Claim: Barbados is in the Caribbean.

Barbados -LRB- -LSB- bɑrˈbeɪdɒs -RSB- or -LSB- bɑrˈbeɪdoʊs -RSB- -RRB- is a sovereign island country in the Lesser Antilles , in the Caribbean region of North America . It is 34 km in length and up to 23 km in width , covering an area of abbr = on 432 . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and abbr = on 100 east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea ; therein , it is about abbr = on 168 east of the islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and abbr = on 400 north-east of Trinidad and Tobago . Barbados is outside of the principal Atlantic hurricane belt .   Inhabited by Kalinago people since the 13th century , and prior to that by other Amerindians , Barbados was visited by Spanish navigators in the late 15th century and claimed for the Spanish Crown . It first appeared in a Spanish map in 1511 . The Portuguese visited the island in 1536 , but they left it unclaimed , with their only remnants being an introduction of wild hogs for a good supply of meat whenever the island was visited . An English ship , the Olive Blossom , arrived in Barbados in 1625 ; its men took possession of it in the name of King James I . In 1627 , the first permanent settlers arrived from England , and it became an English and later British colony .   In 1966 , Barbados became an independent state and Commonwealth realm with the British Monarch -LRB- presently Queen Elizabeth II -RRB- as hereditary head of state . It has a population of 280,121 people , predominantly of African descent . Despite being classified as an Atlantic island , Barbados is considered to be a part of the Caribbean , where it is ranked as a leading tourist destination . Forty percent of the tourists come from the UK , with the US and Canada making up the next large groups of visitors to the island . In 2014 , Transparency International 's Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Barbados joint second in the Americas -LRB- after Canada , equal with the United States -RRB- and joint 17th globally -LRB- after Belgium and Japan , equal with the US , Hong Kong and Ireland -RRB- .