Barbados

Barbados is an island country in the Caribbean Sea, part of the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies, and the southernmost and easternmost Caribbean island, sitting on the boundary between the South American and Caribbean tectonic plates and covering 439 square kilometers. Bridgetown is its capital and largest city, and its 2023 population of about 282,000 gives Barbados a population density of 660 people per square kilometer, the 174th most populous country in the world. Originally inhabited by Kalinago people who called the island Ichirouganaim, Barbados was claimed by Spain in the late fifteenth century, and English settlement began in 1625; the island gained independence on 30 November 1966, and on the fifty-fifth anniversary of that independence, 30 November 2021, Barbados transitioned from a Commonwealth realm to a unitary parliamentary republic, replacing the British monarch with a ceremonial president. President Jeffrey Bostic and Prime Minister Mia Mottley lead the country today, under a bicameral Parliament of a Senate and House of Assembly; Barbados is a leading Caribbean tourist destination with a nominal GDP of about 6.2 billion dollars as of 2023.