Explore Barbados in North America

Description and Basic Information

Barbados with its capital Bridgetown is located in North America (Caribbean, island in the North Atlantic Ocean). It covers some 432 square kilometres (2.5 times the size of Washington, DC) with 281,000 citizens. English is the language used in Barbados.

Barbados is an island in the Caribbean, northeast of Venezuela. The island is portrayed as the Little Britain of the Caribbean because of its long association as a British colony. The name "Barbados" comes from a Portuguese explorer named Pedro Campos in 1536, who originally called the island Los Barbados ("The Bearded Ones"), after the appearance of the island's fig trees, whose long hanging aerial roots resembled beards. Driving is on the left. The bus system is extensive, cheap, and fast - if you're headed to somewhere on the main route - but a car (or mini-moke) is the only way to see many of the out-of-the-way sights. The local currency is the Bajan dollar, but US dollars are accepted just about everywhere in shops and restaurants. The exchange rate is fixed at 1.98 Bajan dollars to the US Dollar but almost everyone uses US$1 = BD$2.

Pictures from Bridgetown (Capital)

Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners.

About Barbados

The topography features relatively flat with rises gently to central highland region. The average density of population is about 651 per km². The climate in can be described as tropical with rainy season (June to October). Potential natural disasters are infrequent hurricanes or periodic landslides.

To reach someone in Barbados dial +1-246 prior to a number. There are 135,700 installed telephones. And there are 337,100 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 900, 1800, 1900 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".bb". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 115V - 50Hz.

The country consists of 12 regions/states which are listed below.

Regions/States of Barbados

Tourism Information

Official Tourism Office

Website: Barbados Tourism

Harbour Road
Bridgetown
Barbados

Phone: +1 246 427-2623
Fax: +1 246 426 4080

Unesco World Heritage Properties

Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison

Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison, an outstanding example of British colonial architecture consisting of a well-preserved old town built in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, which testifies to...

Demographic Information

Age Distribution in Barbados

Each pair of bars represents a single age group (male/female). Each group is spanning 5 years. E.g. 0 to 5 years, 5 to 10 etc. and group "0 to 5" being at the left end and "100 +" at the right end of the chart.

Natural Population Growth

Population, Migration and Growth: The population in Barbados is growing at an rate of 0.37% (or by 1,068 citizens). Each year 86 people leave this country (or 0.30 per thousand citizens) - making it an emmigration country. This leads to an absolute natural increase rate of the population of 0.4%. Or an total increase of 1,154 citizens.

Based on content from wikitravel.org. The original article can be found here based on the work of these users.
Geographic information is based on the data provided by geonames.org, CIA factsbook and Unesco.