Saint Vincent & the Grenadines

St Vincent & the Grenadines
Status	Independent State
Capital	Kingstown
Land Area	390km21
Location	North America, The Americas, Caribbean
Groupings	Small Islands
Population	0.1m (2011)2
Life Expectancy	73.04yrs (2017)3
GNI	$10 372 (2017)4
ISO3166-1 Codes	VC, VCT, 6705
Internet Domain	.vc6
Currency	Dollar (XCD)7
Telephone	+8

1. Overview
2. St Vincent & the Grenadines National and Social Development
3. Population and Demographics
4. Politics and Freedom
5. Gender Equality
6. Peace Versus Instability
7. Religion and Beliefs
8. The Internet
9. Public Health Issues
10. Children's Health
11. More Charts and Comparisons to Other Countries
12. Links

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1. Overview

#france #UK

“Resistance by native Caribs prevented colonization on Saint Vincent until 1719. Disputed between France and the United Kingdom for most of the 18th century, the island was ceded to the latter in 1783. Between 1960 and 1962, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was a separate administrative unit of the Federation of the West Indies. Autonomy was granted in 1969 and independence in 1979.”

CIA's The World Factbook (2013)₉

“Caribbean fantasies converge on this collection of 32 islands at the south end of the Leeward Islands. Just the name St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) evokes visions of exotic, idyllic island life. Imagine an island chain in the heart of the Caribbean Sea, uncluttered by tourist exploitation; with white-sand beaches on deserted islands, sky-blue water gently lapping the shore and barely a soul around.

Once you get off the big island, with its traffic, hustle and noise, and out into the Grenadines, everything changes. There are 31 Grenadines, each one more tranquil than the next and each begging to be explored. Beaches stretch out before you, the pace of life slows to a crawl and the desire to go home vanishes.

These islands have enchanted sailors for centuries, and continue to do so. Whether you have your own vessel, are happy to hitch a ride or take one of the new ferries, the island-hopping opportunities are irresistible.”

"The World" by Lonely Planet (2014)₁₀

2. St Vincent & the Grenadines National and Social Development

#human_development

UN HDI (2016)11
Pos.		Lower is better Rank11
1	Norway	1
2	Australia	2
3	Switzerland	2
	...
97	Suriname	97
98	Tunisia	97
99	Dominican Rep.	99
100	St Vincent & Grenadines	99
101	Tonga	101
102	Libya	102
103	Belize	103
104	Samoa	104
	World Avg	94.3
q=188.

Social & Moral Development Index12
Pos.		Higher is better Points12
1	Denmark	83.6
2	Finland	83.1
3	Sweden	82.6
	...
109	Tunisia	52.2
110	Belize	52.0
111	Cape Verde	51.7
112	St Vincent & Grenadines	51.7
113	India	51.7
114	Vanuatu	51.6
115	Botswana	51.5
116	Djibouti	51.5
	World Avg	55.4
q=198.

The United Nations produces an annual Human Development Report which includes the Human Development Index. The factors taken into account include life expectancy, education and schooling and Gross National Income (GNI) amongst many others..

The Social and Moral Development Index concentrates on moral issues and human rights, violence, public health, equality, tolerance, freedom and effectiveness in climate change mitigation and environmentalism, and on some technological issues. A country scores higher for achieving well in those areas, and for sustaining that achievement in the long term. Those countries towards the top of this index can truly said to be setting good examples and leading humankind onwards into a bright, humane, and free future. See: What is the Best Country in the World? An Index of Morality, Conscience and Good Life.

3. Population and Demographics

#birth_control #demographics #health #immigration #life_expectancy #longevity #overpopulation #population

Old-Age Dependency Ratio (2016)13
Pos.		Lower is better Per 10013
1	Uganda	04.3
2	Mali	04.5
3	Chad	04.7
	...
114	Azerbaijan	18.7
115	Colombia	18.8
116	Antigua & Barbuda	19.0
117	St Vincent & Grenadines	19.7
118	Seychelles	19.8
119	St Lucia	19.9
120	Brazil	19.9
121	Argentina	20.3
	World Avg	18.3
q=185.

