Dominica
Facts & Figures
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Commonwealth of Dominica
President: Charles Savarin (2013)
Prime Minister: Roosevelt Skerrit (2004)
Total area: 290 sq mi (751 sq km)
Population (2014 est.): 73,449 (growth rate: 0.22%); birth rate: 15.53.; infant mortality rate: 11.61/1000; life expectancy: 76.59
Capital and largest city (2011 est.): Roseau, 14,000
Monetary unit: East Caribbean dollar
Languages: English (official) and French patois
Ethnicity/race: black 86.8%, mixed 8.9%, Carib Amerindian 2.9%, white 0.8%, other 0.7% (2001 census)
National Holiday: Independence Day, November 3
Religions: Roman Catholic 61.4%, Protestant 20.6% (Seventh-Day Adventist 6%, Pentecostal 5.6%, Baptist 4.1%, Methodist 3.7%, Church of God 1.2%), Jehovah's Witnesses 1.2%, other Christian 7.7%, Rastafarian 1.3%, other or unspecified 1.6%, none 6.1% (2001 census)
Literacy rate: 94% (2011 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2013 est.): $1.015 billion; per capita $14,300. Real growth rate: 1.1%. Inflation: 1.8% (2013 est.). Unemployment: 23% (2000 est.). Arable land: 7%. Labor force: 25,000 (2000 est); agriculture 40%, industry and commerce 32%, services 28%. Agriculture: bananas, citrus, mangoes, root crops, coconuts, cocoa; forest and fishery potential not exploited. Industries: soap, coconut oil, tourism, copra, furniture, cement blocks, shoes. Natural resources: timber, hydropower, arable land. Exports: $40.4 million (2013 est.): bananas, soap, bay oil, vegetables, grapefruit, oranges. Imports: $219.6 million (2013 est.): manufactured goods, machinery and equipment, food, chemicals. Major trading partners: Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, Japan, Trinidad and Tobago, U.S., China, Guyana (2012).
Member of Commonwealth of Nations
Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 14,600 (2012); mobile cellular: 109,300 (2012). Broadcast media: no terrestrial TV service available; subscription cable TV provider offers some locally produced programming plus channels from the US, Latin America, and the Caribbean; state-operated radio broadcasts on 6 stations; privately owned radio broadcasts on about 15 stations (2007). Internet hosts: 723 (2012). Internet users: 28,000 (2009).
Transportation: Railways: 0 km. Roadways: total: 1.512 km; paved: 762 km; unpaved: 750 km (2010 est.). Ports and harbors: Portsmouth, Roseau. Airports: 2 (2013 est.).
International disputes: Dominica is the only Caribbean state to challenge Venezuela's sovereignty claim over Aves Island and joins the other island nations in challenging whether the feature sustains human habitation, a criterion under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which permits Venezuela to extend its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and continental shelf claims over a large portion of the eastern Caribbean Sea.
