Every figure below carries its named source and year. The Eco Index scores twelve pillars on the same scale everywhere; seven are measured from published data with fixed thresholds, five are assessed from the named sources.
Antigua and Barbuda at a Glance.
The score, and the four numbers that set the tone. 12 equally-weighted pillars, every pillar sourced.
Compare with:
Renewable power
8%
of electricity
Food imported
28%
of merchandise imports · ~US$260m a year
The Eco Index across 12 pillars · scored 0 to 5 · World Bank, OWID, WHO/UNICEF JMP, FiBL, Protected Planet, IUCN, UNESCO (2023-24)
Water
Food & farming
Plant-based
Organic
Conservation
Wildlife
Materials
Pollution
Recycling
Energy
Culture
Heritage
Facts That Surprise People About Antigua and Barbuda.
The numbers and firsts that change how you see Antigua and Barbuda, the sobering and the remarkable. Every one is dated and linked to its source.
SoberingHealth
Almost two in three adults are overweight
In 2022, 62.7% of adults in Antigua and Barbuda were overweight, according to World Bank data drawn from WHO estimates.
SoberingHealth
More than one in nine adults has diabetes
In 2024, 11.6% of adults aged 20 to 79 in Antigua and Barbuda had diabetes, according to World Bank data from the International Diabetes Federation.
SoberingFood
Over a quarter of all imports are food
Food made up 27.7% of Antigua and Barbuda's merchandise imports in 2024.
RemarkableNature
Once the world's rarest snake, back from 50
In 1995 just 50 Antiguan racers survived, all on the 8.4 hectare Great Bird Island, after mongooses wiped the snake out on Antigua. Clearing rats from offshore islands let the population grow tenfold to about 500 by 2010.
RemarkableNature
Redonda went from rat ridden to protected reserve
Conservationists began removing invasive rats and goats from the islet of Redonda in 2016. Its endemic ground dragon has increased thirteenfold since 2017, and in 2023 the government created a reserve of nearly 30,000 hectares of land and sea.
RemarkableNature
Barbuda's vast frigatebird colony
The frigatebird colony in Barbuda's Codrington Lagoon has long been considered the largest in the Caribbean. A full census in 2008 counted 1,743 nests and over 5,000 birds.
Worth knowingHistory
Barbuda was emptied of people by Hurricane Irma
After Hurricane Irma struck in September 2017, Barbuda's residents were evacuated to Antigua. The country's ambassador to the US said it was the first time in 300 years that no one was living on the island.
The History of Antigua and Barbuda.
Antigua and Barbuda holds a living Afro-Caribbean heritage rooted in emancipation. Carnival, held over the first Monday and Tuesday of August, is a formal, island-wide celebration of the freedom won on 1 August 1834.
Where the name comes from
Columbus reached Antigua in 1493 and is said to have named it after the church of Santa María la Antigua in Seville. Barbuda is Spanish for 'bearded', possibly for the beards of the Indigenous people or for the island's bearded fig trees. This is according to Den Store Danske, the Danish national encyclopedia.
The land itself: low-lying limestone and coral islands, with volcanic high ground in the south west of Antigua. Its high point is Mount Obama, 402 m. Source: national mapping and survey records.
Where it starts
Barbuda first
Bayesian modelling of the screened radiocarbon record puts first settlement on Barbuda at about 3,455 to 3,265 years ago, roughly 1500 to 1300 BC, and on Antigua at about 3,100 to 2,830 years ago, roughly 1150 to 880 BC. These were pre-agricultural Archaic communities, and they were followed by ceramic-using Saladoid farmers moving up the chain from Venezuela. At Indian Creek, the village midden holds a nearly complete record of the animal food eaten over about 1,100 years of occupation.
How it got here
Sugar, harbours and abolition
English settlement began in 1632 and the islands were worked as sugar plantations on enslaved African labour, with Antigua's deep harbours serving as a British naval base. Slavery was abolished in 1834, and Antigua was the only British colony in the Caribbean where the enslaved population was freed unconditionally. Independence came in 1981.
The timeline
c. 1500 to 1300 BC
The oldest dates in the country.
Bayesian modelling of the screened radiocarbon record puts first settlement on Barbuda at about 3,455 to 3,265 years before present, roughly 1500 to 1300 BC. That is earlier than the modelled estimate for Antigua, about 3,100 to 2,830 years before present. Source
c. 2900 BC
Antigua settled.
Antigua is first settled by pre-agricultural Archaic people. They are often called Siboney locally, though that is the name of a pre-ceramic people of Cuba. Source
Over about 1,100 years
Indian Creek.
The rubbish midden at Indian Creek holds a nearly complete record of the animal food eaten by the village over about 1,100 years of occupation. Source
Before c. AD 1200
Saladoid farmers.
Ceramic-using Saladoid farmers move up the island chain from Venezuela and take over from the Archaic people. Source
1493
European sighting.
Christopher Columbus sights the islands in 1493 and names the larger one Antigua. Source
1632
English settlement.
The English found a colony on Antigua in 1632, and on Barbuda in 1685. Source
1600s to 1800s
Sugar and enslavement.
Sugar becomes the main crop, grown on enslaved African labour. In the 18th century Antigua serves as the headquarters of the Royal Navy's Caribbean fleet, with English Harbour as its main base. Source
1834
Abolition.
Slavery ends on 1 August 1834. Antigua is the only British colony in the Caribbean where the enslaved population is freed unconditionally. Source
1981
Independence.
Antigua and Barbuda becomes fully independent on 1 November 1981, as a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth. Source
Government of Antigua and Barbuda, Information Service, History · Government of Antigua and Barbuda, Information Service, Emancipation · Museum of Antigua and Barbuda · Science Advances, Reevaluating human colonization of the Caribbean using chronometric hygiene and Bayesian modeling (2019) · American Antiquity, Dietary Change and Human Population at Indian Creek, Antigua (1985)
Nature and Biodiversity in Antigua and Barbuda.
Redonda is one of the best island restoration stories anywhere, and it is properly documented. Miners left behind rats and goats that stripped the island bare. In 2017 Fauna and Flora and their partners eradicated the rats and moved the feral goats to Antigua.
Is wild Antigua and Barbuda protected? 16.5% of the land is, against a 30% target for 2030
How protected is nature in Antigua and Barbuda?
Forest cover18.01%
Terrestrial protected area16.5%
Marine protected area0.7%
7 listed as threatened.
Found only here. Antiguan racer, Redonda ground dragon, Barbuda warbler
The watchlist
ThreatenedHawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and recorded in Antigua and Barbuda in GBIF occurrence data (turtle).
ThreatenedRedonda Anole (Anolis nubilus) Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and recorded in Antigua and Barbuda in GBIF occurrence data (reptile).
ThreatenedBrain coral (Pseudodiploria strigosa) Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and recorded in Antigua and Barbuda in GBIF occurrence data (coral).
ThreatenedHamlet (Epinephelus striatus) Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and recorded in Antigua and Barbuda in GBIF occurrence data (species).
ThreatenedMillepora complanata Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and recorded in Antigua and Barbuda in GBIF occurrence data (coral).
ThreatenedLeeward Racer (Alsophis antillensis) Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and recorded in Antigua and Barbuda in GBIF occurrence data (reptile).
ThreatenedReef starlet coral (Siderastrea siderea) Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and recorded in Antigua and Barbuda in GBIF occurrence data (coral).
What is still here, and what is gone?
Tap a species for the honest status.
Closest to being lost, by name
Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata)
Critically Endangered, the last IUCN category before Extinct in the Wild, and still recorded in Antigua and Barbuda. GBIF holds 10 verified occurrence records.
Redonda Anole (Anolis nubilus)
Critically Endangered, the last IUCN category before Extinct in the Wild, and still recorded in Antigua and Barbuda. GBIF holds 14 verified occurrence records.
Brain coral (Pseudodiploria strigosa)
Critically Endangered, the last IUCN category before Extinct in the Wild, and still recorded in Antigua and Barbuda. GBIF holds 22 verified occurrence records.
Species named here are drawn from GBIF occurrence records for Antigua and Barbuda filtered to the IUCN Red List threatened categories. Species are listed where GBIF holds occurrence records for them in this country. Record counts are not published here because the figure cannot be reproduced from a public GBIF query.
Who is putting it back
National park in Antigua, mapped and named in the open record for Antigua and Barbuda. OpenStreetMap.
National park in Antigua, mapped and named in the open record for Antigua and Barbuda. OpenStreetMap.
National park in Antigua, mapped and named in the open record for Antigua and Barbuda. OpenStreetMap.
Water and Ocean in Antigua and Barbuda.
