Antigua and Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda is an archipelagic country in the Caribbean comprising the islands of Antigua and Barbuda along with dozens of smaller islands, covering 440 square kilometers between the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Caribbean Sea to the west, with maritime borders toward Anguilla, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat and Guadeloupe. St. John's is the capital and most populous city of a country whose 2026 population was estimated at about 106,365, predominantly of African descent, at 87.3 percent. Hunter-gatherers settled the islands around 3700 BC, followed by Arawaks during the Ceramic period; Christopher Columbus surveyed the islands in 1493, English settlement began in 1632, and Antigua and Barbuda achieved independence on 1 November 1981. The country is a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with King Charles III as head of state, Prime Minister Gaston Browne heading the government and Governor-General Sir Rodney Williams representing the crown; classified as a high-income country, it ranks as the Caribbean's most developed nation by Human Development Index, with a service-based economy.