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Travel to Gibraltar — Unbiased reviews and great deals
from TripAdvisorGibraltar
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Status: Overseas territory
Governor: Francis Richards (2003)
Chief Minister: Peter Caruana
(1996)
Total area: 3 sq mi (6.5 sq km)
Population (2007 est.): 27,967 (growth
rate: 0.1%); birth rate: 10.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 5.0/1000;
life expectancy: 79.9; density per sq mi: 12,072
Monetary unit: Gibraltar pound
Literacy rate: above 80% (2003
est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2000
est.): $769 million; per capita $27,900. Real growth rate:
n.a. Inflation: 1.5% (1998). Unemployment: 2%
(2001 est.). Arable land: 0%. Agriculture: none.
Labor force: 14,800 (including non-Gibraltar laborers);
services 60%, industry 40%, agriculture negl. Industries:
tourism, banking and finance, ship repairing, tobacco.
Natural resources: negl. Exports: $271 million f.o.b.
(2004 est.): (principally reexports) petroleum 51%, manufactured
goods 41%, other 8%. Imports: $2.967 billion c.i.f. (2004
est.): fuels, manufactured goods, and foodstuffs. Major trading
partners: France, Spain, Turkmenistan, Switzerland, Germany, UK,
Greece, Russia, Italy, U.S., Sweden (2004).
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 19,000 (1997); mobile cellular: 1,620 (1997). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 0 (1998). Radios:
37,000 (1997). Television broadcast stations: 1 (plus
three low-power repeaters) (1997). Televisions: 10,000
(1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 2 (2000).
Internet users: n.a.
Transportation: Railways: total: n.a.
km. Highways: total: 29 km; paved: 29 km; unpaved: 0 km
(2002). Ports and harbors: Gibraltar. Airports: 1
(2002).
International disputes:Gibraltar
residents vote overwhelmingly in referendum against “total
shared sovereignty” arrangement worked out between Spain and
UK to change 300-year rule over colony.
Major sources and definitions
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Gibraltar, at the south end of the Iberian Peninsula, is a rocky
promontory commanding the western entrance to the Mediterranean. Aside
from its strategic importance, it is also a free port, naval base, and
coaling station. It was captured by the Moorish leader Tarik, crossing
from Africa into Spain in 711, and its name is derived from the Arabic,
Jabal-al-Tarik (Mount of Tarik). In the 15th century, it passed to
the Moorish ruler of Granada and later became Spanish. It was captured by
an Anglo-Dutch force in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession and
passed to Great Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Since then Spain
has continually laid claim to it. Most of the inhabitants of Gibraltar are
of Spanish, Italian, and Maltese descent, and in 1981 Gibraltarians were
granted full British citizenship. Spanish efforts to recover Gibraltar
culminated in a referendum in 1967, in which the residents voted
overwhelmingly to retain their link with Britain. In response, Spain
sealed Gibraltar's land border between 1969 and 1985. In 2002, Britain and
Spain discussed sharing the sovereignty of Gibraltar. In reaction, the
government of Gibraltar held a referendum in Nov. 2002 in which the
population voted almost unanimously against shared sovereignty.
See also Encyclopedia: Gibraltar.
Statistics
Office
http://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/about_gib/statistics/statistics_index.htm
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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