Antigua is formally water scarce, not merely dry. FAO AQUASTAT puts renewable internal freshwater at about 560 cubic metres per person a year in 2022, below the 1,000 cubic metre mark used to define water scarcity and among the lowest in the Caribbean alongside Barbados on 283 and St Kitts and Nevis on 514. Its one large freshwater store keeps failing.
Does Antigua and Barbuda have enough fresh water? Yes, with headroom
Reverse osmosis desalination, plus the Potworks reservoir which repeatedly runs dry
Cleanest water: Great Bird Island, in the North East Marine Management Area
How much fresh water does Antigua and Barbuda have, per person?
560 m³
Antigua and Barbuda
1,000 m³
the UN “water scarce” line
Antigua and Barbuda withdraws about 4 million cubic metres of fresh water a year (2022). That is 8.5% of the fresh water actually available to it, which FAO counts as no water stress. Of what is taken, farming takes 16%, homes and towns 63%, industry 22%. Source: FAO AQUASTAT.
What are the rules on Antigua and Barbuda beaches?
✓Tap water: Unverified.
✓Plastic rules: Shopping bags prohibited, reported 2016 to 2017; landfill plastic down 15.1% in year one.
✕Solo travel: rated take care on the record for this destination.
✕Marine protection: 0.7% of the sea is protected. The 30x30 pledge for 2030 is not met yet.
Named on the open map: Carlisle Bay Beach, Cherry Hill Bay Beach, Coco Beach, Coco's Beach, Darkwood Beach, Deep Bay Beach, Devil's Hole Beach, Dickinson Beach. That is 24 named beaches in the public record for Antigua and Barbuda, each one a place you can look up before you go. OpenStreetMap.
Where does the sewage go?
99.6%
of people have at least basic sanitation
99.6% of people here use at least a basic toilet not shared with other households (2024, World Bank / WHO UNICEF JMP). No figure is published for how much of that waste is safely treated, so the share reaching the ground or the water untreated is unknown.
How is the sea around Antigua and Barbuda doing?
One cross-section, every answer measured.
Surface
What the coast carries
Hawksbill turtle nesting on Long Island (Jumby Bay Hawksbill Project), 15 June–15 November.
Nearshore
Protected water
0.7% of territorial waters are protected, against the 30% pledged for 2030 under the Global Biodiversity Framework.
Cleanest
Where the water is cleanest
Great Bird Island, in the North East Marine Management Area.
The record
Measured
Antigua is formally water scarce, not merely dry. FAO AQUASTAT puts renewable internal freshwater at about 560 cubic metres per person a year in 2022, below the 1,000 cubic metre mark used to define water scarcity and among the lowest in the Caribbean alongside Barbados on 283 and St Kitts and Nevis on 514.
Antigua and Barbuda scored 80 out of 100 on the Ocean Health Index in its 2025 assessment, above the global average of 72, and ranked 25th of 220 coastal regions. The index team says it is no longer updating scores, so the 2025 figures may be the last.
Sea protected
0.7%
Against the 30% pledged for 2030 under the Global Biodiversity Framework.
Threatened species
56
Mammals, birds, fish and higher plants on the IUCN list.
Is the tap water safe in Antigua and Barbuda?
The Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) supplies piped water from three sources: desalinated seawater from reverse osmosis plants, surface water from ponds and dams, and groundwater from wells. The island needs about 7 million imperial gallons a day, and because it is prone to drought APUA leans on costly, power hungry desalination when rain runs short; it recently expanded its Ffryes reverse osmosis plant by more than 300,000 gallons a day. APUA does not publish routine water quality test results on its site, and none were found from the health ministry, so treat the tap with care: drink bottled, boiled or filtered water, especially after storms or where water comes from a cistern.
How hard is the water supply being pushed?
Of every 10 buckets nature refills, 1 are already taken. Withdrawals run at 8.5% of what Antigua and Barbuda renews internally each year (2022, World Bank / FAO AQUASTAT). That is inside the 25% mark generally treated as water stress, so the supply has headroom.
Seaweed on the beaches. In August 2018 the BBC reported that one resort in Antigua had been forced to close until 30 September because of it, and that Elite Island Resorts, which runs St James's Club, had spent heavily on tractors, heavy equipment and several floating barrier systems, none of which had worked. Antigua's environment minister said at the time that the country had to prepare for sargassum the same way it prepares for hurricanes.
When is the best time to visit Antigua and Barbuda? Tap your month.
Tap your month.
How much fresh water does Antigua and Barbuda actually have?
Nature renews about 560 cubic metres of fresh water per person per year here. That ranks Antigua and Barbuda 33 of 208 countries measured, placing it among the 40 driest countries on Earth per person. The UN treats anything under 1,000 cubic metres as water scarce, and this is below that line. World Bank / FAO AQUASTAT.
FAO AQUASTAT · WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme · World Bank Open Data · Antigua Public Utilities Authority, Water production in Antigua · Ocean Health Index, Antigua and Barbuda region scores · Ocean Health Index, Global scores · BBC News, Sargassum: The seaweed deluge hitting Caribbean shores, 5 August 2018 (archived copy)
Food and Drink in Antigua and Barbuda.
Food was 27.67 per cent of merchandise imports in 2024, up from 24.53 per cent in 2021, and agriculture was 1.61 per cent of GDP in 2024, according to World Bank data.
Where does the food in Antigua and Barbuda come from?
27.7% imported
about US$260m a year
On the plate: Antigua Black pineapple (signature fruit), sweet potato, corn, guava, national dish is fungee (cornmeal) and pepperpot, ducana (sweet potato dumpling).
3 of 10
bites are imported
The island buys in more food energy than it eats. About US$260m a year leaves the country to pay for it. The green slice is roughly what still grows here.
About 27.7% of everything Antigua and Barbuda buys in from abroad is food, roughly 3 in every 10 imported items on the dock (2024, World Bank). Farming itself is 1.5% of the economy and 20.5% of the land is agricultural, of which 9.1% is arable. The green slice is roughly what still grows here.
What is killing people in Antigua and Barbuda? The imported diet.
Cause of death, and the diet behind it.
Non-communicable diseases, all combined69.6%
Diabetes11.6%
Adults living with overweight or obesity. 62.7%.
Can Antigua and Barbuda feed itself?
9.1%
Arable land
21.1%
Agricultural land
9,884
Arable acres
1.5%
Agriculture, share of GDP
Feeding itself
Food was 27.67 per cent of merchandise imports in 2024, the highest of the four larger islands we compare, and rising from 24.53 per cent in 2021. Agriculture is 1.61 per cent of GDP.
Certification
Antigua has a heritage crop worth seeking out and almost no organic infrastructure behind it. The Antigua Black pineapple is the national fruit, measured at 13.3 to 15.3 degrees Brix with low acidity, and grown mainly on the southwest coast around the Cades Bay Pineapple Station founded by the Ministry of Agriculture in the 1960s.
Water for crops
Antigua is formally water scarce, not merely dry. FAO AQUASTAT puts renewable internal freshwater at about 560 cubic metres per person a year in 2022, below the 1,000 cubic metre mark used to define water scarcity and among the lowest in the Caribbean alongside Barbados on 283 and St Kitts and Nevis on 514.
Why the organic number looks like that. Certified-organic farmland is not separately reported for Antigua and Barbuda, and that is a certification gap rather than proof nothing is grown cleanly. What the official land record does show: 20.5% of the country is agricultural land and 9.1% is arable (2023, World Bank). Certification is paid for per farm per year by a foreign body, which prices out smallholders, so the organic number reads worse than the practice.
What actually grows here
Tropical fruitsMangoes/guavasLemons/limesPumpkins/squashSweet potatoesVegetablesCucumbers/gherkinsYams
The food that already fits
The plant-based kitchen here is not an import. By tonnage, the largest crops grown in Antigua and Barbuda are mangoes, guavas and mangosteens, lemons and limes and pumpkins, squash and gourds (FAO, FAOSTAT crop production, 2024). That is what the land itself puts on a plate.
Buy direct where residents buy: Hall Valley Farm, Grant's Claremont Farms, Projek Hydro, Indies Greens, Vida Aquaponics, Hunte Chicken Farm. Every one is a farm shop we have checked and listed ourselves, so the money goes to the grower rather than the importer. The checked list
Checked kitchens from the directory: Uncle Roddy’s Beach Bar and Grill to Uncle Roddy’s Beach Bar and Grill is a restaurant in Antigua and Barbuda. See its verified sustainability rati; One Stone Ital Shack to One Stone Ital Shack is an ital restaurant in St John's, Antigua and Barbuda. See its verified sustainability; Bush Bungalow to Bush Bungalow is a 100% plant based restaurant in Freeman's Village, Antigua and Barbuda. See its verified sus. Every kitchen listed here is checked for how plant-based the menu really is before it earns its place.
