These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Antigua and Barbuda.
    Author: United States. Department of State. Bureau of Public Affairs.
    Journal: Backgr Notes Ser; 1985 Jul; ():1-4. PubMed ID: 12178114.
    Abstract:
    This discussion of Antigua and Barbuda focuses on the following: the people and history; geography; government and political conditions; the economy; foreign relations; and relations between the US and Antigua and Barbuda. The population of Antigua was estimated at 78,240 in June 1983; the 1984 estimate for Barbuda was 1200. The annual growth rate in 1983 was 1.3%. In 1970 the life expectancy was 70 years. The infant mortality rate is 31.5/1000 live births. Today's population is almost entirely of Black African origin, some of British, Portuguese, Lebanese, and Syrian origin. The sister islands of Antigua and Barbuda are located in the northeastern part of the Lesser Antilles, about 650 kilometers southeast of Puerto Rico in the eastern Leeward group separating the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. As head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II is represented in Antigua and Barbuda by a governor general, who acts on the advice of the prime minister and the Cabinet. The prime minister is the leader of the majority party of the House, and the Cabinet conducts affairs of state. Antigua and Barbuda has a bicameral legislature. Antiguans have enjoyed a long history of free and fair elections in which, from time to time, the government changes peacefully. Constitutional safeguards include freedom of speech, press, worship, movement, and association. By 1972 the sugar industry was largely dismantled. The current government has taken steps to revive the industry to meet local demand for sugar, thus saving import costs, and to produce ethanol from sugar products for export. Yet, agriculture remains important contributing about 8.2% to the gross domestic product. At this time, the economy is based upon services rather than manufacturing. Since Antigua's independence in 1981, US relations with the island nation have been friendly. The US seeks to help Antigua develop economically and to help strengthen its moderate, democratic, parliamentary form of government.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]