The islands of the BVI form almost an oval around Tortola, the largest island. Throughout our history, until the 1960’s, the BVI had been virtually subsistent in food production and produced enough for export to neighbouring United States of America Virgin Islands. This oval-shaped formation of the islands has turned out to be one of the best pleasure boating areas in the world. On land, the BVI is endowed with fine mountain ranges, small valleys and little flat fertile agriculture land. The geography of the BVI has been responsible for the natural assets used in the production of tourist services. For further information on the geography of the British Virgin Islands we have included an article by Dr. Quincy F. Lettsome of the Department of Education.

Over the past decade, the BVI economy has been characterized by growing output, full employment, strong public sector financial performance, heavy public sector infrastructural investment, growing private sector gross fixed capital formation and low inflation. The economy, in terms of balance of payments, has been characterized by imports of goods and professional and technical services as well as the export of tourists and financial services. The merchandise account shows large deficits, which are outweighed by larger surpluses on the services account. Today the economy has one of the highest per capital GDP, in the region, is the preferred corporate domicile for international business companies in the Caribbean and a primer upscale tourist destination in the Caribbean as well.

To provide our readers with further information on the British Virgin Islands, we have placed "The Socio-Economic Context" by Michael O’Neal and Bill Maurer, Review: Social/Cultural Sector by Ermin Burnett and The British Virgin Islands- Macro Economy by Ian Smith.

The BVI are located in the backyard of North America and are washed by the Atlantic Ocean from Europe.  The overwhelming share of international trade is with the USA and Europe.  We use the USA dollar as the official tender and the largest share of import come from or through the USA markets.   Our banking, insurance and credit cards systems, in short our financial systems, are well integrated in the USA financial system with two major banks being of that country.  With full employment and the consequent import of labour, the economic, financial and geographic closeness to the USA together with openness of our economy contribute to our relatively high cost of living.  The Cost of Living of the BVI is measured by Household Income and Expenditure Survey 1996 and the rate of change is measured by the monthly, quarterly and annual Consumer Price Index.

Being an export service oriented economy catering for the world’s most sophisticated markets, human resources are the most critical component of our output.  People are at the centre of our development and our changing population over the last decades is evidence of this phenomena.  During the period 1980-1991 the population of BVI almost doubled as expanding economic activity drew persons from virtually every country in our neighbouring countries and the Caribbean region, bringing a significant number of challenges to the Governance of our country placing pressure on social services such as health, education and personal security.   Simultaneously, the indigenous population expanded naturally bringing more challenges to social services.  However, it is this combination of immigrants and BVIslanders, the people, who are responsible for the economic growth and development we see today.  The people in the BVI have been largely responsible for the successful economy and pleasant social setting in which we live.

For further information on the population and demographics of the British Virgin Islands, please see British Virgin Islands 1991 Population and Housing Census by the Development Planning Unit, the National Population Report for the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), 1994 and The Population Situation of the British Virgin Islands by the Development Planning Unit.

The successful BVI we see today was created with the use of the environment as a main component.  The marine and land environments have been equally responsible for the expansion in tourist services, physical infrastructure developments and housing.  The clear and pristine natural environment we enjoy today has been maintained as a result of deliberate policies and strategies of protection.  The BVI were one the first countries in the region to establish a department of Government directly responsible for the management of the environment.   In addition, the National Parks Trust was established to manage our system of land and marine national parks.  Even with the heavy flow of incomes from financial services today, the environment makes tourism the most dynamic sector in the economy.   Our environment is fragile, very productive and contributes substantially to the present standard of living.  Obviously, there has been a level of degradation and our aim is to halt and reverse this trend.