Is this grown in Antigua and Barbuda?
Tap a food for the honest answer.
Sweet potatoCornGuavaPepperpot
Climate and Energy in Antigua and Barbuda.
Antigua and Barbuda runs an almost entirely oil-fired grid, with renewables supplying only about 5.6 per cent of electricity generation in 2023. Per-person emissions sit at roughly 6.9 tonnes of CO2, high for a small island economy and driven by imported diesel, tourism demand and air conditioning. The country has pledged ambitious renewable and transport-electrification targets under its updated national climate plan, and small solar installations are growing, but delivery on the ground remains limited. As a fossil-dependent grid with only modest renewable progress, it sits in the lower band.
What powers Antigua and Barbuda?
Renewable 8.1%Fossil 91.9%
Electricity, water and telecoms are run by the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA), a government statutory agency created under the Public Utilities Act of 1973 by merging the old electricity, water and telephone departments. Its electricity unit handles generation, transmission and distribution, which were merged into one unit in 2005. Policy comes from the Cabinet minister responsible for public utilities, and a Board of Commissioners appointed by Cabinet oversees the authority. Customers can connect their own solar systems under APUA's interconnection policy and are credited for power they export at APUA's avoided fuel cost.
Climate pollution per person
The safe amount, what the planet can absorb
2 tonnes
One person here
3.8 tonnes
The world average, for comparison
4.7 tonnes
The worst it ever got
3.8 tonnes
The grid
Antigua and Barbuda runs an almost entirely oil-fired grid, with renewables supplying only about 5.6 per cent of electricity generation in 2023. Per-person emissions sit at roughly 6.9 tonnes of CO2, high for a small island economy and driven by imported diesel, tourism demand and air conditioning.
Pollution
Antigua and Barbuda moved early on plastic. The External Trade (Shopping Plastic Bags Prohibition) Order prohibited the importation, distribution, sale and use of shopping bags, and did something unusual and sensible: rather than draft new legislation the government folded the ban into existing law after extensive consultation, and added tax incentives for importing reusable non plastic bags, with bagasse from sugarcane promoted as the preferred alternative.
Water stress
Antigua is formally water scarce, not merely dry. FAO AQUASTAT puts renewable internal freshwater at about 560 cubic metres per person a year in 2022, below the 1,000 cubic metre mark used to define water scarcity and among the lowest in the Caribbean alongside Barbados on 283 and St Kitts and Nevis on 514.
What pollutes most here
1The grid The share of electricity still generated from fossil fuel.94.3%
2Industry Cruise tourism.named
3Air Modelled annual mean against a WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³.8.4 µg/m³ (PM2.5)
4On the record Antigua and Barbuda moved early on plastic.
What has Antigua and Barbuda promised on climate?
Net zero, whole economy2040
Electricity renewable today5.7% (2021)
Land protected, against a 30% target16.5% by 2025
Sea protected, against a 30% target0.7% by 2025
The net-zero target year on file with Climate Watch is 2040, status: in policy document. Measured against it, 5.7% of electricity is already renewable (2021, World Bank), so 94.3% of the grid is still to be converted. The pledge on file is measured here against what has actually been delivered, not taken on its own (UNFCCC NDC Registry, CBD Kunming-Montreal Target 3).
The biggest line item
One return flight against a whole year of living.
A resident's entire year3.8 t CO2e
Safe-climate budget, per year2 t CO2e
Singapore return, economy3.14 t CO2e
Sydney return, economy2.93 t CO2e
Dubai return, economy2.12 t CO2e
Johannesburg return, economy1.95 t CO2e
Frankfurt return, economy1.29 t CO2e
How much CO2 does flying to Antigua and Barbuda emit?
Tap where you would fly from. One return flight, economy.
Firsts on climate finance. CCRIF, the regional disaster insurer, paid Antigua and Barbuda US$6.79 million under its tropical cyclone policy after Hurricane Irma in September 2017. Its excess rainfall policy paid US$420,645 after rains in September 2022 and US$2.88 million after Tropical Storm Philippe in October 2023. Smaller payments under CCRIF's aggregate deductible cover followed Hurricane Maria in 2017 (US$32,400), Laura in 2020 (US$70,257) and Tammy in 2023 (US$139,794), bringing the total to about US$10.3 million.
Climate Watch (WRI) · UNFCCC NDC Registry · World Bank Open Data · UK DESNZ greenhouse gas conversion factors · Antigua Public Utilities Authority, About · Antigua Public Utilities Authority, Company history · Antigua Public Utilities Authority, Renewable Energy Antigua · CCRIF SPC, CCRIF SPC payouts
AI and Data Centres in Antigua and Barbuda.
Every prompt runs on a machine in a building on somebody’s grid. What that costs the planet depends less on the prompt than on what is burning to power it. Here is what would power one in Antigua and Barbuda.
Data centres
1
Registered colocation and interconnection facilities, PeeringDB, 2026
Grid renewable
8.1 %
What a machine here runs on.
What powers a data centre in Antigua and Barbuda?
Almost everything a machine here consumes is burned fossil fuel.
Renewable 8.1%Fossil 91.9%
Cooling water. Every one of those halls runs on the national grid, which is 5.7% renewable today (World Bank). A data centre is only as clean as the electricity behind it, so the same figure that decides this country's climate score also decides the footprint of the AI running inside it. Cooling water use is not separately published by facility, and no operator here reports it.
The rules. Antigua and Barbuda has 1 colocation and interconnection facilities on the public PeeringDB register, concentrated in Antigua (1). Named sites include Digicel Antigua and Barbuda.
Where the cables land. 3 landing points · Dickenson Bay, Morris Bay, St. John’s
Economy and Tourism in Antigua and Barbuda.
8% residents to 92% visitors across a year. 1,035,000 international arrivals in 2019 against 94,209 people who live here (2025, World Bank / UN Tourism).
Where a visitor dollar goes in Antigua and Barbuda
385k
Visitors a year
4.1
Visitors per resident
How deep in debt is Antigua and Barbuda?· for every $100 Antigua and Barbuda earns in a year, it owes…
Pay to the order of: the creditorsmemo · the 2002 peak
$ 114The worst year on the IMF record. Antigua and Barbuda owed $114 for every $100 it earned.
IMF World Economic Outlook, 2002signed, the creditors
Pay to the order of: the creditorsmemo · today
$ 66What is owed now, for every $100 of national income (2026).
IMF World Economic Outlook, 2026signed, the creditors
Pay to the order of: the creditorsmemo · projected 2031
$ 58The IMF's own forecast has this falling to $58 by 2031.
IMF World Economic Outlook projection, 2031signed, the forecast
For every $100 Antigua and Barbuda earns in a year, it owes $66 (2026, IMF World Economic Outlook). The interest on that is paid before schools, clinics or coastline get their turn.
Where does a tourist dollar actually go in Antigua and Barbuda?
Play one tourist dollar around the board. Every square is a measured fact from this page.
START!
1
GO: a visitor lands
$100 goes on the table. 1,035,000 international arrivals in 2019 against 94,209 residents, 11.0 visitors for every resident (World Bank / UN Tourism).
$100 in play2
The bed
Who owns the largest places to stay in Antigua and Barbuda is not published in the records we can check, so this square is left open rather than guessed. Where a listing names its owner, it is shown in the ownership table below.
not published3
The plate
Food is 27.7% of everything Antigua and Barbuda imports (2024, World Bank), so a large part of every restaurant bill is paid to a supplier abroad. Eating what the land here actually grows, tropical fruits, mangoes/guavas, lemons/limes, pumpkins/squash, sweet potatoes, vegetables, cucumbers/gherkins, yams, keeps that money with the grower.
sails in4
The power
94.3% of the electricity is fossil (2021, World Bank). Lighting, cooling and hot water are paid for largely in imported fuel.
burns away5
What actually stays
Of the two parts of a visitor's bill that can be measured here, the plate and the power mostly leave Antigua and Barbuda. Choosing locally grown food is the part of that a visitor can actually control.
less than you think6
Pay the bank first
Antigua and Barbuda owes $66 for every $100 it earns (IMF World Economic Outlook, 2026 projection). The interest is paid before anything else on this board.
$66 per $1007
No plan B
26.1% of everything Antigua and Barbuda sells abroad is mineral fuels and oils (2023, UN Comtrade). One market moving takes the whole board with it.
