Netherlands Antilles
|
| Basic Facts |
| Country name |
conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Netherlands Antilles local long form: none local short form: Nederlandse Antillen former: Curacao and Dependencies |
| Gevernment type | parliamentary |
| Capital |
name: Willemstad (on Curacao)
geographic coordinates: 12 06 N, 68 56 W time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) |
| Flag description | white, with a horizontal blue stripe in the center superimposed on a vertical red band, also centered; five white, five-pointed stars are arranged in an oval pattern in the center of the blue band; the five stars represent the five main islands of Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten |
| Currency | Netherlands Antillean guilder (ANG) |
| Internet country code | .an |
| Ports and terminals | Bopec Terminal, Fuik Bay, Kralendijk, Willemstad |
| Agriculture products | aloes, sorghum, peanuts, vegetables, tropical fruit |
| Industries | tourism (Curacao, Sint Maarten, and Bonaire), petroleum refining (Curacao), petroleum transshipment facilities (Curacao and Bonaire), light manufacturing (Curacao) |
| Geography |
| Location | Caribbean, two island groups in the Caribbean Sea - composed of five islands, Curacao and Bonaire located off the coast of Venezuela, and St. Maarten, Saba, and St. Eustatius lie east of the US Virgin Islands |
| Coordinates | 12 15 N, 68 45 W |
| Continent | Central America and the Caribbean |
| Area |
total: 960 sq km
land: 960 sq km water: 0 sq km note: includes Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten (Dutch part of the island of Saint Martin) |
| Boundaries |
total: 15 km
border countries: Guadeloupe (Saint-Martin) 15 km |
| Coastline | 364 km |
| Climate | tropical; ameliorated by northeast trade winds |
| Terrain | generally hilly, volcanic interiors |
| Natural resources | phosphates (Curacao only), salt (Bonaire only) |
| Natural hazards | Curacao and Bonaire are south of Caribbean hurricane belt and are rarely threatened; Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius are subject to hurricanes from July to October |
| People |
| Population | 221,736 (July 2006 est.) |
| Ethnic groups | mixed black 85%, Carib Amerindian, white, East Asian |
| Religions | Roman Catholic 72%, Pentecostal 4.9%, Protestant 3.5%, Seventh-Day Adventist 3.1%, Methodist 2.9%, Jehovah's Witnesses 1.7%, other Christian 4.2%, Jewish 1.3%, other or unspecified 1.2%, none 5.2% (2001 census) |
| Languages | Papiamento 65.4% (a Spanish-Portuguese-Dutch-English dialect), English 15.9% (widely spoken), Dutch 7.3% (official), Spanish 6.1%, Creole 1.6%, other 1.9%, unspecified 1.8% (2001 census) |
