Country · Americas
Barbados
Barbados is a country in the Caribbean. About 287 000 people live there, in an area of 430 square kilometres. Its capital city is Bridgetown.
Picture credit: Patdoy (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Berit (CC BY 2.0) · giggel (CC BY 3.0) · xiquinhosilva (CC BY 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Barbados?
Barbados lies in the Caribbean, on the continent of Americas.
It sits in the northern half of the world, roughly 1 466 km from the equator.
Its coastline is about 97 km long.
It has no land neighbours — every border it has is with the sea.
How big is Barbados?
Barbados covers 430 square kilometres.
Luxembourg is about 6 times bigger.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 182nd largest.
If everybody spread out evenly, there would be about 666.6 people on every square kilometre.
That is busier than the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
Who lives in Barbados?
About 287 000 people live in Barbados.
That is the 173rd biggest population in the world.
People here speak English.
They pay with the Barbadian dollar ($).
On average, people born here can expect to live about 73 years.
The land of Barbados
Its coast runs for about 97 km. Walking it end to end, at twenty kilometres a day, would take roughly 5 days.
It lies inside the tropics, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes Barbados different?
A dish the country is known for: Cou-Cou and Flying Fish.
Websites from here often end in .bb.
Barbados and the rest of the world
Fewer than one person in every thousand on Earth lives in Barbados.
It takes up less than a hundredth of one per cent of all the land in the world.
Within Americas the country ranks 32nd of 35 by size, and 29th by population.
Nature and animals
Of the animals on this site, one lives wild in Barbados: Flying fish. The highest mountain in the country is Mount Hillaby, at 340 metres.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons under free licences — every credit is on the page itself and in the picture credits.
Where this country lands in the record lists
How big is Barbados compared with the United States?
- The United States is about 21 797 times as big as Barbados: 9 372 610 km² against 430 km².
- The United Kingdom is about 565 times as big as Barbados: 242 900 km² against 430 km².
Questions children ask
What is the capital of Barbados?
The capital of Barbados is Bridgetown. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in Barbados?
About 287 000 people live in Barbados, which makes it the 173rd most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
How big is Barbados?
Barbados covers 430 square kilometres, making it the 182nd largest country in the world. Luxembourg is about 6 times bigger.
What is the highest mountain in Barbados?
The highest mountain in Barbados is Mount Hillaby, 340 metres above sea level. It is the country's highest point.
Are there rivers in Barbados?
Barbados has no permanent river. The ground is porous, so rain sinks straight in or runs to the sea in channels that stay dry most of the year. The water comes from rain tanks, wells or desalination plants.
Which continent is Barbados in?
Barbados is in Americas, in the part called the Caribbean.
Where these numbers come from
Borders and outlines: Natural Earth. Names, capitals, areas, languages and currencies: ISO 3166 data (world-countries). Population: World Bank, 2018. Every derived figure on this page (ranks, density, distance from the equator) is calculated from those values.
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