26.1% one export8
Community chest
Tourism earns 70% of everything Antigua and Barbuda makes from exports (2020, World Bank / UN Tourism). That is how much of the economy depends on the game continuing.
70% of exports9
The flight
Getting here is usually the biggest single line on the bill. From Singapore a return economy seat is 3.14 t CO2, on the UK Government's published conversion factors. It is the one part of the trip this board cannot reduce.
3.14 t CO210
Back to GO
The economy turns over about US$2 billion a year (IMF World Economic Outlook, 2026 projection). Every lap of this board is a choice about how much of it stays.
US$2bnGDPUS$2.3bn
Agriculture, share of GDP1.5%
Visitors a year384,500
Visitors per resident4.1
Residents~94,209
Agriculture
Farming is 1.5% of the economy. Food was 27.67 per cent of merchandise imports in 2024, the highest of the four larger islands we compare, and rising from 24.53 per cent in 2021.
Natural materials
We are scoring this a two, and the number is the story. Antigua's material tradition is the coal pot, and it is down to one woman.
Energy
Antigua and Barbuda runs an almost entirely oil-fired grid, with renewables supplying only about 5.6 per cent of electricity generation in 2023. Per-person emissions sit at roughly 6.9 tonnes of CO2, high for a small island economy and driven by imported diesel, tourism demand and air conditioning.
Who owns the biggest hotels in Antigua and Barbuda?
By rooms · company records and press.
Barbuda CottagesOwnership not publishednot published
Lamblion Apartments · ~11 roomsFamily Businessnot published
Frangipani Eco Lodge · ~2 roomsIndependentnot published
Visitors, over time
2015894k
2016874k
20171,040k
20181,064k
20191,035k
2020384k
International tourism receipts run at about US$0.42 billion in 2020 (World Bank / UN Tourism). That is 70% of everything the country earns from exports.
How much of your money actually stays here?
Tap the holiday you are planning.
Visiting Antigua and Barbuda, whoever you are.
Resort guest, villa renter, family, nomad or backpacker. The honest playbook for each, from the same sourced numbers.
Already booked a resort? · the rescue list
Five swaps that move your money back on-island
1. Eat where the country eats Choose kitchens cooking antigua black pineapple (signature fruit), sweet potato, corn, guava; national dish is fungee (cornmeal) and pepperpot; ducana (sweet potato dumpling). over imported menus. The checked list
2. Book with a local operator Never the lobby desk. The margin on a tour is the part that stays. Eco tours
3. Stay somewhere locally owned Ownership decides where the room rate books. Eco stays
4. Use the transport residents use Barbuda is a ninety minute ferry or a light aircraft, and has very few shops
5. Buy the craft, not the souvenir Natural-materials work made here pays the maker directly; imported gifts pay a shipping line.
Swipe
First time here
Antigua and Barbuda is two islands with two speeds. Antigua is the busy one, ringed by beaches and anchored by Nelson's Dockyard, but inland it is farms, bush medicine and small ital kitchens cooking what grows here.
Best time: December to April is the dry season and the easiest time to travel. Sailing peaks around Antigua Sailing Week in late April. Hurricane season runs June to November, wettest in September and October, and many small places close for part of it.
Getting around
Barbuda is a ninety minute ferry or a light aircraft, and has very few shops
Transport is where the fare either stays or leaves.
Eating here
The everyday plate is antigua black pineapple (signature fruit), sweet potato, corn, guava; national dish is fungee (cornmeal) and pepperpot; ducana (sweet potato dumpling).. Antigua has one strong public produce market, the Public Market Complex on Valley Road in St John's, open through the week but biggest on Friday and Saturday, spilling into the surrounding streets with local mangoes, sugar apples, sorrel, eggplant, limes, bananas and the island's signature crop, the Antigua Black pineapple.
Eating what the country grows is the cheapest way to cut the import bill.
Good to know
Water is scarce in the formal sense here, and increasingly made from the sea, so short showers are not a gesture.
Bring your own bag and bottle. This was the first country in the region to ban plastic bags, back in 2016.
Barbuda has very few shops, so carry what you need for the day, and do not take sand from the pink sand beach. Book Codrington Lagoon through the Environmental Awareness Group or a named local guide so the money stays on the island.
Rate my hotel. Tap yours for the honest verdict.
Ownership from company records and press.
Who owns the big hotels
Barbuda CottagesOwnership not published
Lamblion ApartmentsFamily Business · 11 rooms
Frangipani Eco LodgeIndependent · 2 rooms
None of the 3 properties listed here publishes who ultimately owns it, so no claim is made either way. Ownership is what decides how much of a room rate stays in the country, which is why we show it when a listing states it.
Society and Governance in Antigua and Barbuda.
How well is Antigua and Barbuda actually run?
Governance, measured · World Bank WGI
Four measured answers, none of them opinion. Averaged across corruption control, delivery and accountability, Antigua and Barbuda scores 60 out of 100 (2024, World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators). That matters here because every pledge on this page is only as good as the machinery meant to deliver it.
What is daily life in Antigua and Barbuda really like? Measured
Getting around, breathing, throwing away, learning. The honest checklist.
TransportAirWaterWastePower
✓How you get around Barbuda is a ninety minute ferry or a light aircraft, and has very few shops
99.0%
literacy. Public spending on education runs at 3.1% of GDP and 5.9% of all government spending, and secondary enrolment stands at 108.9% gross (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2023 to 2025).
Made in Antigua and Barbuda.
We are scoring this a two, and the number is the story. Antigua's material tradition is the coal pot, and it is down to one woman. Every step of processing done at home is value that stops leaving the country.
What Antigua and Barbuda actually sells the world
The single biggest thing Antigua and Barbuda sells the world is mineral fuels and oils, 26.1% of all exports in 2023 (about US$0.01 billion, UN Comtrade). The next four are fish and seafood at 10.7%, iron and steel articles at 10.4%, beverages, spirits and vinegar at 8.4%, machinery and mechanical appliances at 7.0%.
Made now · natural materials
Antiguan coal pot
Worked in Antigua and Barbuda from local material, and still a working craft rather than a museum piece.
Made now · natural materials
Sea View Farm pottery
Worked in Antigua and Barbuda from local material, and still a working craft rather than a museum piece.
Buys in · 7.3% of imports
Electrical machinery and electronics
Antigua and Barbuda imported US$0.05 billion of electrical machinery and electronics in 2023, 7.3% of everything it bought abroad, and sells none of it back. Every point of that is a business that could be built at home rather than shipped in. UN Comtrade.
Buys in · 5.4% of imports
Furniture and bedding
Antigua and Barbuda imported US$0.04 billion of furniture and bedding in 2023, 5.4% of everything it bought abroad, and sells none of it back. Every point of that is a business that could be built at home rather than shipped in. UN Comtrade.
Buys in · 4.1% of imports
Meat
Antigua and Barbuda imported US$0.03 billion of meat in 2023, 4.1% of everything it bought abroad, and sells none of it back. Every point of that is a business that could be built at home rather than shipped in. UN Comtrade.
Buys in · 3.8% of imports
Wood and wood articles
Antigua and Barbuda imported US$0.03 billion of wood and wood articles in 2023, 3.8% of everything it bought abroad, and sells none of it back. Every point of that is a business that could be built at home rather than shipped in. UN Comtrade.
The maths for an entrepreneur. Antigua and Barbuda produces about US$2 billion a year, which is roughly US$24,819 per person (2025, World Bank). Farming is 1.5% of that, while food is 27.7% of everything the country imports. The country buys in more food than its own farms contribute to the economy, and every point of that gap is a business someone could build here rather than ship in. With 9.1% of the land arable, the raw material for that is already in the ground.
See the verified makersCulture in Antigua and Barbuda.
Benna
Bawdy, subversive song that served as the people's newspaper, spreading local news, and is considered the forerunner of Antigua's calypso tradition. Its best-known voice was the 1940s town crier John Quarkoo.
Calypso
Antigua's calypsonians, among them King Short Shirt and King Obstinate, are known for songs on politics, culture and Antiguan life.
Soca
Antigua’s soca singers include Claudette Peters, an award-winning singer often called the Queen of Soca.
August
Steelpan
The steelpan is the national instrument. The Department of Culture celebrates it with Pan in the City, a free afternoon of pan at the V.C. Bird bandstand in St John's.
Carnival Monday and Tuesday, the first Monday and Tuesday in August.CarnivalAn island-wide celebration of emancipation, which carries on the informal 1 August celebrations Antiguans held after slavery ended in 1834.
Does Antigua and Barbuda protect its heritage by law?
Partly, and the gaps say as much as the protections.
