dependent territory of the United Kingdom in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It is part of an island chain collectively known as the Virgin Islands, which makes up the northeastern extremity of the Greater Antilles. Puerto Rico lies to the west. The Virgin Islands are divided administratively between the United Kingdom and the United States, the British territory lying to the north and east of the U.S. islands. The British colony consists of four larger islands (Tortola, Anegada, Virgin Gorda, and Jost Van Dyke) and 32 smaller islands and islets, of which more than 20 are uninhabited. The chief town and port is Road Town on Tortola (21 square miles [54 square km]), the largest of the islands. The total area of the colony is 59 square miles (153 square km). Pop. (1993 est.) 18,000.

group of about 90 small islands, islets, cays, and rocks in the West Indies, situated some 40 to 50 miles (64 to 80 kilometres) east of Puerto Rico. The islands extend from west to east for about 60 miles and are located west of the Anegada Passage, a major channel connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Their combined land area is about 195 square miles (505 square kilometres).

The islands are administered in two groups--the British Virgin Islands and the Virgin Islands of the United States. The former is a British colony consisting of four larger and 32 smaller islands and islets. Their total area is 59 square miles, and they lie to the north and east of the U.S. islands. The latter group, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior as an incorporated territory, consists of three larger islands and some 50 smaller islets and cays, with a total area of 133 square miles.

The Virgin Islands are noted for their inviting subtropical climate, which attracts a large number of tourists each year to swim in the warm aquamarine waters and frequent the sandy beaches and harbours. Apart from the tourist industry, the islands have few economic resources; financial aid is provided by the United Kingdom and the United States, respectively. Fresh water is scarce. In recent years some tension has arisen between the inhabitants of the islands and people from other parts of the Caribbean who have immigrated, particularly to the Virgin Islands of the United States, to seek jobs and secure better living conditions.

Physical and human geography

Although the Virgin Islands form the easternmost extension of the Greater Antilles, they are often included in discussions of the Lesser Antilles because of their size and proximity to that island chain. The Virgin Islands themselves are the peaks of submerged mountains that rise from a submarine plateau. While the Caribbean deepens to a 15,000-foot trench between the island of St. Croix, to the south, and the rest of the group to the north, the greater part of the plateau is covered by at most 165 feet of water. Most of the islands rise only to a few hundred feet above sea level, although isolated peaks are well over 1,200 feet. The highest point is Mount Sage on Tortola, which is 1,710 feet (521 metres) high.

Of the 36 British islands, 16 are inhabited. Tortola (Turtle Dove), with an area of 21 square miles, is the largest and is the site of the group's capital and population centre, Road Town. Other larger islands in the British group are Anegada, with an area of 15 square miles; Virgin Gorda (the Fat Virgin), with an area of 8 square miles; and Jost Van Dyke, about 3 square miles. Lesser islands include Great Tobago, Salt, Peter, Cooper, Norman, Guana, Beef, Great Thatch, Little Thatch, and Marina Cay.

About 50 islands and cays constitute the U.S. group. Only three are of importance; several are uninhabited. The largest, St. Croix, is 28 miles long, 84 square miles in area, and lies about 40 miles south of the other islands. The island of St. Thomas, 32 square miles in area, is the site of the territory's capital, Charlotte Amalie. St. John has an area of 20 square miles. At the closest point, between Great Thatch Island and St. John, a distance of only half a mile separates the British and the U.S. groups.

The landscape of the islands offers scenes of dramatic contrast, varying from craggy cliffs and mountaintops to small lagoons with coral reefs and barrier beaches, from landlocked harbours to unprotected bays, and from small, level plains to elevated plateaus with rolling lands and junglelike regions. Individual islands have their own distinguishing characteristics.

In the British group, Tortola, of the same geologic formation as St. John, is hilly, with unbroken ranges running throughout its 15-mile length. Road Bay is Tortola's most important bay; it is exposed to the southeast but protected from all other sides by an amphitheatre of hills. Virgin Gorda, an island with several peninsulas, is rectangular in shape, about 2 1/2 miles long, and 1 3/4 miles wide in the central part of the island. Its highest peak rises 1,359 feet. Anegada is the only flat island of the group. Its elevation is never more than 10 to 15 feet above sea level, and its coast, because of its many reefs, is dangerous to boats. Jost Van Dyke is a hilly, almost rugged island with two fine beaches on the south side.

