Saint Lucia

THE ISLAND OF Saint Lucia, located in the Windward Islands and surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, has a land area of 239 sq. mi. (616 sq. km.), with a population of 165,000 (2006 est.) and a population density of 774 people per sq. mi. (298 people per sq. km.), making it the 39th most densely populated country in the world. About a third of the population lives in the capital, Castries, on the sheltered western coast, with 8 percent of the land being arable and a further 5 percent used for meadows and pasture. Some 41 percent of the exports of the country come from bananas.

Saint Lucia has a number of offshore coral reefs, the most well known being those near ...