What is kept alive. Antigua and Barbuda holds a strong living Afro-Caribbean heritage rooted in the experience of emancipation. Benna, a call-and-response folk song tradition that once carried news and pointed social commentary, sits alongside calypso, soca and the steelpan. Carnival, first held in 1957 to mark emancipation, remains the cultural centrepiece, with masquerade, costume bands and street dancing.
Who it belongs to. Antigua and Barbuda has done something no other Caribbean state had done. In 2023 the Medicinal Cannabis Authority granted Rastafari sacramental authorisation to cultivate and use cannabis for religious purposes, reported as the first in the Caribbean, with cultivation by authorised Rastafari groups exempt from licensing fees. Named recipients included the Nyabinghi Theocracy Church at Creekside, the Ras Freeman Foundation for the Unification of Rastafari at Liberta and the Wan Love Chant at Bendals Village.
Only here. The Antiguan racer, long called the world's rarest snake, came back from around 50 individuals in the mid 1990s to roughly 1,200 by 2016, but a 2023 field survey found only about 400. Redonda went from rat ridden mining spoil to a 30,000 hectare ecosystem reserve in six years, and is now cited internationally as an island restoration model..
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Antigua and Barbuda · Government of Antigua and Barbuda, Information Service, Emancipation and Carnival · Government of Antigua and Barbuda, Information Service, National Holidays · Government of Antigua and Barbuda, Information Service, Famous Nationals · Antigua Observer, Benna, it's the music from Antigua (2024) · Antigua Observer, Culture Department hosts Pan in the City 2025
The Future of Antigua and Barbuda.
Three futures for Antigua and Barbuda, every one run forward from measured data.
Where the making actually happens
Named cultural and craft sites on the open map: Museum of Antigua & Barbuda (St. John's), Dockyard Museum (English Harbour), Betty's Hope Museum (Antigua). OpenStreetMap. Named craft workshops on the open map: Craft Market, Myer's Electrical/Electronic Repairs.
Every measured trend on one line
Run forward at the pace already recorded.
World Bank open data, recorded series
How much forest is left?
Forest cover moved from 22.2% to 17.9% across 29 recorded years.
How much climate pollution per person?
CO2 per person moved from 2.7 t to 3.8 t across 29 recorded years.
How many people visit?
Tourist arrivals moved from 447k to 384k across 25 recorded years.
How much land is protected?
Protected land moved from 10% to 16.5% across 12 recorded years.
How much sea is protected?
Protected sea moved from 0.1% to 0.7% across 12 recorded years.
How much land is farmed?
Agricultural land moved from 21.1% to 21.1% across 29 recorded years.
How fast is it urbanising?
Urban population moved from 34.6% to 24.3% across 30 recorded years.
Is the air getting cleaner?
Air pollution moved from 10.5 µg/m³ to 8.42 µg/m³ across 28 recorded years.
Is water getting scarcer?
Fresh water per person moved from 763 m³ to 560 m³ across 27 recorded years.
Is diet-related disease rising?
Adult overweight moved from 42% to 62.7% across 27 recorded years.
Who has power?
Electricity access moved from 96.6% to 100% across 29 recorded years.
Is income rising?
GDP per person moved from 9,034 to 24,819 across 30 recorded years.
How fast is it growing?
Population moved from 68.2k to 94.2k across 30 recorded years.
How much land and sea is protected together?
Protected area, total moved from 0.1% to 0.8% across 12 recorded years.
How long do people live?
Life expectancy moved from 73.6 yrs to 77.8 yrs across 29 recorded years.
How much does a hectare of cereal produce?
Cereal yield moved from 1,607 kg/ha to 1,963 kg/ha across 29 recorded years.
How much fertiliser goes on the land?
Fertiliser use moved from 13 kg/ha to 13.2 kg/ha across 22 recorded years.
How many people still live rurally?
Rural population moved from 65.4% to 75.7% across 30 recorded years.
How much value per cubic metre of water?
Water productivity moved from 325 $/m3 to 366 $/m3 across 27 recorded years.
How much goes on health?
Health spending moved from 4.32% to 3.91% across 23 recorded years.
How much forest is there in total?
Forest area moved from 97.8 km2 to 77.9 km2 across 30 recorded years.
How have agriculture emissions moved?
Agriculture emissions moved from 0.04 to 0.02 MtCO2e across 33 recorded years.
Climate Watch (WRI), historical emissions
How have building emissions moved?
Building emissions moved from 0.06 to 0.11 MtCO2e across 33 recorded years.
Climate Watch (WRI), historical emissions
How have electricity/heat emissions moved?
Electricity/Heat emissions moved from 0.08 to 0.29 MtCO2e across 33 recorded years.
Climate Watch (WRI), historical emissions
How have energy emissions moved?
Energy emissions moved from 0.25 to 0.65 MtCO2e across 33 recorded years.
Climate Watch (WRI), historical emissions
How have transportation emissions moved?
Transportation emissions moved from 0.12 to 0.25 MtCO2e across 33 recorded years.
Climate Watch (WRI), historical emissions
How have waste emissions moved?
Waste emissions moved from 0.11 to 0.01 MtCO2e across 33 recorded years.
Climate Watch (WRI), historical emissions
Worst caseCurrent pathBest case
Worst case
Every measured decline continues at the pace already recorded. The weakest pillar, food and farming at 1/5, is the one that gives way first.
Computed from: recorded series extended with no policy change
What the best case actually asks for
Lift food and farming
It scores 1 out of 5 today, among the weakest parts of Antigua and Barbuda's record. Food was 27.67 per cent of merchandise imports in 2024, the highest of the four larger islands we compare, and rising from 24.53 per cent in 2021. Agriculture is 1.61 per cent of GDP.
measured each year
Costs: spending and enforcement, not new technology
Lift organic farming
It scores 1 out of 5 today, among the weakest parts of Antigua and Barbuda's record. Antigua has a heritage crop worth seeking out and almost no organic infrastructure behind it.
measured each year
Costs: spending and enforcement, not new technology
Lift energy
It scores 1 out of 5 today, among the weakest parts of Antigua and Barbuda's record. Antigua and Barbuda runs an almost entirely oil-fired grid, with renewables supplying only about 5.6 per cent of electricity generation in 2023.
measured each year
Costs: spending and enforcement, not new technology
Government and Goals in Antigua and Barbuda.
Who is in charge of Antigua and Barbuda now · Office-holders from the UN Protocol and Liaison Service public list of Heads of State and Heads of Government, 20 October 2026. Legislature and election dates from IFES ElectionGuide. Constitution dates from the Constitute Project. Governance scores from the World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators 2024.
Gaston Browne
Prime Minister
Gaston Browne is the head of government of Antigua and Barbuda, in office since 13 June 2014. Every climate, protection and energy pledge on this page is delivered, or not, under this administration.
Public opinion, measured
Voice and accountability, the freedom to question government scores 67.8 out of 100 in 2025. On this World Bank scale, 100 is the strongest governance measured. Down from 67.9 in 2024. World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2025 data (updated 25 September 2026)
Control of corruption scores 59.9 out of 100 in 2025. On this World Bank scale, 100 is the strongest governance measured. Up from 53.9 in 2024. World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2025 data (updated 25 September 2026)
Political stability and absence of violence scores 86.8 out of 100 in 2025. On this World Bank scale, 100 is the strongest governance measured. Up from 84.7 in 2024. World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2025 data (updated 25 September 2026)
Rule of law scores 68.0 out of 100 in 2025. On this World Bank scale, 100 is the strongest governance measured. Down from 68.7 in 2024. World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2025 data (updated 25 September 2026)
Regulatory quality scores 66.2 out of 100 in 2025. On this World Bank scale, 100 is the strongest governance measured. Down from 66.3 in 2024. World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2025 data (updated 25 September 2026)
Gaston BrownePrime Minister
ParliamentLegislature, bicameral
Last election30 April 2026
Constitution1981
Government typeparliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy; a Commonwealth realm
Antigua and Barbuda national goals: climate commitments on record · as recorded by Climate Watch, World Resources Institute
Plain Answers About Antigua and Barbuda.
The questions people actually type, answered in full sentences from the sourced data above.
Swipe
Is Antigua and Barbuda sustainable?
Antigua and Barbuda scores 58 out of 100 on the Throne Eco Index, across twelve equally weighted pillars. Antigua and Barbuda is two islands with two speeds. Antigua is the busy one, ringed by beaches and anchored by Nelson's Dockyard, but inland it is farms, bush medicine and small ital kitchens cooking what grows here. Barbuda, about ninety minutes north by ferry, is the opposite: under two thousand people, miles of empty pink sand, and one of the largest frigate bird colonies in the world.
