An Introduction to Bermuda
Formally known as the Bermudas or Somers Isles, Bermuda is a British overseas territory located off the east coast of the US. Discovered in 1505 by and named after the Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermdez, it was not settled by the Spanish but became an English settlement in the early 17th Century and a British colony in 1707. See full country profile.Latest Research News from Latin America
GOVERNMENT: British Overseas Territory (parliamentary democratic dependency)
AREA: 53.2 sq km
POPULATION: 64,268 (2010 census)
MAJOR LANGUAGE: English
Some business and general info
The Market Research Industry
Trade and Industry in Bermuda
The first documented suggestion of unusual disappearances in the area appeared in a September 16, 1950 Associated Press article by Edward Van Winkle Jones; Fate magazine's George X. Sand followed up two years later with an article about the loss of several planes and ships, including US Navy bomber mission Flight 19 whose leader was later said to have uttered the last words: 'We are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don't know where we are, the water is green, no white.' It was also claimed that officials at the Navy board of inquiry stated that the planes 'flew off to Mars.'
Although popularly attributed to some kind of paranormal or extraterrestrial activity, the statistics boringly suggest that once spurious and exaggerated claims are removed, the number of disappearances is about average for an ocean area of similar size. The area is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, popular with pleasure craft, and is also a heavily flown route for commercial and private aircraft.
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Formally known as the Bermudas or Somers Isles, Bermuda is a British overseas territory located off the east coast of the US. Discovered in 1505 by and named after the Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermdez, it was not settled by the Spanish but became an English settlement in the early 17th Century and a British colony in 1707.
Bermuda has a tropical climate and is prone to severe weather, but has one of the world's highest GDPs per head thanks to an economy based on tourism and off-shore finance. The territory consists of 181 islands but the largest, Main Island, is sometimes itself called Bermuda. The 1967 constitution provides for elections by universal suffrage every 5 years. The current Progressive Labour Party leadership supports independence for the islands but the majority of the population do not appear to. Bermuda has been the oldest British overseas territory since Newfoundland became part of Canada in 1949, and the most populous when Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. The original capital St George's (est.1612) is the oldest continuously-inhabited English town in the Americas.
GDP: $5.85 bn (2009 est.); per capita $97,000 (the world's highest)
Religions Protestant 52% (inc. Anglican 23%), Roman Catholic 15%, other 12%, unaffiliated 6%, unspecified 1%, none 14% (2000 census)
Currency: Bermudian dollar; 1 BMD = $1 USD
Telephone Code: +1 441
Tourism - the island attracts over half a million visitors annually - and off-shore finance are the pillars of the islands' very strong economy. Large numbers of leading international insurance companies are based in Bermuda, attracted by its highly favourable tax regime.
The US is by far Bermuda's largest trading partner, providing over 71% of total imports, 80% of tourists and around $163bn of capital in the Bermuda insurance/re-insurance industry alone. c.5% of Bermuda residents are U.S. citizens and the Bermudian dollar, which replaced the Bermudian pound in 1970 is pegged to the US currency.
Bermuda has the highest GDP per capita of any of our 204 MR-a-thon states, but the cost of living is also high. Disputed figures from estate agents claim that the average cost of a house was $1.845m in early 2007.
Imports were $1.16bn in 2007 and included fuels, machinery, chemicals, food and construction materials - South Korea is a major partners alongside the US. Exports are lower ($783m in 2006) and many go to Europe (Spain 13.8%, Germany 11.7% and Switzerland 8.8% in 2006).
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