Emigrants (2010)14
Pos.		%14
1	Dominica	104.8%
2	Palestine	68.4%
3	Samoa	67.3%
	...
12	Suriname	39.0%
13	Bosnia & Herzegovina	38.9%
14	Palau	38.8%
15	St Vincent & Grenadines	37.7%
16	Cape Verde	37.6%
17	Jamaica	36.1%
18	Armenia	28.2%
19	Trinidad & Tobago	26.7%
	World Avg	11.5%
q=192.

Fertility Rate (2013)15
Pos.		2.0 is best15
1	N. Korea	2.00
2	Brunei	1.99
3	St Vincent & Grenadines	2.01
4	France	1.99
5	Turkey	2.04
6	Australia	1.96
7	Uruguay	2.05
8	Norway	1.95
9	Myanmar (Burma)	1.95
10	Indonesia	2.07
11	Sweden	1.93
12	Tunisia	1.93
	World Avg	2.81
q=180.

The fertility rate is, in simple terms, the average amount of children that each woman has. The higher the figure, the quicker the population is growing, although, to calculate the rate you also need to take into account morbidity, i.e., the rate at which people die. If people live healthy and long lives and morbidity is low, then, 2.0 approximates to the replacement rate, which would keep the population stable. If all countries had such a fertility rate, population growth would end. The actual replacement rate in most developed countries is around 2.1.

Immigrants (2010)14
Pos.		%14
1	Qatar	86.5%
2	Monaco	71.6%
3	UAE	70.0%
	...
63	Malaysia	8.4%
64	Dominica	8.3%
65	Slovenia	8.1%
66	St Vincent & Grenadines	7.9%
67	Ghana	7.6%
68	Suriname	7.5%
69	Italy	7.4%
70	Montenegro	6.8%
	World Avg	9.2%
q=192.

Life Expectancy (2015)16
Pos.		Higher is better Years16
1	Hong Kong	84.16
2	Japan	83.68
3	Italy	83.34
	...
96	Seychelles	73.30
97	El Salvador	73.27
98	Palestine	73.07
99	St Vincent & Grenadines	73.04
100	Paraguay	73.00
101	Tonga	72.99
102	Palau	72.87
103	Vanuatu	72.11
	World Avg	71.27
q=190.

Population (2012)17
Pos.		Population17
1	China	1.4b
2	India	1.3b
3	USA	315.8m
	...
177	St Lucia	0.2m
178	Sao Tome & Principe	0.2m
179	Micronesia	0.1m
180	St Vincent & Grenadines	0.1m
181	Grenada	0.1m
182	Tonga	0.1m
183	Kiribati	0.1m
184	Antigua & Barbuda	90 510
	World Avg	36.0m
q=195.

St Vincent & the Grenadines's population is predicted to rise to 110 781 by 2030. This country has a fertility rate of 2.01. The fertility rate is, in simple terms, the average amount of children that each woman has. The higher the figure, the quicker the population is growing, although, to calculate the rate you also need to take into account morbidity, i.e., the rate at which people die. If people live healthy and long lives and morbidity is low, then, 2.0 approximates to the replacement rate, which would keep the population stable. If all countries had such a fertility rate, population growth would end. The actual replacement rate in most developed countries is around 2.1.

• The Population of the Earth
• Abortion, Birth Control and Contraception

4. Politics and Freedom

#corruption #democracy #human_rights #politics

Corruption (2012-2016)18
Pos.		Higher is better Avg Score18
1	Denmark	90.8
2	New Zealand	90.6
3	Finland	89.4
	...
31	Botswana	63.0
32	Portugal	62.8
33	Cyprus	61.6
34	St Vincent & Grenadines	61.5
35	Israel	61.2
36	Taiwan	61.2
37	Poland	60.8
38	Spain	60.0
	World Avg	43.05
q=176.

