Cayman Islands summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Cayman Islands.

Cayman Islands, British overseas territory, Caribbean Sea, located about 180 mi (290 km) northwest of Jamaica. The islands include Grand Cayman (the largest), Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac. Area: 102 sq mi (264 sq km). Population: (2024 est.) 76,100. Capital: George Town, on Grand Cayman. English is the official language. Though discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1503, the islands were never occupied by the Spanish. Ceded to the British in 1670, they were subsequently settled by the English arriving from Jamaica. The islands were administered as a dependency of Jamaica until Jamaican independence in 1962. A constitution was enacted in 1972; it was replaced in 2009. The governor of the Cayman Islands is appointed by the British crown. The islands are a popular tourist area and a financial centre.

Caribbean Sea Summary

Caribbean Sea, suboceanic basin of the western Atlantic Ocean, lying between latitudes 9° and 22° N and longitudes 89° and 60° W. It is approximately 1,063,000 square miles (2,753,000 square km) in extent. To the south it is bounded by the coasts of Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama; to the west by

West Indies Summary

West Indies, crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles (3,200 km) long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north. From the peninsula of Florida on the mainland of the United States, the islands stretch

North America Summary

North America, third largest of the world’s continents, lying for the most part between the Arctic Circle and the Tropic of Cancer. It extends for more than 5,000 miles (8,000 km) to within 500 miles (800 km) of both the North Pole and the Equator and has an east-west extent of 5,000 miles. It