Barbados Country Overview
Where is Barbados located? The State of Barbados is an island that is part of the Commonwealth of Nations. Barbados is located in the far east of the Lesser Antilles chain of islands found in the Atlantic Ocean. On the time zone map, the countries along the degrees of longitude are assigned to different world time zones. The classification provides information about how big the time difference between the respective country and the world time (also called UTC) is. Barbados is on Atlantic Standard Time (AST). The time difference is 4 hours, which puts Barbados behind the world clock (UTC – 4). There is no changeover to daylight saving time.
Population Distribution
As of 2023, the latest population of Barbados is 294,560, based on our calculation of the current data from UN (United Nations).
| Total population | 294,560 |
| Population growth rate | 0.23% |
| Birth rate | 11.70 births per 1,000 people |
| Life expectancy | |
| Overall life expectancy | 74.75 years |
| Men life expectancy | 72.47 years |
| Women life expectancy | 77.05 years |
| Age structure | |
| 0-14 years | 17.80% |
| 15-64 years | 69.84% |
| 65 years and above | 12.36% |
| Median age | 38.00 years |
| Gender ratio (Male to Female) | 0.94 |
| Population density | 685.02 residents per km² |
| Urbanization | 51.70% |
| Ethnicities | |
| over 90% of African descent | |
| Religions | |
| Protestants 67% (Anglicans 40%, Pentecostal 8%, Methodists 7%, Others 12%), Catholics (Roman Catholic) 4%, no religion 17%, others 12% | |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | 0.813 |
| HDI ranking | 56th out of 194 |
People in Barbados
The people of Barbados are called Barbadians in German. They call themselves Bajans. Most of the population, namely 92 percent, are descendants of African slaves. Just under 3 percent are whites, mostly of British or Irish descent. Another minority are Asians, especially from India and China.
Languages in Barbados
English is spoken in Barbados. English is the official language and is spoken on television and radio, in government offices and in commerce. But many Barbadians also speak a Creole language that has developed from English. It is called Bajan, like the residents themselves. It is used on all less formal occasions in everyday life.
Typical of Bajan, for example, is that the English th is not pronounced: The word this is pronounced dis. The English r is also omitted from the pronunciation. An example of a sentence is: “I go to church on Sundays” means in Bajan: I does guh church punna Sunduh.
Religions in Barbados
90 percent of the residents are of the Christian faith. Most of them are Protestants from different churches such as Anglicans or Methodists. Only 3 percent are Catholic.