Caribbean
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Barbados is a country located in Caribbean. Its capital city is Bridgetown, with other major cities including Speightstown and Oistins. With a population of approximately 280,000, the main language spoken is English. The country covers an area of 430 km². The official currency is the Barbadian dollar ($). Traffic drives on the left side.
Barbados has the highest per-capita consumption of rum in the world and was the origin of the rum trade — the island's Mount Gay distillery, founded in 1703, is the oldest working rum distillery on Earth.
Bridgetown serves as the political, cultural and economic heart of Barbados, positioned in Caribbean. As the seat of government and often the most populous city, it concentrates the country's main institutions, universities and cultural landmarks. Beyond the capital, major cities include Speightstown, Oistins — each a hub of regional culture, economy and history. Bridgetown, founded in 1628, contains the Garrison Savannah — a 19th-century British military complex now used as a horse racing track — and the Parliament Buildings of 1874, making it one of the Caribbean's oldest legislative bodies in continuous operation, housed in a Gothic Revival structure that looks transplanted from Westminster.
With a population of approximately 280,000, Barbados is a vibrant society with a rich mix of traditions and communities. The official language is English, which reflects the country's cultural heritage and connects it with a wide international community. Internationally, Barbados is reached via the dialling code +1246. Barbadians, Bajans, maintain a culture of extraordinary literary production for an island of 280,000 — George Lamming's In the Castle of My Skin and Kamau Brathwaite's poetry are studied in British and American universities, a tradition rooted in the same Eastern Caribbean literary culture that produced Nobel laureate Derek Walcott.
Barbados spans 430 km², in the Caribbean subregion of Americas. Geographically centred around 13.2°N, 59.5°W, the country offers a diverse range of landscapes shaped by its location, climate and geology. Road traffic follows the left-hand rule, in line with surrounding Americas convention.
The official currency is the Barbadian dollar ($), used for everyday transactions and commerce throughout the country. Barbados's economy is shaped by its geography, natural resources and trade relationships. Business and daily life operate under UTC-04:00, aligning the country with its regional neighbours.
Cricket holds a special place in the heart of Barbados's national identity. Sir Garfield Sobers, born in Bridgetown in 1936, is considered the greatest all-round cricketer in history — his 1958 world record Test score of 365 not out stood for 36 years, and his 1968 feat of hitting six consecutive sixes in a first-class over remains one of cricket's defining statistical moments.
The highest point in Barbados is Mount Hillaby, rising to 340 metres above sea level. Barbados is entirely underlain by coral limestone — there is no volcanic rock, unlike most Caribbean islands — and this geology produces an extraordinary network of caves, including Harrison's Cave with its active stalactite formations, while the porous limestone filters rainwater into underground aquifers that have supplied the island since pre-Columbian Arawak settlement.