About 80 percent of the total population lives on Tortola. The official language is English. Tourism is the economic mainstay. Cottage industries produce handmade items. Manufactured goods are rum, paint, and building materials.
Fishing is a growing export industry.
Agriculture focuses on livestock, though some tropical fruits and vegetables are exported. A colony of the United Kingdom with a representative government, the islands are administered under a constitution dating from 1977. The governor is appointed by the British monarch. Arawak and Carib peoples inhabited the area before Christopher Columbus landed there in 1493, and Spain sent an invasion force to claim the islands in 1555. The islands were an early haunt of pirates.