MVP Sustainability Map
Barbados
286,641
Population
14,332
Sustainable Population
55.4 %
Contraception Use
76
Species Threatened
0.12 %
Population Growth
$ 15,374
GDP Per Capita
Photo Gallery
With 285,000 people the island is 18 times more densely populated than the United States.
Barry haynes; License CC BY-SA 3.0; Image https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_view_of_Bridgetown_Barbados.jpg via Wikimedia Commons.
Barbados is largely dependent on oil imports.
CaribDigita; License Public domain; Image https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shell_Bay_St_Bridgetown.jpg via Wikimedia Commons.
Barbados has implemented a nationwide family planning program which is starting to slow population growth.
CaribDigita; License Public domain; Image https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Lawrence_Primary%2C_Barbados4.jpg via Wikimedia Commons.
Country Comments
Located in the southern Caribbean Sea, Barbados is a biodiverse island roughly 20 miles (32 km) long and 15 miles (25 km) wide. With 285,000 residents, the island has almost twenty times more people on it than its resources can naturally support. Barbados is highly reliant on many imports, most notably energy.
The country spent 4.5% of its GDP on fuel imports in 2016. Energy is a key input into almost all economic activity, and due to Barbados’s dependence on oil, price spikes can lead to high inflation. That is one major reason why Barbados has committed to being the first 100% Green and carbon neutral island state by 2030. (1)
Recognizing population growth as precarious and unsustainable in the late-20th and early-21st century, Barbados implemented a nationwide family planning program, slowing its population growth rate to its present rate of roughly 400 additional people a year. If trends continue, the population growth rate could start to decline which would be a welcome change in direction in progressing to a sustainable balance of people and resources.
(1) IDB 2018.