Dutch Caribbean

For the integral territories of the constituent country of the Netherlands, see Caribbean Netherlands.

Dutch Caribbean

Flag of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Location of the Dutch Caribbean islands   Aruba   Curaçao   Sint Maarten   Caribbean Netherlands (from west to east): Bonaire Saba Sint Eustatius
Area	999 km2 (386 sq mi)
Population (2010)	315,339
GDP (Nominal)	US$ 8.911 billion
GDP per Capita (Nominal)	US$ 29,240
Density	305/km2 (790/sq mi)
Languages	Dutch, English, Papiamento
Government	3 constituent countries 3 special municipalities

Willemstad, the capital of Curaçao and the largest city in the Dutch Caribbean.

The Dutch Caribbean are the six island countries and municipalities of the Kingdom of the Netherlands that are located in the Caribbean – Aruba, Curaçao (including the islet of Klein Curaçao, "Little Curaçao"), Sint Maarten (comprising only the southern half of the island of Saint Martin), Bonaire (including the islet of Klein Bonaire, "Little Bonaire"), Sint Eustatius and Saba – regardless of their legal status in Dutch law. The term may sometimes also be used interchangeably with the term Caribbean Netherlands to refer to just three of those islands (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba) which are special municipalities of the Netherlands proper.

All of the islands in the Dutch Caribbean were, at some point in their history, part of the constituent country of the Netherlands Antilles and its predecessor, the colony of Curaçao and its dependencies. By contrast, the former Dutch colony of Suriname was not considered to be part of Dutch Caribbean, although it was relatively close by on the continent of South America.

History

The island of Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles in 1986 to become a separate constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, leaving only five island territories within the Netherlands Antilles. This situation remained until the complete dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles as a unified political entity in 2010, when Curaçao and Sint Maarten became autonomous constituent countries within the Kingdom like Aruba, while Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba became special municipalities of the Netherlands proper. Before the dissolution, the autonomy of the island areas was specified in the Islands Regulation of the Netherlands Antilles.

Currently, there are two main divisions in the Dutch Caribbean:

• those islands that have the status of being constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
• those islands that have the status of being special municipalities of the Netherlands alone, as distinct from the Kingdom in its entirety.

Constituent countries

There are three Caribbean islands that are countries (Dutch: landen) within the Kingdom of the Netherlands: Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten. The Netherlands is the fourth and largest constituent country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, to which the remaining islands belong.

Sint Maarten comprises approximately one half of the island of Saint Martin. The northern half of the island – the Collectivity of Saint Martin – is an overseas territory of France.

Special municipalities

There are three Caribbean islands that are special municipalities of the Netherlands alone: Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba. Collectively, these special municipalities of the Netherlands are also known as the "BES islands" or "Caribisch Nederland" (Caribbean Netherlands).

Grouping of islands

There are several acronyms that indicate informal groups of islands of the Dutch Caribbean:

• ABC islands, for Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao;
• BES islands, for Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba;
• SSS islands, for Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten.

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  Map of the Dutch Caribbean islands.

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  Those countries and special municipalities of the Kingdom of the Netherlands that are located in the Caribbean (blue background) form the Dutch Caribbean.