Guadeloupe Population, Main Cities and Geography

By | January 27, 2023

Guadeloupe: population, cities

Population

Population

According to Countryaah website, Guadeloupe has around 400,000 residents.

Ethnic composition

Due to the massive import of slaves from Africa in the previous centuries, the population of the islands consists of 90% black and mixed race.

Only 5% of the population are white and 3% are Indian (mostly Tamils) and 2% Lebanese

Religion

95% of the population are Roman Catholic; 4.5% Protestant (mainly Adventist) and

0.5% Islamic or Hindu.

National languages

French is the national language of Guadeloupe, the official language is mainly spoken in the boardrooms of politics, economics and trade, while the local population mainly converses on Creole.

Créole is spoken by a total of seven to ten million people worldwide, in the Caribbean, partly in the southern states in the USA and on the islands of the Indian Ocean. The historical background is the French colonial era, the slaves who had been abducted from all parts of Africa had to communicate with each other and with their masters so that they learned the basic terms of French, which was simplified in the vocabulary in the pronunciation and in the grammar. Later on, expressions from other languages such as Spanish and English were added. Créole differs significantly from French in terms of articles, plural forms, pronouns and sentence positions, so that Créole is considered an independent language.

For example, although patois is spoken on the neighboring island of Dominica, which is characterized by many English vocabulary, the Creoles of Guadeloupe can easily communicate with those of Dominica. It is also interesting that Creoles from the French West Indies

can communicate with Creole-speaking people in the southern states of the USA and the Creoles from Mauritius, the Seychelles and La Réunion.

Capital, other cities

The capital of Guadeloupe is Basse Terre with a population of around 12,000.

Other cities are:

Pointe-à-Pitre with around 28,000 residents

Trois-Rivières with around 8,800 residents

Morne-à-l’Eau with around 20,000 residents

Le Moule with around 22,000 residents,

Saint Anne with around 22,000 residents.

Guadeloupe: geography

Guadeloupe archipelago

The overseas department and region of France’s Guadeloupe consists of eight inhabited and other uninhabited islands and belongs to the Lesser Antilles. The two main islands are Basse-Terre (848 km²) and Grande-Terre (589 km²). The islands are only separated from each other by a 50 m wide strait to the west of Grande-Terre. About 56 km north-northwest of Guadeloupe is the volcanic island of Montserrat and almost to the north, about 60 km away, is Antigua. Check topmbadirectory for politics, flags, famous people, animals and plants of Guadeloupe.

The following islands are in front of the two main islands:

  • Marie-Galante with an area of 157 km²
  • Les Saintes with a total of nine small islands, two of which are inhabited: Terre-de-Haut and Terre-de-Bas
  • Terre-de-Haut is 4.52 km² and Terre-de-Bas 9.45 km²
  • Saint-Barthélemy with an area of 21 km²
  • Saint-Martin with an area of 9.4 km².

Area, land use and boundaries

Guadeloupe covers a total of 1,628 km².

Thereof:

Forest

Around 39% of the country is forested.

Meadow and pasture land

Around 14% of the land is used as meadow or pasture land

Fields and fields

Around 14% of the land is used as arable land or fields, especially for growing sugar cane, bananas, fruits, vegetables and flowers.

The

Basse-Terre Mountains are volcanic and are mostly covered by mountains.

Borders

Guadeloupe as an archipelago has no direct neighbors and therefore no national borders.

Coastline

Guadeloupe has a coast to the Caribbean and the Atlantic with a total length of around 305 km.

Tidal range in Pointe-à-Pitre

In Pointe-à-Pitre the mean tidal range is around 1 m.

For detailed explanations of ebb and flow, see Tides, Ebb and Flow.

Compare

The world’s highest tidal range can be found in the Bay of Fundy in Canada, where it is up to 16 m, and at spring tide even over 20 m. The Bay of Fundy is located on the Atlantic between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which is called Nova Scotia in German and whose capital is Halifax. On the German North Sea coast it varies between 1 m and 3 m. In the western Baltic Sea, on the other hand, the tidal range is only 0.3 m, while it is barely noticeable in the eastern Baltic Sea.

Longitude and latitude of Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe extends over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):

Δφ = from 15 ° 54 ‘to 16 ° 30’ north latitude Δλ = from 61 ° 10 ‘to 61 ° 50’ west longitude

You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and Latitude.

Legal time in Guadeloupe

For Guadeloupe, the following value applies to Central European Time (CET), i.e. the time (without summer time). A minus sign means that it is earlier there and a plus sign that it is later than after CET:

Δt (CET) = – 5 h

Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones, time.

The highest point of the sun in Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe lies at a northern latitude of around φ = 16 °, i.e. in the tropics.

If the declination δ of the sun has the value of 16 ° N, and thus the image point of the sun is above the island, the sun is perpendicular there. This happens exactly twice a year, roughly 29 days before the 21./22. June and then again 29 days after the 21./22. June.

Attention

If the image point of the sun and thus the declination δ is north; the latitude of Guadeloupe, the sun at noon is not in the south, as in our latitudes, but in the north. In this case, the sun moves from east to north to west, where, like us, it sets.

Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Sun position

mountains

La Soufrière

The highest mountain in the country is La Soufrière with a height of 1,467 m.

Other high mountains are:

  • L’Echellewith a height of 1,397 m.• Grand Sans Toucher with a height of 1,354 m.• Pitons de Boullante with a height of 1,088 m

    Trois Cretes with a height of 917 m

    Montagne Soldier with a height of 851 m

    Les Mamelles with a height of 768 m.

    Morne a Louis with a height of 743 m.

Rivers

“Rivers” in the country are the Rivière Salée with a length of only 4 km.

Other rivers are:

  • La Moustique Rivière Grande Rivière de Goyas Rivière Mustique

    La Ramée Rivière

Caribbean and Atlantic

The Guadeloupe archipelago is located between the Caribbean and the Atlantic, with the West bordered by the Caribbean and the East by the Atlantic. But some authors also count the eastern part of the Caribbean.

The Caribbean

The Caribbean is a marginal sea of the Atlantic and lies between the islands of the Caribbean and the American continent. In the west, Mexico and other Central American states border the Caribbean. In the south of Colombia and Venezuela. The border in the east and north form the following islands or archipelagos starting from Venezuela in a semi-circle to the “actual” Atlantic: Trinidad and Tabago, Grenada, St. Lucia, Dominica, British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Haiti and Cuba.

The deepest point in the Caribbean is the Cayman Rift between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands with a depth of 7,680 m. Together with the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean forms the “American Mediterranean”.

The Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean (Atlantic) is the second largest ocean in the world after the Pacific with an area of around 106 million km². It separates America from Europe and Africa. At 9,220 m, it has its deepest point in the Milwaukee Deep – part of the Puerto Rico Trench. Its salt content is on average 3.54% (g/ l). Its water volume is around 355 million km³.

Coming from the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf Stream crosses the Atlantic to the coast of Norway and is largely responsible for the climate in Western and Northern Europe.

The Atlantic includes numerous so-called marginal seas – e.g. the American Mediterranean. In addition, the Atlantic – especially in seafaring – is divided into the North Atlantic and South Atlantic. The Strait of Gibralta is certainly a very well-known connection between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, where it separates Europe (Gibralta/Great Britain) from Africa (Morocco). The Panama Canal connects the Pacific with the Atlantic for around 82 km. The Atlantic and Pacific meet at the legendary Cape Horn on the southern tip of the American continent.

Guadeloupe Population