U.S. Virgin Islands

The U.S. Virgin Islands are in the warm Caribbean Sea.

The three big islands are St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John. The capital is Charlotte Amalie.

The U.S. Virgin Islands lie in the northeastern Caribbean Sea, about 64 kilometers east of Puerto Rico. Together with their close neighbor, the British Virgin Islands, they are part of the Virgin Islands group. There are three large islands, St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John, and about 50 small islets and cays.

The islands are a territory of the United States, and the people are U.S. citizens. They elect their own governor and a legislature of 15 senators. English is the official language, and people pay with the US dollar. The capital is Charlotte Amalie, on St. Thomas.

Britannica describes an organized unincorporated territory of the United States at the eastern end of the Greater Antilles, about 64 km east of Puerto Rico, geographically part of the Virgin Islands group with the British Virgin Islands.

Government rests on the Organic Act of the Virgin Islands, passed by Congress in 1936 and revised in 1954. The governor is elected for up to two consecutive four-year terms, and the 15 senators of the one-house legislature serve four-year terms. Residents are U.S. citizens; they elect a nonvoting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives but do not vote in U.S. national elections. English is official, and the currency is the US dollar.

Charlotte Amalie is a town on a big harbor. Large ships stop there.

St. Croix is the biggest island. The fewest people live on St. John.

Charlotte Amalie, on St. Thomas, is the capital and the largest town. The photo looks down over its houses to a wide harbor with cruise ships and small boats, and green islands beyond.

St. Croix, to the south, is the largest island, with the towns of Christiansted and Frederiksted. St. John has the fewest people of the three main islands; Cruz Bay is one of its towns. Ferries link the three islands and the British Virgin Islands, and there are international airports on St. Thomas and St. Croix.

The 2020 census counted 42,261 people on St. Thomas, 41,004 on St. Croix and 3,881 on St. John; the Charlotte Amalie subdistrict had 14,477 and the town itself 8,194 (10,354 in 2010), still the largest town. St. Croix, the largest island at 218 km², holds most of the farmland and the towns of Christiansted and Frederiksted.

Charlotte Amalie, Frederiksted and Limetree Bay are deepwater ports, and a container port on St. Croix's south coast handles most cargo. Ferries run between the three main islands and to the British Virgin Islands, there are international airports on St. Thomas and St. Croix, and seaplanes link the islands with Puerto Rico and beyond.

St. Thomas and St. John have steep green hills.

Coral reefs grow all around the islands. Warm breezes blow most of the year.

The islands are part of a mountain range that continues from Puerto Rico. The highest point is Crown Mountain on St. Thomas, about 474 meters high. St. Thomas and St. John are very rugged, while St. Croix has mountains in the north and a wide, rolling plain in the south. Coral reefs fringe all the islands.

The weather is warm, with daytime highs of about 28 °C in January and 31 °C in July, cooled by trade winds from the northeast. About 1,100 millimeters of rain falls in a year, mostly from September to December. Long ago, plantations cleared most of the tropical forest.

Britannica describes the islands, with the British Virgin Islands, as an extension of Puerto Rico's central fault-block mountain ranges: metamorphosed igneous and sedimentary rocks, partly overlain by limestone and alluvium. Heights reach 474 m at Crown Mountain on St. Thomas (Wikidata: 473 m), 389 m at Bordeaux Mountain on St. John and 332 m at Mount Eagle on St. Croix. St. Croix's mountains are confined to the north, above a broad southern plain. Fringing coral reefs surround all the islands, and ancient raised reefs ring the main ones.

Daytime highs at St. Thomas average about 28 °C in January and 31 °C in July, with northeast trade winds and low humidity for the tropics. Rainfall averages about 1,100 mm, with a rainy season from September to December. Early plantation clearance destroyed most of the tropical forest, now found only in a few places on St. Thomas.

Sea turtles lay their eggs on the beaches.

Under the water, coral reefs are full of life. People snorkel to see them.

Britannica says the islands have few land animals apart from birds, but the seas around them are rich in fish. Buck Island, off St. Croix, is a national monument. President John F. Kennedy called its reef the finest marine garden in the Caribbean Sea. Snorkelers can follow an underwater trail past endangered elkhorn coral.

Sea turtles nest on the beaches of St. John and Buck Island, and scientists have studied them on Buck Island for more than 30 years. The green sea turtle in this photo was taken in French Polynesia.

Island fauna is sparse except for birds, Britannica notes, while the surrounding seas abound in commercial and game species. Buck Island Reef National Monument, which takes in the whole 176-acre islet and its reef, was called 'the finest marine garden in the Caribbean Sea' by President John F. Kennedy; an elkhorn coral barrier reef surrounds two-thirds of the island, and snorkelers are led in small groups along an underwater trail. Its dry forest ranges from tamarinds and gumbo-limbo to cacti and orchids.

Scientists have studied sea-turtle nesting on Buck Island for over 30 years, the Park Service reports, and the national park on St. John recruits volunteers for early-morning nesting surveys on St. John. The green sea turtle pictured was photographed off Moorea, French Polynesia.

People here speak English.

Many visitors come for the warm weather and beautiful scenery. Farms on St. Croix grow fruit like mangoes and bananas.

Britannica says about three out of four people in the U.S. Virgin Islands are Black. English is the official language. Some people on St. Croix also speak Spanish, and some French is spoken on St. Thomas.

Tourism is the biggest part of the economy, helped by the warm climate, beautiful scenery and the islands' status as a free port. Britannica notes that most farmland is on St. Croix, where fruits such as mangoes and bananas and vegetables such as tomatoes are grown. The University of the Virgin Islands, founded in 1962, has campuses on St. Thomas and St. Croix.

Britannica describes a population about three-fourths Black and one-tenth to one-fifth white; English is official, with some French on St. Thomas and Spanish among Puerto Rican immigrants on St. Croix. The population grew rapidly in the mid- to late 20th century through immigration from the U.S. mainland, the eastern Caribbean and Puerto Rico, but the census fell from 106,405 (2010) to 87,146 (2020).

Tourism, based on climate, scenery, fishing, closeness to the U.S. mainland and free-port status, dominates the economy. Rum distilling was the traditional industry; the HOVENSA oil refinery on St. Croix closed in 2012 after more than four decades. About one-fifth of the land is farmland, mostly on St. Croix, where fruits, vegetables and cattle are raised. A bay forest on St. John supplies leaves for the bay rum industry.