Corruption is the abuse of public office for private gain₁₉. There are many forms of corruption. Politicians can sometimes (1) steal money (theft or embezzlement), (2) accept bribes (such as backhanders for awarding government contracts to companies), (3) give bribes (i.e., for electoral support or support in the mass media), (4) improperly coerce others (extortion), (5) give positions of power to friends and family without fairly seeking other applicants for those jobs (cronyism), or (6) grant favours to friends and family (nepotism) such as buying services from them at inflated prices (graft). The least corrupt countries between 2012-2016 were Denmark, New Zealand and Finland₁₈ and the worst were Somalia, N. Korea and Afghanistan₁₈.

Nominal Commitment to HR (2009)20
Pos.		Higher is better Treaties20
1	Argentina	24
2	Chile	23
3	Costa Rica	23
	...
101	Sierra Leone	15
102	Chad	15
103	Tanzania	15
104	St Vincent & Grenadines	15
105	Liberia	15
106	Libya	15
107	Maldives	15
108	Andorra	15
	World Avg	15.1
q=194.

There are many international agreements on human rights, and, many mechanisms by which countries can be brought to account for their actions. Together, these have been the biggest historical movement in the fight against oppression and inhumanity. Or, putting it another way: these are rejected mostly by those who wish to oppress inhumanely. None of them are perfect and many people object to various components and wordings, but, no-one has come up with, and enforced, better methods of controlling the occasional desires that states and peoples have of causing angst for other states and peoples in a violent, unjust or inhumane way. Points are awarded for the number of human rights agreements ratified by the country, plus the acceptance of the petition mechanisms for disputes. The maximum possible score in 2009 was 24.

5. Gender Equality

#christianity #gender_equality #human_rights #politics #women

Year Women Can Vote21
Pos.		Lower is better Year21
1	New Zealand	1893
2	Australia	1902
3	Finland	1906
	...
87	Nepal	1951
88	Dominica	1951
89	St Kitts & Nevis	1951
90	St Vincent & Grenadines	1951
91	Bolivia	1952
92	Ivory Coast	1952
93	Greece	1952
94	Lebanon	1952
	World Avg	1930
q=189.

Women now have equal rights in the vast majority of countries across the world. Although academic literature oftens talks of when a country "grants women the right to vote", this enforces a backwards way of thinking. Women always had the right to vote, however, they were frequently denied that right. The opposition to women's ability to vote in equality with man was most consistently and powerfully opposed by the Catholic Church, other Christian organisations, Islamic authorities and some other religious and secular traditionalists.

The 1950s saw a late rush of 43 countries, including St Vincent & Grenadines and many developing nations, move to cease preventing women from voting.

See:

• "Religion Versus Womankind" by Vexen Crabtree (2007)

6. Peace Versus Instability

Peacekeeping and Security (2017)22
Pos.		Lower is better Rank22
1	Samoa	1
2	S. Africa	2
3	Tunisia	3
	...
139	St Lucia	139
140	Kuwait	140
141	Saudi Arabia	141
142	St Vincent & Grenadines	142
143	Belize	143
144	Haiti	144
145	Libya	145
146	Croatia	146
	World Avg	82.0
q=163.

Refugees and UN Treaties (2017)22
Pos.		Lower is better Rank22
1	Austria	1
2	Germany	2
3	Netherlands	3
	...
131	Antigua & Barbuda	131
132	Azerbaijan	132
133	Togo	133
134	St Vincent & Grenadines	134
135	Afghanistan	135
136	Trinidad & Tobago	136
137	Nigeria	137
138	Cambodia	138
	World Avg	82.0
q=163.

7. Religion and Beliefs

#buddhism #christianity #hinduism #islam #judaism

Data from the Pew Forum, a professional polling outfit, states that in 2010 the religious makeup of this country was as follows in the table below₂₃:

Christian	88.7%
Muslim	1.5%
Hindu	3.4%
Buddhist	0.1%
Folk Religion	2%
Jew	0.1%
Unaffiliated	2.5%

The CIA World Factbook has slightly different data, and states: Protestant 75% (Anglican 47%, Methodist 28%), Roman Catholic 13%, other (includes Hindu, Seventh-Day Adventist, other Protestant) 12%₂₄.

