Global View: Barbados

At only 166 square miles, Barbados is a tiny piece of real estate, home to less than 300,000 residents, with the North Atlantic Ocean to its northeast and the Caribbean Sea to its southwest.

Barbadians are primarily of African descent and largely Protestant, and use English as the daily language.

Government

Barbados is a parliamentary democracy, granted independence in late 1966. It's constitution was approved the same year. The country is divided into eleven parishes and the capital of Bridgetown.

The government consists of an executive branch that includes a governor general to represent British Queen Elizabeth II, a prime minister, and a cabinet, a legislative branch with a bicameral Parliament, and a judiciary consisting of magistrate's courts, a Supreme Court, and the Caribbean Court of Justice in Trinidad and Tobago.

The government is run by the cabinet, which is headed by the prime minister. The cabinet answers to the parliament, which has two chambers, a House of Assembly and a Senate. The House of Assembly has 30 directly elected members and the Senate has 21 members appointed by the governor general. House of Assembly members serve five year terms.

Economy

Barbados' economy is described by the U.S. State Department as "an upper-middle-income economy" that relies primarily on the tourism trade. After recovering from a declining tourism business in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Barbado's economy grew by a respectable 3.8 percent in 2006, the last year for which data was provided by the State Department.

Aside from tourism, Barbados' economy is fueled by banking and financial services and sugar production, although the latter's contribution to the overall gross domestic product is negligible. Primary trade partners include the United States, the European Union, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Barbados Abroad

Barbados has been a member of the United Nations and a member of the Organization of American States for more than 40 years. The island is a founding member of the Caribbean Community and Common Market, along with Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Jamaica.

The United States provides assistance to Barbados through the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Barbados and the United States have in place cooperation agreements to fight the flow of illegal drugs through the Caribbean.

Source: U.S. Department of State