An Introduction to St. Lucia
One of the Windward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, St Lucia was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse by the French, the first European colonizers. The island changed hands between Britain and France 14 times in wars after 1660, with Britain finally taking long-term control in 1814. In 1979 it became an independent state within the British Commonwealth. See full country profile.Latest Research News from Latin America
GOVERNMENT: parliamentary democracy
AREA: 616 sq km
POPULATION: 161,557 (2011 est.)
MAJOR LANGUAGE: Official Language: English. French patois also spoken
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One of the Windward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, St Lucia was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse by the French, the first European colonizers. The island changed hands between Britain and France 14 times in wars after 1660, with Britain finally taking long-term control in 1814. In 1979 it became an independent state within the British Commonwealth.
St Lucia has an educated workforce and a fair standard of living, with an economy based traditionally on bananas and more recently on offshore banking and tourism.
GDP: $2.16bn (2011 est.) - $12,476 per capita
Religions c.70% Roman Catholic, other Christian c.18%; 2% Rastafarian.
Currency: East Caribbean dollar. 2.7 XCD = $US 1
Telephone Code: +1 758
Recent factors including competition from Latin American bananas have focused the St Lucian government on diversifying the economy, and it has been successful in attracting foreign bus'ness and investment. Its manufacturing sector is the most diverse in the Eastern Caribbean area. Despite negative growth in 2011, economic fundamentals remain solid and GDP growth should recover.
Unusually for the Caribbean, St Lucia's population is growing rapidly, about 1.2% per year, despite a high emigration rate.
2004 exports totalled $82m with bananas making up 41% of this and clothing, cocoa, vegetables, fruits and coconut oil also important. France (25%), the US (18.3%), China (17.8%) and the UK (14.5%) were all key partners in 2005. 2004 imports of $410m included food, manufactured goods and machinery and many goods came (in 2005) from the US (23.8%), Trinidad and Tobago (16%) and the Netherlands (11.1%).
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