Saint Kitts and Nevis (“St. Kitts”) consists of two islands located in the northern section of the eastern Caribbean Sea, approximately 2,000 kilometers southeast of Miami, Florida. St. Kitts is about one-third of the way from Puerto Rico to Trinidad and Tobago.
Nevis has an area of 93.2 square kilometers , and Saint Kitts has an area of 168.4 square kilometers , for a total of 261 square kilometers for the Federation. St. Kitts has a coastline of 135 kilometers.
The climate of St. Kitts is tropical, tempered by constant sea breezes, and there exists little seasonal temperature variation.
St. Kitts is a former British colony that obtained independence in 1983, and a twin island federation was formed. The Federation is a British Commonwealth nation with the Head of State being Queen Elizabeth II, represented by the governor general. The country is based on a healthy democracy that is governed by the parliamentary system, such as the one utilized in the United Kingdom. Thus, the head of government is the prime minister who is the leader of the majority elected party or majority coalition. The official language is English.
St. Kitts’s modern and democratic government is exemplified by its participation in key international agreements on the environment: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, and Whaling. It is also a member of 35 international organizations including the United Nations, the World Health Organization, Interpol, and the World Trade Organization.
St. Kitts has a population of approximately 50,300, with 13,000 of that population residing in the capital city, Basseterre. St. Kitts has a literacy rate of over 97%.
St. Kitts has a solid communications infrastructure with 20,500 main lines in use, and 83,000 mobile cellular lines in use. It has 51 internet hosts and 17,000 internet users. It has generally been assessed by the United States government as having good interisland and international connections.
St. Kitts has two airports and over 430 kilometers of established roadways and railways.