Current government officials

Languages: English, French patois

Ethnicity/race: black 66%, mixed 19%, East Indian 6%, European 4%, Carib Amerindian 2%, other 3%

Religions: Anglican 47%, Methodist 28%, Roman Catholic 13%, Hindu, Seventh-Day Adventist, other Protestant 12%

Literacy rate: 96% (1970 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2013 est.): $1.335 billion; per capita $12,100. Real growth rate: 2%. Inflation: 2.8%. Unemployment: 18.8% (2008 est.). Arable land: 12.82%. Agriculture: bananas, coconuts, sweet potatoes, spices; small numbers of cattle, sheep, pigs, goats; fish. Labor force: 57,520 (2007 est); agriculture 26%, industry 17%, services 57% (1980 est.). Industries: tourism; food processing, cement, furniture, clothing, starch. Natural resources: hydropower, cropland. Exports: $45.7 million (2013): bananas, eddoes and dasheen (taro), arrowroot starch, tennis racquets. Imports: $301.5 million (2013): foodstuffs, machinery and equipment, chemicals and fertilizers, minerals and fuels. Major trading partners: Barbados, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, U.S., Grenada, Dominica, Turkey, Dominica, Singapore, China (2012).

Member of Commonwealth of Nations

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 19,400 (2012); mobile cellular: 135,500 (2012) Radio broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 10, shortwave 0 (2009). Radios: 77,000 (1997). Television broadcast stations: 1 (plus three repeaters) (2007). Televisions: 18,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 305 (2012). Internet users: 76,000 (2009).

Transportation: Railways: 0 km. Highways: total: 829 km; paved: 580 km; unpaved: 249 km (2003 est.). Ports and harbors: Kingstown. Airports: 6 (2013).

International disputes: Joins other Caribbean states to counter Venezuelas claim that Aves Island sustains human habitation, a criterion under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which permits Venezuela to extend its Economic Exclusion Zone/continental shelf over a large portion of the eastern Caribbean Sea.