Is the water in Antigua and Barbuda safe and plentiful?
Antigua is formally water scarce, not merely dry. FAO AQUASTAT puts renewable internal freshwater at about 560 cubic metres per person a year in 2022, below the 1,000 cubic metre mark used to define water scarcity and among the lowest in the Caribbean alongside Barbados on 283 and St Kitts and Nevis on 514. Its one large freshwater store keeps failing.
Can Antigua and Barbuda feed itself?
Food was 27.67 per cent of merchandise imports in 2024, the highest of the four larger islands we compare, and rising from 24.53 per cent in 2021. Agriculture is 1.61 per cent of GDP. Cabinet has been reviewing a proposal to cut selected food imports by 15 per cent under the CARICOM 25 by 2025 initiative.
Is it easy to eat plant-based in Antigua and Barbuda?
Antigua has one strong public produce market, the Public Market Complex on Valley Road in St John's, open through the week but biggest on Friday and Saturday, spilling into the surrounding streets with local mangoes, sugar apples, sorrel, eggplant, limes, bananas and the island's signature crop, the Antigua Black pineapple. The plant based tradition is genuine and culturally rooted. The Rastafari community follows a strict Ital vegan diet, and indigenous dishes such as ducana, a sweet potato and coconut dumpling wrapped in a banana leaf, are naturally plant based, alongside plantain, okra and provisions.
How much of Antigua and Barbuda is actually protected?
Redonda is one of the best island restoration stories anywhere, and it is properly documented. Miners left behind rats and goats that stripped the island bare. In 2017 Fauna and Flora and their partners eradicated the rats and moved the feral goats to Antigua.
What wildlife is left in Antigua and Barbuda?
The Antiguan racer was long called the world's rarest snake, a title Fauna & Flora now gives to the Saint Lucia racer, and its recovery is peer reviewed. Confined to Great Bird Island, a 24.5 acre islet off the north east coast, surveys in the mid 1990s found only around 50 individuals. After the Antiguan Racer Conservation Project began in 1995 and rats were eradicated, the population grew tenfold to around 500 across a habitat expanded to 63 hectares.
Is Antigua and Barbuda on clean energy?
Antigua and Barbuda runs an almost entirely oil-fired grid, with renewables supplying only about 5.6 per cent of electricity generation in 2023. Per-person emissions sit at roughly 6.9 tonnes of CO2, high for a small island economy and driven by imported diesel, tourism demand and air conditioning. The country has pledged ambitious renewable and transport-electrification targets under its updated national climate plan, and small solar installations are growing, but delivery on the ground remains limited.
How polluted is Antigua and Barbuda?
Antigua and Barbuda moved early on plastic. The External Trade (Shopping Plastic Bags Prohibition) Order prohibited the importation, distribution, sale and use of shopping bags, and did something unusual and sensible: rather than draft new legislation the government folded the ban into existing law after extensive consultation, and added tax incentives for importing reusable non plastic bags, with bagasse from sugarcane promoted as the preferred alternative. Plastic fell from 20 per cent of what reached the country's landfill in 2006 to 4 per cent in 2017, though a 2025 review by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute found most of that fall came before the ban and that no baseline monitoring was built into the policy.
Does recycling work in Antigua and Barbuda?
The front end is genuinely strong and the back end is unverified. Antigua and Barbuda folded a shopping bag prohibition into existing law rather than drafting new legislation, added tax incentives for importing reusable non plastic bags, and promoted bagasse from sugarcane as the alternative. Plastic fell from 20 per cent of what reached the country's landfill in 2006 to 4 per cent in 2017, though a 2025 review by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute found most of that fall came before the ban and that no monitoring system was built into the policy to measure its effect.
Is the farming in Antigua and Barbuda organic?
Antigua has a heritage crop worth seeking out and almost no organic infrastructure behind it. The Antigua Black pineapple is the national fruit, measured at 13.3 to 15.3 degrees Brix with low acidity, and grown mainly on the southwest coast around the Cades Bay Pineapple Station founded by the Ministry of Agriculture in the 1960s. Even at its peak only about 20 acres were in production.
Are there natural materials and craft in Antigua and Barbuda?
We are scoring this a two, and the number is the story. Antigua's material tradition is the coal pot, and it is down to one woman. Sea View Farm is where Antiguan pottery-making took root, on the strength of the village's own clay soil, and its potters still work that clay into coal pots, water jars and bowls.
Is there living culture in Antigua and Barbuda?
Antigua and Barbuda has done something no other Caribbean state had done. In 2023 the Medicinal Cannabis Authority granted Rastafari sacramental authorisation to cultivate and use cannabis for religious purposes, reported as the first in the Caribbean, with cultivation by authorised Rastafari groups exempt from licensing fees. Named recipients included the Nyabinghi Theocracy Church at Creekside, the Ras Freeman Foundation for the Unification of Rastafari at Liberta and the Wan Love Chant at Bendals Village.
What heritage does Antigua and Barbuda keep alive?
Antigua and Barbuda holds a strong living Afro-Caribbean heritage rooted in the experience of emancipation. Benna, a call-and-response folk song tradition that once carried news and pointed social commentary, sits alongside calypso, soca and the steelpan. Carnival, first held in 1957 to mark emancipation, remains the cultural centrepiece, with masquerade, costume bands and street dancing.
So is Antigua and Barbuda actually green? The measured answer
What is working: the record is thin on the headline measures, and the sourced numbers below say why.
What is not: sea protected at 0.7% against a 30% mark, renewable electricity at 5.7% against a 100% mark.
World Bank Open Data · Protected Planet (UNEP-WCMC / WDPA) · Climate Watch (WRI) · Yale Environmental Performance Index 2026 · CIA World Factbook, Antigua and Barbuda (archived December 2025) · World Bank, Population, total · World Bank, Terrestrial protected areas (% of land area) · World Bank, Renewable electricity output (% of total) · World Bank, CO2 emissions per capita · World Bank, Cause of death by non-communicable diseases
How Antigua and Barbuda Ranks, region and world.
Where Antigua and Barbuda sits on the Eco Index, against its Caribbean neighbours and the 77 destinations scored worldwide.
How does Antigua and Barbuda compare in Caribbean?
1Dominica72
2Belize70
4Jamaica67
5Grenada62
Scored Caribbean destinations, Eco Index.
The global top 10 of the 77 destinations scored
1Switzerland78
2France78
3Finland77
4Slovenia77
5Australia77
6Portugal75
7Germany75
8New Zealand75
9Italy73
10Spain73
Antigua and Barbuda sits 64 of 77 at 58/100. Every name links to its own destination page, built exactly like this one. The full ranking
What is Antigua and Barbuda particularly good at?
✓ Water, scored 5/5. Antigua is formally water scarce, not merely dry. FAO AQUASTAT puts renewable internal freshwater at about 560 cubic metres per person a year in 2022, below the 1,000 cubic metre mark used to define water scarcity and among the lowest in the Caribbean alongside Barbados on 283 and St Kitts and Nevis on 514.
✓ Wildlife, scored 5/5. The Antiguan racer was long called the world's rarest snake, a title Fauna & Flora now gives to the Saint Lucia racer, and its recovery is peer reviewed. Confined to Great Bird Island, a 24.5 acre islet off the north east coast, surveys in the mid 1990s found only around 50 individuals. After the Antiguan Racer Conservation Project began in 1995 and rats were eradicated, the population grew tenfold to around 500 across a habitat expanded to 63 hectares. It is still constrained: Great Bird Island alone cannot support more than about 100 snakes, and threats include inbreeding, hurricanes, invasive predators and deliberate killing by tourists.
✓ Plant-based eating, scored 4/5. Antigua has one strong public produce market, the Public Market Complex on Valley Road in St John's, open through the week but biggest on Friday and Saturday, spilling into the surrounding streets with local mangoes, sugar apples, sorrel, eggplant, limes, bananas and the island's signature crop, the Antigua Black pineapple.
Where does Antigua and Barbuda score worst?
✕ Food and farming, scored 1/5. Food was 27.67 per cent of merchandise imports in 2024, the highest of the four larger islands we compare, and rising from 24.53 per cent in 2021. Agriculture is 1.61 per cent of GDP. Cabinet has been reviewing a proposal to cut selected food imports by 15 per cent under the CARICOM 25 by 2025 initiative.
✕ Organic farming, scored 1/5. Antigua has a heritage crop worth seeking out and almost no organic infrastructure behind it. The Antigua Black pineapple is the national fruit, measured at 13.3 to 15.3 degrees Brix with low acidity, and grown mainly on the southwest coast around the Cades Bay Pineapple Station founded by the Ministry of Agriculture in the 1960s. Even at its peak only about 20 acres were in production.
