Netherlands Antilles ( Nederlandse Antillen) is a country in Caribbean, two island groups in the Caribbean Sea - composed of five islands, Curacao and Bonaire located off the coast of Venezuela, and St. Maarten,. Netherlands Antilles geographic coordinates 12 15 N, 68 45 W; area includes Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten (Dutch part of the island of Saint Martin; area comparative more than five times the size of Washington, DC; land boundaries Guadeloupe (Saint Martin) 10.2 km; coastline 364 km; maritime claims exclusive fishing zone:introduction Once the center of the Caribbean slave trade, the island of Curacao was hard hit by the abolition of slavery in 1863. Its prosperity (and that of neighboring Aruba) was restored in the early 20th century with the construction of oil refineries to service the newly discovered Venezuelan oil fields. The island of Saint Martin is shared with France; its southern portion is named Sint Maarten and is part of the Netherlands Antilles; its northern portion is called Saint-Martin and is part of Guadeloupe (France). government type parliamentary; capital Willemstad; note - located on Curacao, the largest of the island; administrative divisions none (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) each island has its own government; independence none (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands); national holiday Queen's Day (Birthday of Queen-Mother JULIANA in 1909 and accession to the throne of her oldest daughter BEATRIX in 1980), 30 April; constitution 29 December 1954, Statute of the Realm of the Netherlands, as amended; legal system based on Dutch civil law system with some English common law influence; suffrage 18 years of age; universal;

people

Netherlands Antilles population 219,958 (July 2005 est.); age structure 8.5% (male 7,673/female 10,995) (2005 est.); median age 34.01 years (2005 est.); population growth rate 0.82% (2005 est.); birth rate 15 births/1,000 population (2005 est.); death rate 6.41 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.); net migration rate -0.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.); sex ratio 0.93 male(s)/female (2005 est.); infant mortality rate 10.82 deaths/1,000 live births; life expectancy at birth 78.2 years (2005 est.); total fertility rate 2 children born/woman (2005 est.); hiv adult rate NA; hiv people with aids NA; hiv deaths NA; nationality Dutch Antillean; ethnic groups mixed black 85%, Carib Amerindian, white, East Asian; religions Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Seventh-Day Adventist; languages Dutch (official), Papiamento (a Spanish-Portuguese-Dutch-English dialect) predominates, English widely spoken, Spanish; literacy 96.8% (2003 est.);

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