Barbados

North AmericaCapital city: BridgetownCapital metro: BridgetownPrime Minister: Mia MottleyPresident: Sandra Mason
2026 population
262K
Rank #193 globally
Area
430 km² (166 sq mi)
Metros tracked
1
64% of population in metros
Composite score
4.9
Rank #132 globally

population: Official estimate (31 Dec 2025) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 1 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography1 metro

Barbados metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
1 polygons

Hover for rank, click to open the metro page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 1 tracked metro
1 metros
#491Bridgetown★ Capital▲ Largest
4.9
🗂️ Parishs

21 entries listed under Barbados. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

21 total
📋 At a glance
Official languages
English, Bajan Creole
Government
Parliamentary republic
Legislature
Parliament of Barbados
Demonym
Barbadian
Time zone
UTC−04:00
Driving side
Left
Calling code
+1246
Internet TLD
.bb
ISO 3166
BB
Established
1966
Highest point
Mount Hillaby (340 m (1,115 ft))
National anthem
National Anthem of Barbados

Facts via Wikidata.

💹 Economy and developmentHigh income
Human Dev. Index
#69 / 191
0.811
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#156 / 193
$8.0B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#46 / 193
$28.4k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#77 / 190
$25.9k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#43 / 192
$27.1k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#76 / 194
76.3 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
38.9 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#107 / 194
60%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
0.1%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#8 / 193
657/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#51 / 193
12.5%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#28 / 175
0.93
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#75 / 166
34.1
World Bank · 2016
Internet users
#119 / 193
70%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#32 / 185
0.8%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#137 / 192
4.8 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#150 / 186
9%
Ember · 2024

Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.

Alliances & Organisations4 full memberships

Political & Economic

Subregional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History6 leaders · click to expand

marks a leader associated with atrocities or defiance of law, systemic subversion of democratic institutions, or a criminal conviction. Convictions arising from political persecution, and annulled convictions, are excluded. denotes a monarch. These are editorial designations, applied per entry rather than derived automatically.

Sandra Mason✦ Current

2021Present

President

Tenure: 4y 7m 3d

Mia Mottley✦ Current

2018Present

Prime Minister

Tenure: 8y 1m 8d

Freundel Stuart

20102018

Prime Minister

Tenure: 7y 7m 2d

David Thompson

20082010

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 9m 7d

Owen Arthur

19942008

Prime Minister

Tenure: 13y 4m 9d

Elizabeth II

19662021

President

Tenure: 55y 0d
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#126 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Barbados · share of world power, 1966–2026

The powerline is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.

⚔️ Conflicts since 19451 interstate war · click to expand
Combat deaths: 102+

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
282k
#186 in the world
Since 1800
3.46×
from 82k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.00%
0.01% in 1800
71k141k212k283k18001850190019502000
Barbados · people, 1800–2023 · dashed to 2026 is projected

Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Note that people and share of world can move in opposite directions. A country can grow steadily and still become a smaller part of humanity, which is what happened to almost every rich country after 1960.

👥 To 2100

The UN’s probabilistic projection for Barbados: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.

Peak on the median
2028
283k on the UN median
2050
264k
95% band 193k to 352k
2100
195k
95% band 37k to 716k
2100 against 2025
0.69×
median falling from 2029
Deaths outnumber births
from 2029
on the UN medium path; migration decides the rest
188k376k564k752k1950197520002025205020752100

Tap or drag across the chart to read any year: the estimate to 2023, then the UN median, its bands and the scenarios.

estimateUN median80% and 95% bandshigh and low fertilityzero migration

What drives it

Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.

1950
7k born · 3k died · -340 net migration
TFR 4.47 · life expectancy 53.6 · median age 21.7
1960
8k born · 2k died · -3k net migration
TFR 4.71 · life expectancy 64.1 · median age 20.8
1970
6k born · 2k died · -5k net migration
TFR 3.08 · life expectancy 68.5 · median age 21.3
1980
4k born · 2k died · -2k net migration
TFR 1.78 · life expectancy 72.1 · median age 24.3
1990
4k born · 2k died · -1k net migration
TFR 1.84 · life expectancy 73.5 · median age 28.1
2000
4k born · 2k died · -3k net migration
TFR 1.93 · life expectancy 74.6 · median age 32.4
2010
4k born · 3k died · -36 net migration
TFR 1.78 · life expectancy 75.5 · median age 35.6
2020
3k born · 3k died · 0 net migration
TFR 1.71 · life expectancy 76.6 · median age 38.1
Show all 16 decades
2030
3k born · 3k died · -175 net migration
TFR 1.70 · life expectancy 77.3 · median age 40.4
2040
3k born · 4k died · -217 net migration
TFR 1.69 · life expectancy 78.8 · median age 42.5
2050
2k born · 4k died · -194 net migration
TFR 1.68 · life expectancy 80.3 · median age 44.3
2060
2k born · 3k died · -204 net migration
TFR 1.67 · life expectancy 81.8 · median age 45.8
2070
2k born · 3k died · -199 net migration
TFR 1.66 · life expectancy 83.2 · median age 47.0
2080
2k born · 3k died · -170 net migration
TFR 1.66 · life expectancy 84.5 · median age 48.3
2090
2k born · 3k died · -142 net migration
TFR 1.66 · life expectancy 85.7 · median age 49.3
2100
2k born · 3k died · -138 net migration
TFR 1.66 · life expectancy 86.9 · median age 50.1

Every country to 2100 →

Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.

💰 Billionaires1 · $1.0B combined · click to expand
Fashion & RetailMusic, cosmetics

Source: Forbes real-time billionaires (via the rtb-api project). Net worth as of the latest monthly snapshot.

🏆 National Teams

Barbados on the international stage. Click a card for the full record.

🏟️ League Hubs

Domestic league portals that operate in Barbados: 1 league.