Virgin Islands (British)

The British Virgin Islands, a British territory in the Leeward Islands chain of the Caribbean Sea, consists of four major islands—Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada, and Jost Van Dyke—plus many smaller ones; its religious character derives from British colonialism and 20th-century American missionary activity. Tortola is the largest island, and about 82% of the population lives there. According to the 1991 census, most of the inhabitants are Christian: 33% Methodist, 17% Anglican, 10% Roman Catholic, 9% Church of God, 6% Seventh-Day Adventist, 4% Baptist, 2% Jehovah's Witnesses, and 15% other Protestant.

While the islands were initially inhabited by Arawaks and Caribs, European colonizers killed most of the native peoples even as they brought in African slaves to work on sugar plantations. After the Dutch initially settled Tortola ...