Lucayan Indians inhabited the islands when Christopher Columbus first set foot in the New World on San Salvador in 1492.

British settlement of the islands began in 1647; the islands became a colony in 1783.

Since attaining independence from the UK in 1973, The Bahamas have prospered through tourism and international banking and investment management.

Because of its geography, the country is a major transshipment point for illegal drugs, particularly shipments to the U.S. and Europe, and its territory is used for smuggling illegal migrants into the U.S.

The Commonwealth of The Bahamas is an English-speaking nation consisting of two thousand cays and seven hundred islands that form an archipelago. It is located in the Atlantic Ocean, east of Florida and the United States, north of Cuba and the Caribbean, and northwest of the British overseas territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Source: CIA World Fact Book

Population: 305,655 note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2007 est.)

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Age structure: 0-14 years: 27% (male 41,268/female 41,186) 15-64 years: 66.5% (male 99,961/female 103,230) 65 years and over: 6.5% (male 8,176/female 11,834) (2007 est.)

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Median age: total: 28.1 years male: 27.3 years female: 28.9 years (2007 est.)

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Population growth rate: 0.602% (2007 est.)

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Birth rate: 17.3 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)

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Death rate: 9.13 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)

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Net migration rate: -2.15 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)

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Sex ratio: at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.002 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.968 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.691 male(s)/female total population: 0.956 male(s)/female (2007 est.)

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Infant mortality rate: total: 24.17 deaths/1,000 live births male: 29.58 deaths/1,000 live births female: 18.65 deaths/1,000 live births (2007 est.)

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Life expectancy at birth: total population: 65.66 years male: 62.37 years female: 69.02 years (2007 est.)

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Total fertility rate: 2.15 children born/woman (2007 est.)

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HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 3% (2003 est.)

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HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 5,600 (2003 est.)

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HIV/AIDS - deaths: less than 200 (2003 est.)

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Nationality: noun: Bahamian(s) adjective: Bahamian

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Ethnic groups: black 85%, white 12%, Asian and Hispanic 3%

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Religions: Baptist 35.4%, Anglican 15.1%, Roman Catholic 13.5%, Pentecostal 8.1%, Church of God 4.8%, Methodist 4.2%, other Christian 15.2%, none or unspecified 2.9%, other 0.8% (2000 census)

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Languages: English (official), Creole (among Haitian immigrants)

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Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 95.6% male: 94.7% female: 96.5% (2003 est.)

The Bahamas is a stable, developing nation with an economy heavily dependent on tourism and offshore banking. Tourism together with tourism-driven construction and manufacturing accounts for approximately 60% of GDP and directly or indirectly employs half of the archipelago's labor force. Steady growth in tourism receipts and a boom in construction of new hotels, resorts, and residences had led to solid GDP growth in recent years, but the slowdown in the US economy and the attacks of 11 September 2001 held back growth in these sectors in 2001-03. The current government has presided over a period of economic recovery and an upturn in large-scale private sector investments in tourism. Financial services constitute the second-most important sector of the Bahamian economy, accounting for about 15% of GDP. However, since December 2000, when the government enacted new regulations on the financial sector, many international businesses have left The Bahamas. Manufacturing and agriculture together contribute approximately a tenth of GDP and show little growth, despite government incentives aimed at those sectors. Overall growth prospects in the short run rest heavily on the fortunes of the tourism sector, which depends on growth in the US, the source of more than 80% of the visitors.

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GDP (purchasing power parity): $6.556 billion (2006 est.)

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GDP (official exchange rate): $6.159 billion (2006 est.)

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GDP - real growth rate: 4% (2006 est.)

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GDP - per capita (PPP): $21,600 (2006 est.)

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GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 3% industry: 7% services: 90% (2001 est.)

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Labor force: 176,300 (2004)

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Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 5%, industry 5%, tourism 50%, other services 40% (2005 est.)

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Unemployment rate: 10.2% (2005 est.)

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Population below poverty line: 9.3% (2004)

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Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: NA% highest 10%: 27% (2000)

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Inflation rate (consumer prices): 1.2% (2004)

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Budget: revenues: $1.03 billion expenditures: $1.03 billion; including capital expenditures of $130 million (FY04/05)

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Agriculture - products: citrus, vegetables; poultry

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Industries: tourism, banking, cement, oil transshipment, salt, rum, aragonite, pharmaceuticals, spiral-welded steel pipe

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Industrial production growth rate: NA%

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Electricity - production: 1.795 billion kWh (2004)

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Electricity - consumption: 1.669 billion kWh (2004)

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Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (2004)

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Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (2004)

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Oil - production: 0 bbl/day (2004)

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Oil - consumption: 27,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

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Oil - exports: transshipments of 41,290 bbl/day (2004)

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Oil - imports: NA bbl/day

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Oil - proved reserves: 0 bbl

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Natural gas - production: 0 cu m (2004 est.)

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Natural gas - consumption: 0 cu m (2004 est.)

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Exports: $451 million (2005 est.)

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Exports - commodities: mineral products and salt, animal products, rum, chemicals, fruit and vegetables

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Exports - partners: Spain 23.3%, US 20.7%, Poland 14.1%, Germany 7.2%, UK 6%, Guatemala 5.1% (2006)

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Imports: $2.16 billion (2005 est.)

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Imports - commodities: machinery and transport equipment, manufactures, chemicals, mineral fuels; food and live animals

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Imports - partners: US 20.9%, South Korea 17.9%, Brazil 16.8%, Japan 11.1%, Spain 6.1% (2006)

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Debt - external: $342.6 million (2004 est.)

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Economic aid - recipient: $5 million (2004)

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Currency (code): Bahamian dollar (BSD)

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Exchange rates: Bahamian dollars per US dollar - 1 (2006), 1 (2005), 1 (2004), 1 (2003), 1 (2002)

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Fiscal year: 1 July - 30 June