Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an archipelagic country in the eastern Caribbean, part of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, with Saint Lucia to the north, Barbados to the east and Grenada to the south, comprising the main island of Saint Vincent and the northern two-thirds of the Grenadines chain of 32 smaller islands, only seven of them inhabited, and covering 389 square kilometers. Kingstown is the capital and largest city of a country whose population of about 109,296 gives it a density of 281 people per square kilometer. A British colony from 1783, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines peacefully achieved independence on 27 October 1979; most of the population descends from Africans enslaved by France and Britain during the colonial period. The country is a constitutional monarchy with King Charles III as head of state, represented locally by a governor-general, and Prime Minister Godwin Friday, elected in 2025, heading the government; it belongs to the Commonwealth of Nations, CARICOM and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.