Demography
The Bahamas is made up of about 700 islands, or up to 2,000 if one counts small rocks or sandbars that may be above sea level only at low tide. This small country is spread over a large area of the Caribbean Sea-about 100,000 square miles, twice the extent of Spain.
Of the Bahamian islands, only about 29 are permanently inhabited; another dozen or so are intermittently occupied, some as seasonal fishing camps and several as privately-owned resort homes. The Bahamian population totals over 342,000, and is largely urbanized. About two-thirds of the people reside on New Providence Island, the location of the capital and largest city, Nassau. Many of the rest live on Grand Bahama Island, site of the second-largest city, Freeport. The outlying parts of the archipelago, called the Family Islands, are sparsely inhabited.
Cultural Identity
The indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas were an Arawakan group known as the Lucayo or "Lukku-cairi." It is thought that they arrived in the islands around 400 in the common era, or C.E., seeking a refuge from warfare and depredations carried on by the expansionist Carib people. Although the Spaniards, following the explorations of Christopher Columbus, did not directly colonize the Bahamas to any appreciable extent, they kidnapped the Lucayo and forced them into slavery on the large nearby islands of Hispaniola and Cuba. The native people died off completely as a result of mistreatment under slavery and exposure to European diseases to which they had no resistance.
Today, the majority of the inhabitants, approximately 85 percent, are of West African ancestry, the descendants of slaves brought over either by British planters who colonized the Bahamas, or by Loyalist (Tory) slave owners who emigrated from the newly independent United States at the time of the American Revolution. Most of the remainder of the population are of European ancestry.
English, a legacy of the British colonial past, is the official language. Creole, the language of a small but growing Haitian immigrant community, as well as a number of local dialects, are also spoken.
The population is almost ubiquitously Christian, though significant numbers of Bahamians also retain elements of the West African-based system of spiritual beliefs known as "obeah." About four-fifths of Bahamians adhere to a variety of Protestant denominations and many of the others profess Roman Catholicism.
Health and Welfare
Life expectancy at birth is 70.8 years on average. The Pan-American Health Organization estimated that the infant mortality rate was 18 deaths per 1,000 live births, however, the CIA estimated the infant mortality rate as 13.68 deaths per 1,000 live births.
The literacy rate is very high, with 95.6 percent of the population able to read and write, according to recent estimates. Underscoring this high literacy rate is a solid educational system. School attendance is compulsory for children between the ages of five and 16.
The government operates 158 of the country's 210 primary and secondary schools; the other 52 schools are privately operated. Total primary and secondary enrollment in the state-run schools is about 64,000 students. The College of the Bahamas, established in Nassau in 1974, is the country's flagship center of higher education; it is at present converting from a two-year to a predominantly four-year institution, offering bachelor's as well as asso ciate degrees. Several colleges and universities based outside the Bahamas also offer higher education programs at selected locations in the islands.
About 7.2 percent of GDP is spent on health expenditures. Access to water and sanitation is regarded as very good although there may be some limits in certain rural areas.
Human Development
A notable measure of human development is the Human Development Index (HDI), which is formulated by the United Nations Development Program. The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. The HDI places The Bahamas in the high human development category, at 43rd place.
Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief, www.countrywatch.com; see Bibliography for references.