6 million visitors, many arriving on cruise ships, reports France's overseas issuing institute, the IEDOM. Building work and shops also employ many people.

INSEE's legal population for Saint-Martin is 31,160 (statistical reference 1 January 2023, in force from 1 January 2026); the IEDOM notes a decade of population decline. Britannica describes most residents as of African or mixed African-European heritage, with French official and English widely spoken.

The IEDOM's 2025 report, summarized by Outremers360, calls tourism the main engine of Saint-Martin's economy: 2.6 million visitors to the whole island in 2025 (+15.7%), including 1.6 million cruise passengers and 963,159 air passengers. About 95.5% of visitors arrive through the Dutch part's transport links, and the French part aims at higher-value tourism. Salaried jobs reached a record 8,119 at the end of 2025, and construction remains an important employer.