In the U.S. group, St. Thomas, composed primarily of a ridge of hills running east and west with branching spurs, has little level, tillable land. Crown Mountain (1,556 feet), northwest of the capital of Charlotte Amalie, is the island's highest elevation. Charlotte Amalie, facing a fine landlocked harbour, is built on five foothills. There are a number of springs on the island's northern side but only one small stream. Magens Bay, with 3,500 feet of white sandy beach, is reputed to be the finest beach in the West Indies. St. Thomas is surrounded by 17 islands and by cays and innumerable rocks.

St. Croix rises abruptly on the north to Mount Eagle (1,088 feet) and Blue Mountain (1,096 feet), but southward the land slopes to flatlands that near the coast are laced with lagoons. The island's only urban centres, Christiansted and Frederiksted, lie on the flat land. Since the coastal indentations are slight, there are few harbours and sheltered bays; dangerous reefs lie along the north and south coasts. While there are several rivulets on the island, it is generally poorly watered.

St. John--three miles east across Pillsbury Sound from St. Thomas and lying closest to the British Virgin Islands--has steep, lofty hills and valleys but little level, tillable land. Its highest elevations are Camelberg Peak (1,193 feet) and Bordeaux Mountain (1,277 feet). Its coastline is indented with forests and many fine, sheltered bays. Coral Bay, on the eastern end, whose steep shores allow large vessels to come close in, has been described as the best natural harbour in the Virgin Islands. A number of small streams on the south side of St. John, together with a multitude of springs, make it the best-watered island of the U.S. group. More than three-quarters of its area, about 14,700 acres (5,949 hectares; including Hassel Island in St. Thomas harbour), is preserved as Virgin Islands National Park.

largest of the British Virgin Islands, part of the Lesser Antilles chain, which separates the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Its name is from the Spanish tórtola, meaning "turtle dove." It lies about 60 miles (100 km) east of Puerto Rico and has an area of 21 square miles (54 square km). Tortola is composed of a long chain of hills uninterrupted by any transverse valley; although the island is only 3 miles (5 km) wide, one has to ascend to 1,200 feet (365 m) to cross it. The highest peak is Mount Sage (1,781 feet [543 m]). There is a fragment of an unusual xerophytic forest, with flora like that of the Greater Antilles, which contains species not found elsewhere on Tortola.

The island is best suited by climate and topography to livestock raising. The export of livestock to the U.S. Virgin Islands is the principal economic activity. The government maintains a stock-breeding farm producing a hybrid that combines the heat resistance of tropical cattle with the greater production of breeds found in temperate climates. More than 80 percent of the population of the British Virgin Islands, mostly of African extraction, resides on Tortola. Pop. (1980) 9,119.

one of the British Virgin Islands and the northernmost of the Lesser Antilles, a chain separating the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, lying about 80 miles (130 km) east-northeast of Puerto Rico. The island has an area of 15 square miles (39 square km). Annual rainfall averages a moderate 50 inches (1,275 mm). Unlike the other Virgin Islands, Anegada (Spanish: "Inundated") is fairly flat, being made of coral and limestone with very little subsoil and no water. There are dangerous reefs, and Anegada's waters contain many still-unexplored shipwrecks. Pop. (1980) 164.

one of the British Virgin Islands, in the West Indies, lying 80 miles (130 km) east of Puerto Rico. It has an area of 8.25 square miles (21 square km) and forms two rectangles joined by a spit, or point, of land. The peninsula in the southwest is flat and strewn with enormous granite boulders, some more than 30 feet (9 m) high. The north rises straight from the water to hills, the highest of which is Virgin Peak at 1,359 feet (414 m).

Virgin Gorda was settled by planters leaving Anguilla after 1680. Agriculture is economically important, and tourism is increasing. There were once copper workings at Copper Mine Point. Pop. (1980) 1,412.

one of the British Virgin Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, separating the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. It lies 4 miles (6 km) west of Tortola and adjoins Little Jost Van Dyke Island on the east. It is roughly tadpole-shaped with an area of 3.5 square miles (9 square km). The terrain is rugged and elevated, reaching 1,054 feet (321 m). The chief settlement is Great Harbour, on the southern coast. Probably discovered and settled by the Dutch, the island was British after 1672. Pop. (1980 prelim.) 136.