Barbados

Country	Barbados
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Capital	name: Bridgetown geographic coordinates: 13 06 N, 59 37 W time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
Population	284,589 (July 2009 est.)
GMT	-4
Location	Caribbean, island in the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Venezuela
Area	total: 431 sq km land: 431 sq km water: 0 sq km
Ethnic groups	black 90%, white 4%, Asian and mixed 6%
Religions	Protestant 63.4% (Anglican 28.3%, Pentecostal 18.7%, Methodist 5.1%, other 11.3%), Roman Catholic 4.2%, other Christian 7%, other 4.8%, none or unspecified 20.6% (2008 est.)
Languages	English
Government type	parliamentary democracy
National holiday	Independence Day, 30 November (1966)
Constitution	30 November 1966
Legal system	English common law; no judicial review of legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations
Background	The island was uninhabited when first settled by the British in 1627. Slaves worked the sugar plantations established on the island until 1834 when slavery was abolished. The economy remained heavily dependent on sugar, rum, and molasses production through most of the 20th century. The gradual introduction of social and political reforms in the 1940s and 1950s led to complete independence from the UK in 1966. In the 1990s, tourism and manufacturing surpassed the sugar industry in economic importance.
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