✕ Energy, scored 1/5. Antigua and Barbuda runs an almost entirely oil-fired grid, with renewables supplying only about 5.6 per cent of electricity generation in 2023. Per-person emissions sit at roughly 6.9 tonnes of CO2, high for a small island economy and driven by imported diesel, tourism demand and air conditioning. The country has pledged ambitious renewable and transport-electrification targets under its updated national climate plan, and small solar installations are growing, but delivery on the ground remains limited. As a fossil-dependent grid with only modest renewable progress, it sits in the lower band.
A note from the lens of mother natureSwipe
Food and farming, 1/5
Food was 27.67 per cent of merchandise imports in 2024, the highest of the four larger islands we compare, and rising from 24.53 per cent in 2021. Agriculture is 1.61 per cent of GDP. Cabinet has been reviewing a proposal to cut selected food imports by 15 per cent under the CARICOM 25 by 2025 initiative.
Consequence: It is the lowest-scoring part of Antigua and Barbuda's record, so it is where the score moves first.
Organic farming, 1/5
Antigua has a heritage crop worth seeking out and almost no organic infrastructure behind it.
Energy, 1/5
Antigua and Barbuda runs an almost entirely oil-fired grid, with renewables supplying only about 5.6 per cent of electricity generation in 2023. Per-person emissions sit at roughly 6.9 tonnes of CO2, high for a small island economy and driven by imported diesel, tourism demand and air conditioning.
The Antigua and Barbuda Directory.
Everything on Hold The Throne that sits in Antigua and Barbuda, checked and listed.
How the rest of the world scores Antigua and Barbuda
Independent global indices, for calibration.
Forest cover
17.9
World Bank, 2024.
Protected land
16.5
World Bank, 2025.
Protected sea
0.7
World Bank, 2025.
Renewable grid
5.7
World Bank, 2021.
CO2 per person
3.8 tonnes (2024)
World Bank, 2024.
Threatened species
7
Recorded figure, sourced on this page.
Control of corruption
59.9 / 100
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2025. Score from 0 to 100, where 100 is the strongest governance.
Government effectiveness
61.4 / 100
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2025. Score from 0 to 100, where 100 is the strongest governance.
Rule of law
68.0 / 100
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2025. Score from 0 to 100, where 100 is the strongest governance.
Political stability
86.8 / 100
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2025. Score from 0 to 100, where 100 is the strongest governance.
Voice and accountability
67.8 / 100
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2025. Score from 0 to 100, where 100 is the strongest governance.
Environmental Performance Index
48.0 / 100 · 51 of 177
Yale Environmental Performance Index 2026, ranked 51 of 177 countries assessed.
Ecosystem vitality
43.4 / 100 · 88 of 177
Yale Environmental Performance Index 2026, ranked 88 of 177 countries assessed.
Biodiversity and habitat
48.0 / 100 · 75 of 177
Yale Environmental Performance Index 2026, ranked 75 of 177 countries assessed.
Air quality
68.5 / 100 · 28 of 177
Yale Environmental Performance Index 2026, ranked 28 of 177 countries assessed.
Terrestrial biomes protected
51.5 / 100 · 100 of 177
Yale Environmental Performance Index 2026, ranked 100 of 177 countries assessed.
Marine habitat protected
33.2 / 100 · 38 of 111
Yale Environmental Performance Index 2026, ranked 38 of 111 countries assessed.
How Antigua and Barbuda Is Scored. The Throne Standard.
Every destination on the index is scored the same way, so a 4 in Barbados means exactly what a 4 means in Iceland. No self-declared data and no brochure claims are accepted. Seven pillars are scored from published measurements with the same fixed thresholds everywhere: energy (low-carbon share of electricity, 90% or more scores 5, 70% 4, 50% 3, 25% 2), conservation (land and sea protected), water (safe drinking water, wastewater treated, water stress), organic farmland, recycling, food import dependence and air quality. Where a measurement is not published for a place, that pillar keeps its source-assessed score and is labelled as such. Wildlife, culture, heritage, materials and plant-based eating have no comparable measurement and are assessed from the named sources. The Eco Index is the average of the twelve pillar scores multiplied by 20. Every figure on this page carries its named source and year, and the history on each page names what empire took as plainly as it scores the present.
The 12 pillars every destination is scored on, equally weighted
01
Water
Safe drinking water, wastewater treated and water stress. Measured.
02
Food & farming
How much of the import bill is food: whether the place feeds itself. Measured.
03
Plant-based
How easy it is to eat plant-based, from documented sources.
04
Organic
Certified organic share of farmland. Measured.
05
Conservation
Land and sea legally protected, against the 30 by 30 goal. Measured.
06
Wildlife
What survives, what is endemic, what is lost, from documented sources.
07
Materials
Local natural fibres and craft, from documented sources.
08
Pollution
Air quality (PM2.5, measured) and plastics and waste policy.
09
Recycling
Share of municipal waste recycled. Measured.
10
Energy
Low-carbon share of electricity, nuclear included. Measured.
11
Culture
Living culture and community-led visits, from documented sources.
12
Heritage
What the law keeps standing, from documented sources.
What each 0 to 5 pillar score means, in plain words
0
Absent
nothing verifiable exists
1
Failing
measurably going the wrong way
2
Weak
claims outrun delivery
3
Fair
real effort, mixed results
4
Strong
genuinely good, evidence named
5
Leading
world class, and the trend holds
Where the numbers come from.
The institutions above are the ones cited on this page, ranked by how many of its figures they carry. This same sectioned page renders for all 77 scored destinations, each with its own researched history, comparison charts and three-way future. Read the full methodology
Every figure on this page, and where it came from: 109 sources across 58 institutions
World Bank17 FIGURES
- forest cover 18.0%, 2023
- PM2.5 air pollution mean annual exposure EN.ATM.PM25.MC.M3, 2023 check
- Forest area (% of land area) AG.LND.FRST.ZS, 2023 check
- Terrestrial protected areas (% of land) ER.LND.PTLD.ZS, 2025 check
- Marine protected areas (% of territorial waters) ER.MRN.PTMR.ZS, 2025 check
- Renewable electricity output (% of total) EG.ELC.RNEW.ZS, 2021 check
- CO2 emissions per capita EN.GHG.CO2.PC.CE.AR5, 2024 check
- GDP (current US$) NY.GDP.MKTP.CD, 2025 check
- International tourist arrivals ST.INT.ARVL, 2020 check
- Agricultural land (% of land area) AG.LND.AGRI.ZS, 2023 check
- Arable land (% of land area) AG.LND.ARBL.ZS, 2023 check
- Agriculture, value added (% of GDP) NV.AGR.TOTL.ZS, 2025 check
- Adult literacy rate SE.ADT.LITR.ZS, 2001 check
- Renewable internal freshwater per capita (m3) ER.H2O.INTR.PC, 2022 check
- Overweight prevalence, adults (%) SH.STA.OWAD.ZS, 2022 check
- Population total SP.POP.TOTL, 2025 check
- What a Waste 2.0 country-level dataset check
Other published sources16 FIGURES
- World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator TM.VAL.FOOD.ZS.UN (compiled from UN Comtrade, UN Statistics Division, via WITS), Food was 27.67 per cent of merchandise imports in 2024, the highest of the four larger islands we compare, and check
- World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator TM.VAL.FOOD.ZS.UN (compiled from UN Comtrade, UN Statistics Division, via WITS) corroboration check
- World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator TM.VAL.FOOD.ZS.UN (compiled from UN Comtrade, UN Statistics Division, via WITS) corroboration check
- GBIF species IUCN Red List category service (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species checklist) for Eretmochelys imbricata, hawksbill turtle, Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and recorded in Antigua and Barbuda in GBIF occurrence data (turtl check
- GBIF species IUCN Red List category service (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species checklist) for Eretmochelys imbricata, hawksbill turtle corroboration check
- GBIF species IUCN Red List category service (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species checklist) for Anolis nubilus, Redonda anole, Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and recorded in Antigua and Barbuda in GBIF occurrence data (repti check
- GBIF species IUCN Red List category service (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species checklist) for Anolis nubilus, Redonda anole corroboration check
- GBIF species IUCN Red List category service (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species checklist) for Anolis nubilus, Redonda anole corroboration check
