St. Lucia | Facts & Information

Updated September 9, 2022 | Infoplease Staff
  • St. Lucia Profile
Infoplease has everything you need to know about St. Lucia. Check out our country profile, full of essential information about St. Lucia's geography, history, government, economy, population, culture, religion and languages. If that's not enough, click over to our collection of world maps and flags.

Facts & Figures

  • Sovereign: Queen Elizabeth II (1952)

    Governor-General: Dame Pearlette Louisy (1997)

    Prime Minister: Kenny Anthony (2011)

    Land area: 236 sq mi (611 sq km); total area: 238 mi (616 sq km)

    Population (2014 est.): 163,362 (growth rate: 0.35%); birth rate: 13.94/1000; infant mortality rate: 11.75/1000; life expectancy: 77.41; density per sq mi: 672

    Capital and largest city (2011 est.): Castries, 21,000

    Monetary unit: East Caribbean dollar

    Current government officials

    Languages: English (official), French patois

    Ethnicity/race: black 85.3%, mixed 10.9%, East Indian 2.2%, other or unspecified 1.7% (2010 est.)

    Religions: Roman Catholic 61.5%, Seventh-Day Adventist 10.4%, Pentecostal 8.9%, Evangelical 2.3%, Anglican 1.6%, other Christian 3.4%, Rastafarian 1.9%, none 5.9% (2010 est.)

    Literacy rate: 90.1% (2001 est.)

    Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2013 est.): $2.216 billion; per capita $13,100. Real growth rate: 0.2%. Inflation: 5.3%. Unemployment: 20% (2003 est.). Arable land: 4.84% (2011 est.). Agriculture: bananas, coconuts, vegetables, citrus, root crops, cocoa. Labor force: 79,700 (2012 est.); agriculture 21.7%, industry, commerce, and manufacturing 24.7%, services 53.6% (2002 est.). Industries: tourism; clothing, assembly of electronic components, beverages, corrugated cardboard boxes, lime processing, coconut processing. Natural resources: forests, sandy beaches, minerals (pumice), mineral springs, geothermal potential. Exports: $206.8 million (2013 est.): bananas 41%, clothing, cocoa, avocados, mangoes, coconut oil. Imports: $592.7 million (2013 est.): food 23%, manufactured goods 21%, machinery and transportation equipment 19%, chemicals, fuels. Major trading partners: UK, U.S., Brazil, Peru, France, Grenada, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago (2012).

    Member of Commonwealth of Nations

    Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 36,800 (2012); mobile cellular: 227,000 (2012). Radio broadcast stations: AM 2, FM 7 (plus 3 repeaters), shortwave 0 (2003). Radios: 111,000 (1997). Television broadcast stations: 3 (2 commercial broadcast stations and 1 community antenna television or CATV channel) (2007). Televisions: 32,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 100 (2012). Internet users: 142,900 (2009).

    Transportation: Railways: 0 km. Highways: total: 1,210 km (2011 est.). Ports and harbors: Castries, Cul-de-Sac, Vieux-Fort. Airports: 2 (2013).

    International disputes: joins other Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's claim that Aves Island sustains human habitation, a criterion under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which permits Venezuela to extend its Economic Exclusion Zone/continental shelf over a large portion of the eastern Caribbean Sea.

    Major sources and definitions