POPULATION 71,500
ANGLICAN 45 percent
MORAVIAN 12 percent
METHODIST 9.1 percent
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST 8.8 percent
ROMAN CATHOLIC 8 percent
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES 1.45 percent
RASTAFARIAN 0.8 percent
OTHER 14.85 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

Antigua and Barbuda is an island nation in the northern Caribbean Sea with a total land area of just 171 square miles (442 square kilometers). It is made up of two inhabited islands, Antigua and Barbuda, as well as a small, uninhabited rock island named Redonda (with an area of 0.5 square miles). Part of the chain of Leeward Islands in the West Indies, Antigua and Barbuda lies 250 miles east of Puerto Rico. The islands Antigua (the largest of the Leeward Islands) and Barbuda (primarily a nature preserve) are now important tourist destinations.

Religion is a powerful force in the Caribbean, and the tension in Antigua and Barbuda between its two main religious traditions, Christianity and West African beliefs (especially Dahomean and Yoruba), has...