Links:

• A List of All Religions and Belief Systems

8. The Internet

#internet #the_internet

Internet Users (2016)25
Pos.		Higher is better25
1	Iceland	100%
2	Faroe Islands	99%
3	Norway	98%
	...
76	Bosnia & Herzegovina	62%
77	Azerbaijan	61%
78	Belarus	61%
79	St Vincent & Grenadines	60%
80	St Lucia	59%
81	Bulgaria	59%
82	Turkey	58%
83	Romania	58%
	World Avg	48.1%
q=201.

IPv6 Uptake (2017)26
Pos.		Higher is better Ratio26
1	Belgium	55.4
2	Germany	41.8
3	Switzerland	35.1
	...
167	St Lucia	0.0
168	Dominica	0.0
169	Cuba	0.0
170	St Vincent & Grenadines	0.0
171	Montenegro	0.0
172	Libya	0.0
173	Jamaica	0.0
174	Fiji	0.0
	World Avg	3.82
q=176.

Internet access has become an essential research tool. It facilitates an endless list of life improvements, from the ability to network and socialize without constraint, to access to a seemingly infinite repository of technical and procedural information on pretty much any task. The universal availability of data has sped up industrial development and personal learning at the national and personal level. Individuals can read any topic they wish regardless of the locality of expert teachers, and, entire nations can develop their technology and understanding of the world simply because they are now exposed to advanced societies and moral discourses online. Like every communications medium, the Internet has issues and causes a small range of problems, but these are insignificant compared to the advantages of having an online populace.

9. Public Health Issues

#alcohol #genetics #health #mental_health #obesity #public_health #smoking #sociology #suicide #UK

St Vincent & the Grenadines does relatively well in encouraging good health, compared to many other countries. St Vincent & Grenadines does better than average when it comes to its suicide rate₂₇, its immunizations take-up₂₈ and in its smoking rate₂₉. St Vincent & Grenadines does not succeed in everything, however. It does worse than average in the prevalence of overweight adults₃₀ (still good for The Americas), its adolescent birth rate₃₁ and in its alcohol consumption rate₃₂. And finally, it is second-from-the-bottom in terms of its food aid and health contributions and WHO compliance₂₂. The prevalence of overweight adults has increased by 14% over the past 40 years.

Alcohol Consumption (2016)32
Pos.		Lower is better Per Capita32
1	Bangladesh	0.0
2	Kuwait	0.0
3	Libya	0.0
	...
120	Malta	8.1
121	Macedonia	8.1
122	Burkina Faso	8.2
123	St Vincent & Grenadines	8.2
124	Dominica	8.2
125	Thailand	8.3
126	Ivory Coast	8.4
127	Botswana	8.4
	World Avg	6.2
q=189.

There is nothing wrong with drinking modest and sensible amounts of alcohol but fitness, physical health, mental health and long-term health all suffer as a result of medium- or heavy- drinking₃₃ and the health risks to the baby when pregnant mothers drink₃₄ are well-known. Aside from the effects on the individual, alcohol misuse impacts on entire economies₃₅ via increased health service costs, policing costs and lost days' work. Worldwide, alcohol misuse is "among the top five risk factors for disease, disability and death" and is a "cause of more than 200 disease and injury conditions in individuals, most notably alcohol dependence, liver cirrhosis, cancers and injuries"₃₆. "In 2012... 5.9% of all global deaths, were attributable to alcohol consumption"₃₇. Deaths from chronic alcohol misuse have been rising for decades, and so has violence, abuse, vandalism and crime all associated with alcohol over-use. The aggression and crime associated with alcohol in some Western countries infringes on the human rights of those who want nothing to do with such behaviour. Many of the social effects of alcohol are psychological and cultural; i.e., people don't have to behave criminally or destructively whilst drunk - it is a culturally learned behaviour. Experiments have shown that behaviour can be controlled: Those who do not wish to behave badly whilst drunk, will not do so.

