ILO REPORT ON CHILD LABOUR IN BARBADOS - International ...

2. Economic and Social Overview of the Bahamas 1
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2.1 Geographic Profile
The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is an archipelago of 700 islands located 55 miles
southeast of Florida on the southeastern cost of the United States. The country occupies a
total land mass of 5,382 sq. miles scattered across 80,000 sq. miles of the Atlantic Ocean.
The 2000 Census reported a total population of 303,611 in the Bahamas. Over 95% of the
population lives on seven islands. The two major population centres are Nassau, the capital
which is located in New Providence and Freeport, located on Grand Bahama. New
Providence is the most densely populated island with 2655.4 persons per square mile. The
population of these two islands constituted 69.7% and 15.4% of the total population of the
Bahamas. The other populated islands and cays are called Family Islands. The proportion of
the total population living on the Family Islands declined from 24.56% in 1970 to 16.5% in
1990 and then to 14.9% in 2000.
According to the 2000 census, 86,648 persons are between 5-19 years, representing 28.5%
of the population. Of these, 19.8% are between 5 and 14 years. Females constituted 51.3%
of the general population.
Climate: The climate is tropical marine moderated by warm waters of the Gulf Stream.
Temperatures seldom fall below 60 F (14C) or exceed 90F (29C). This makes the Bahamas
extremely attractive to visitors from cold climates and tourism is a year round industry. The
islands are prone to hurricanes and tropical storms that cause flooding and wind damage.
Communications: The islands have good sea, air and ground transportation links. There are
three sea ports in Nassau, Freeport and Matthew Town (Great Inagua); 60 airports,
commercial transport in major centres, and 2,400km of highways of which 1,400 km are
paved.
Regular and cellular telecommunications services are provided by Batelco, a governmentowned
company and there were over 120,000 hard line telephone subscribers at the end of
2001 and 64,000 cellular subscribers at the end of 2001. Major centres also have Internet
connectivity.
There is universal access to radio through three AM and six FM broadcast stations. National
television coverage is restricted and does not cover all the Family islands but Cable Bahamasa
privately owned TV company and privately-owned satellite dishes provide access to US
cable channels in all the islands. There are also four privately-owned newspapers with
nationwide circulation.
Governance: The Bahamas gained independence from the United Kingdom on July 10 1973
and the country is governed by a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster
Whitehall model with a Governor General who represents the Queen, a bicameral legislature
including an elected House of Representatives and an independent Judiciary. The Government
is headed by a Prime Minister who is also a member of the legislature. The last elections were
1 Source: Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer 2000: Draft Report, MOH (2002).
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