- GBIF species IUCN Red List category service (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species checklist) for Anolis nubilus, Redonda anole corroboration check
- GBIF species IUCN Red List category service (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species checklist) for Acropora palmata, elkhorn coral, Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and recorded in Antigua and Barbuda in GBIF occurrence data (coral check
- GBIF species IUCN Red List category service (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species checklist) for Acropora palmata, elkhorn coral corroboration check
- GBIF species IUCN Red List category service (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species checklist) for Acropora palmata, elkhorn coral corroboration check
- GBIF species IUCN Red List category service (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species checklist) for Acropora palmata, elkhorn coral corroboration check
- GBIF species IUCN Red List category service (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species checklist) for Epinephelus striatus, Nassau grouper, Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and recorded in Antigua and Barbuda in GBIF occurrence data (speci check
- GBIF species IUCN Red List category service (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species checklist) for Epinephelus striatus, Nassau grouper corroboration check
- GBIF species IUCN Red List category service (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species checklist) for Epinephelus striatus, Nassau grouper corroboration check
Wyss Campaign for Nature5 FIGURES
- Redonda Ecosystem Reserve (Antigua and Barbuda) project page, Native trees and grasses returned, brown boobies and red billed tropicbirds recolonised, and the critically en check
- Redonda Ecosystem Reserve (Antigua and Barbuda) project page corroboration check
- Redonda Ecosystem Reserve (Antigua and Barbuda) project page corroboration check
- Redonda Ecosystem Reserve (Antigua and Barbuda) project page corroboration check
- Redonda Ecosystem Reserve (Antigua and Barbuda) project page corroboration check
UNESCO Institute for Statistics public data API4 FIGURES
- indicators XGDP.FSGOV, XGOVEXP.IMF and GER.2T3 for Antigua and Barbuda, Public spending on education runs at 3.1% of GDP and 5.9% of all government spending, and secondary enrolment check
- indicators XGDP.FSGOV, XGOVEXP.IMF and GER.2T3 for Antigua and Barbuda corroboration check
- indicators XGDP.FSGOV, XGOVEXP.IMF and GER.2T3 for Antigua and Barbuda corroboration check
- indicators XGDP.FSGOV, XGOVEXP.IMF and GER.2T3 for Antigua and Barbuda corroboration check
Antigua Observer3 FIGURES
Ramsar Information Sheet for Codrington Lagoon3 FIGURES
- compiled by the Fisheries Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Marine Resources and Agro Industries, Antigua and Barbuda, Codrington Lagoon National Park on Barbuda is the country's only Ramsar site, running the entire west coast, a check
- compiled by the Fisheries Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Marine Resources and Agro Industries, Antigua and Barbuda corroboration check
- compiled by the Fisheries Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Marine Resources and Agro Industries, Antigua and Barbuda corroboration check
UNEP-WCMC and IUCN World Database on Protected Areas3 FIGURES
- served as World Bank indicators ER.LND.PTLD.ZS and ER.MRN.PTMR.ZS, The World Database on Protected Areas records Antigua and Barbuda at 16.5 per cent terrestrial and 0.7 per cen check
- served as World Bank indicators ER.LND.PTLD.ZS and ER.MRN.PTMR.ZS corroboration check
- served as World Bank indicators ER.LND.PTLD.ZS and ER.MRN.PTMR.ZS corroboration check
Antigua and Barbuda Medicinal Cannabis Authority2 FIGURES
Antigua News Room2 FIGURES
BirdLife International, IUCN and UNEP-WCMC2 FIGURES
- UN SDG Global Database, terrestrial Key Biodiversity Areas covered by protected areas (%) ER_PTD_TERR, Antigua and Barbuda, 2025 (24.0%), country-reported check
- UN SDG Global Database, marine Key Biodiversity Areas covered by protected areas (%) ER_MRN_MPA, Antigua and Barbuda, 2025 (30.0%), country-reported check
FAO2 FIGURES
- FAOSTAT Crops and Livestock Products (QCL), Americas bulk release, Antigua and Barbuda, element Production, year 2024, By tonnage, the largest crops grown in Antigua and Barbuda are mangoes, guavas and mangosteens, lemons and lim check
- FAOSTAT Crops and Livestock Products (QCL), Americas bulk release, Antigua and Barbuda, element Production, year 2024 corroboration check
IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria2 FIGURES
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council2 FIGURES
20 per cent of landfill waste in 2006 to 4 per cent in 20171 FIGURE
- most of it pre-ban, no baseline monitoring check
31 FIGURE
- 455 to 3,265 cal BP, roughly 1500 to 1300 BC (Napolitano et al. 2019) check
Antigua and Barbuda Department of Environment1 FIGURE
- national environmental authority check
Antigua News1 FIGURE
- APUA begins work at Barnacle Point check
Atlas Obscura1 FIGURE
- the Antigua Black pineapple as national fruit check
Caribbean Beat1 FIGURE
- Potted history check
Caribbean Birding Trail1 FIGURE
- Codrington Lagoon check
CARICOM1 FIGURE
- 25 by 2025 reduction in the regional food bill check
Climate Watch (WRI)1 FIGURE
- Net-Zero Tracker check
Constitute Project1 FIGURE
- Antigua and Barbuda 1981 check
Convention on Biological Diversity1 FIGURE
- Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Target 3, The 30x30 target is 30% by 2030, so 29.3 percentage points are still to be designated. check
Covington Travel1 FIGURE
- Antigua and Barbuda Carnival history, 2025. check
Daltry et al.1 FIGURE
- Five years of conserving the world's rarest snake, Oryx check
Environmental Awareness Group1 FIGURE
- Redonda Ecosystem Reserve check
Euronews1 FIGURE
- Antigua and Barbuda legalise marijuana for Rastafari sacramental use check
Exceptional Villas1 FIGURE
- Antigua food and the Rastafari Ital diet check
FAO AQUASTAT figure of about 560 cubic metres per person1 FIGURE
- 2022; UN SDG 6.4.2 water stress for the country is 8.5 per cent check
FAO, Global Forest Resources Assessment1 FIGURE
- UN SDG Global Database, forest area (% of land area) AG_LND_FRST, Antigua and Barbuda, 2025 (17.7%), country-reported check
Fauna and Flora International1 FIGURE
- Antiguan racer species profile. check
FEE Blue Flag programme1 FIGURE
- Antigua and Barbuda is not a participating country, 2025
Global Plastics Policy Centre1 FIGURE
- University of Portsmouth, review of the Antigua and Barbuda shopping plastic bags prohibition order check
Government of Antigua and Barbuda1 FIGURE
- The External Trade (Prohibition of Plastic Bags) Order 2016 No.16 check
GROW Antigua and Barbuda1 FIGURE
- Our Story check
IFES ElectionGuide1 FIGURE
- Antigua and Barbuda elections and chambers check
Jumby Bay Hawksbill Project1 FIGURE
- natural phenomena
Lonely Planet1 FIGURE
- market days
Mongabay1 FIGURE
- from rat ridden to reserve, Redonda is an island restoration role model check
National Parks Authority1 FIGURE
- Antigua and Barbuda, national protected-area and wildlife authority check
Our World in Data (Ember and Energy Institute)1 FIGURE
- Share of electricity from renewables, 2023. check
Our World in Data (Global Carbon Project)1 FIGURE
- CO2 emissions per capita, 2023. check
Public Market Complex1 FIGURE
- St John's, AntiguaSearch check
Roughly 11 FIGURE
- 200 in 2016, about 400 in the 2023 field survey check
Statistics Division1 FIGURE
- Antigua and Barbuda, national statistical authority check
The External Trade (Import Prohibition) Order1 FIGURE
- 2016, Statutory Instrument 2016 No. 16, Antigua and Barbuda, published in the Official Gazette Vol. XXXVI No. 34 dated 9 June 2016 corroboration check
Travel Food Atlas1 FIGURE
- local staples
UN Protocol and Liaison Service1 FIGURE
- Heads of State, Heads of Government and Ministers for Foreign Affairs, public list dated 20 October 2026 check
UN Statistics Division, Energy Balances1 FIGURE
- UN SDG Global Database, renewable share of total final energy consumption (%) EG_FEC_RNEW, Antigua and Barbuda, 2024 (1.5%), modelled estimate check
UNEP1 FIGURE
- Blue awakening as Latin America and Caribbean states say no to plastic check
UNESCO1 FIGURE
- UN World Water Development Report 2023, Caribbean water stress check
Vulnerable (IUCN1 FIGURE
- assessed 29 July 2020), 600 to 1,700 mature individuals, decreasing check
WHO/UNICEF JMP1 FIGURE
- World Bank, drinking water 98.9% (at least basic), 2024
World Bank EG.ELC.RNEW.ZS1 FIGURE
- renewable electricity 5.7%, 2021
World Bank Open Data1 FIGURE
- trade, agriculture and protected area indicators check