Food Aid, Health Contributions & WHO Compliance (2017)22
Pos.		Lower is better Rank22
1	Sweden	1
2	Ireland	2
3	Denmark	3
	...
156	Libya	156
157	Papua New Guinea	157
158	Belize	158
159	Algeria	159
160	Senegal	160
161	Mauritania	161
162	St Vincent & Grenadines	162
163	Angola	163
	World Avg	82.0
q=163.

Overweight Adults (2016)30
Pos.		Lower is better %30
1	Vietnam	18.3
2	India	19.7
3	Bangladesh	20.0
	...
93	Armenia	54.4
94	Belize	54.8
95	Haiti	54.9
96	St Vincent & Grenadines	55.0
97	Solomon Islands	55.0
98	Denmark	55.4
99	Jamaica	55.5
100	Mongolia	55.6
	World Avg	49.0
q=191.

About one third of the global population is overweight or obese₃₈. Most Western countries are facing an obesity epidemic. Our cultures are having to change to compensate for widespread ill-health. It is costing our health systems a massive amount of money, and is having negative effects on national economies. The situation has persisted for a suitable length of time for our very perceptions to change; opinions on "normal weights" for people and "average sizes" for clothes has shot up₃₉. Over 2 in 3 adults in the UK are overweight₃₉ and this costs the NHS £5.1 billion per year₄₀ and "costs Britain's economy £47bn a year; more than war, terrorism or armed violence"₄₁. We are forgetting how to be healthy.

The causes are not genetic. Most people who say obesity "runs in their family" are wrong. The rate of increase in obesity is many, many times too fast to be accounted for by a change in inherited genes₄₂. Our culture and lifestyle choices are to blame. The causes of the modern obesity epidemic are processed foods, low levels of physical exercise, over-indulgence, poor choices in food products, poor knowledge of nutrition. Most of this is made much worse by well-funded advertising campaigns by food manufacturers selling cheaper mass-produced food. Even some so-called "health foods" contain well over recommended limits of fat, salt and sugar₄₃.

Smoking Rates (2014)29
Pos.		Lower is better29
1	Guinea	15
2	Solomon Islands	26
3	Kiribati	28
	...
62	Sri Lanka	322
63	Mexico	329
64	Barbados	333
65	St Vincent & Grenadines	338
66	Hong Kong	345
67	Colombia	359
68	Antigua & Barbuda	362
69	Yemen	388
	World Avg	819
q=182.

Suicide Rate (2013)27
Pos.		Lower is better Per 100k27
1	Haiti	0
2	Grenada	0
3	Egypt	0.1
	...
16	Malta	6.9
17	Greece	7
18	Paraguay	7.1
19	St Vincent & Grenadines	7.3
20	Guatemala	7.3
21	Barbados	7.3
22	Belize	7.3
23	Bahrain	7.5
	World Avg	20.93
q=91.

10. Children's Health

#health #parenting #population #vaccines

Adolescent Birth Rate (2015)31
Pos.		Lower is better Per 100031
1	N. Korea	0.5
2	S. Korea	1.6
3	Switzerland	2.9
	...
108	Peru	49.1
109	Indonesia	49.6
110	Colombia	50.2
111	St Vincent & Grenadines	51.0
112	Cambodia	51.6
113	Egypt	51.9
114	St Lucia	53.9
115	Eritrea	54.3
	World Avg	47.9
q=185.

Infant Immunizations 2011-2015 (2015)28
Pos.		Higher is better Avg %28
1	Hungary	99.0
2	China	99.0
3	Uzbekistan	98.9
	...
26	Cook Islands	97.3
27	Greece	97.3
28	Turkmenistan	97.2
29	St Vincent & Grenadines	97.2
30	Dominica	97.1
31	Kazakhstan	97.1
32	Albania	97.1
33	Andorra	97.1
	World Avg	88.3
q=194.

11. More Charts and Comparisons to Other Countries