 |
This article is about the demographic features of the population of the former Netherlands Antilles, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
According to the official estimates of the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Netherlands Antilles, the five islands had a combined population of 211,871 as at 1 January 2013. The population of the individual islands was as follows:
For comparison: Aruba - 103,400
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated. The capital and largest city was Willemstad.
Age structure:
Population growth rate: 0,79% (2006 est.)
Birth rate: 14,78 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Death rate: 6,45 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Net migration rate: -0.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 9,76 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
Total fertility rate: 1.98 children born/woman (2008 est.)
Ethnic groups: mixed black 85%, Carib Amerindian, white, East Asian 15%
Religions: Roman Catholic 72%, Pentecostal 4,9%, Protestant 3.5%, Seventh-day Adventist 3,1%, Methodist 2,9%, other Christian 4,2%, Jehovah's Witnesses 1,7%, Jewish 1,3%
Languages: Dutch, English and Papiamento are official languages. Papiamento (a Portuguese-West African creole with Dutch and Spanish influence) predominates on Curaçao and Bonaire, while English is widely spoken. English is the most commonly spoken language on Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius.
The Netherlands Antilles was a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The country consisted of several island territories located in the Caribbean Sea. The islands were also informally known as the Dutch Antilles. The country came into being in 1954 as the autonomous successor of the Dutch colony of Curaçao and Dependencies. The Antilles were dissolved in 2010. The Dutch colony of Surinam, although it was relatively close by on the continent of South America, did not become part of the Netherlands Antilles but became a separate autonomous country in 1954. All the island territories that belonged to the Netherlands Antilles remain part of the kingdom today, although the legal status of each differs. As a group they are still commonly called the Dutch Caribbean, regardless of their legal status. People from this former territory continue to be called Antilleans in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands Antilles was a constituent country in the Caribbean Sea. It consisted of two island groups, the ABC islands Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba just north of Venezuela, and the SSS islands east of the Virgin Islands.
Bonaire is a Dutch island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west (leeward) coast of the island. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao form the ABC islands, 80 km off the coast of Venezuela. Unlike much of the Caribbean region, the ABC islands lie outside Hurricane Alley. The islands have an arid climate that attracts visitors seeking warm, sunny weather all year round. Bonaire is a popular snorkeling and scuba diving destination because of its multiple shore diving sites and easy access to the island's fringing reefs.
The SSS islands, locally also known as the Windward Islands, is a collective term for the three territories of the Dutch Caribbean that are located within the Leeward Islands group of the Lesser Antilles. In order of population size, they are: Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatius and Saba. In some contexts, the term is also used to refer to the entire island of Saint Martin, alongside Sint Eustatius and Saba.
Same-sex marriages are not performed in Aruba, Curaçao, or Sint Maarten, which are constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The islands were obliged after several court rulings to register any marriage registered in the Kingdom, but this primarily considers residency rights and they do not have to give same-sex marriages the same legal effect as opposite-sex marriages. Marriage in the European territory of the Netherlands, as well as in the Caribbean municipalities of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, is open to any two people irrespective of sex.
The Netherlands Antillean guilder is the currency of Curaçao and Sint Maarten, which until 2010 formed the Netherlands Antilles along with Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius. It is subdivided into 100 cents. On 1 January 2011, in the islands of Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius, the guilder was replaced by the United States dollar. In Curaçao and Sint Maarten, the Netherlands Antillean guilder was proposed to be replaced by a new currency, the Caribbean guilder, but this was stalled indefinitely by negotiations over the establishment of a separate central bank for Curaçao. In November 2020, the Central Bank announced the introduction of the replacement guilder, which was planned to be implemented in the first half of 2021; however, implementation was delayed several times.
Scouting Antiano is the national Scouting organization of the former Netherlands Antilles. It serves 1,600 members in 25 Scout groups, 21 Scout groups on Curaçao, two on Sint Maarten, two on Bonaire, none on Saba and Sint Eustatius. Since 2016, Scouting Antiano is a full member World Organization of the Scout Movement. Until then, it was an associate member of the Interamerican Region of the World Organization of the Scout Movement.
The Padvindstersvereniging van de Nederlandse Antillen is the national Guiding organization of the former Netherlands Antilles. It serves 461 members. Founded in 1930, the girls-only organization became an associate member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in 1978 and full member in 1981.
The Scout and Guide movement in the Dutch Caribbean is served by
The Netherlands Antilles was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was dissolved on 10 October 2010.
The Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba serves the three Caribbean countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the three Caribbean special municipalities of the Netherlands. The court primarily hears disputes in first instance and on appeal of these six islands, and is on the same level as similar courts in the Netherlands. Since 2012, the court has also been authorized to hear inquiry procedures originated on Curaçao, of a type that would be heard in the Netherlands by the Enterprise Chamber in Amsterdam.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands, commonly known as simply the Netherlands, is a sovereign state and constitutional monarchy with 98% of its territory and population in Western Europe and with several small West Indian island territories in the Caribbean.
The following is an alphabetical list of topics related to the former nation of the Netherlands Antilles.
The Caribbean Netherlands are the three public bodies of the Netherlands that are located in the Caribbean Sea. They consist of the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, although the term "Caribbean Netherlands" is sometimes used to refer to all of the islands in the Dutch Caribbean. In legislation, the three islands are also known as Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba or the BES islands. The islands are currently classified as public bodies in the Netherlands and as overseas countries and territories of the European Union; thus, EU law does not automatically apply.
The Caribbean guilder is a proposed new currency of Curaçao and Sint Maarten, the Caribbean islands which became "landen" within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, following the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on 10 October 2010. The Caribbean guilder would replace the Antillean guilder at par and be pegged to the U.S. dollar. In November 2020, it was announced that the Caribbean guilder would come into circulation the following year, but it was delayed several times.
The Identity card BES is a uniform identity card for residents in the Caribbean Netherlands introduced upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010. The cards are machine-readable and have the size of a credit card. The front contains the words Identiteitskaart followed by the island names Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. The card also contains the coat of arms of the island of issue.
The Dutch Caribbean are the territories, colonies, and countries, former and current, of the Dutch Empire and the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean Sea. They are in the north and south-west of the Lesser Antilles archipelago.
An island council was the governing body of an island territory, an administrative level of the Netherlands Antilles until its dissolution.
Same-sex marriage in Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba has been legal since 10 October 2012, the effective date of legislation passed by the States General of the Netherlands enabling same-sex couples to marry.
Island council elections were held in the Netherlands Antilles on 7 April and 12 May 1995 to elect the members of the island councils of its five island territories. The election was won by the Bonaire Democratic Party in Bonaire, the Party for the Restructured Antilles in Curaçao, the Saba Democratic Labour Movement in Saba, the Democratic Party Statia in Sint Eustatius, and the Democratic Party in Sint Maarten.