page_title: Geography of Barbados
section_title: Location
hierarchical_section_title: Geography of Barbados / Statistics / Location
caption_attribution_description: English: Coral reefs around Barbados.
context_page_description: Barbados is a continental island in the North Atlantic Ocean and is located at 13°10' north of the equator, and 59°32' west of the Prime Meridian. As the easternmost isle of the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies, Barbados lies 160 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and Caribbean Sea. The maritime claim for Barbados is a territorial sea of 12 nmi, with an exclusive economic zone of 200 nmi which gives Barbados a total maritime area of 186,898 km². Of the total EEZ area 70,000 km², is set aside for offshore oil exploration. A pending application to UNCLOS has placed for consideration a continental shelf 200 nmi to the east and south. To the west, most of Barbados' maritime boundaries consist of median lines with neighbours. These neighbours include: Martinique, and Saint Lucia to the northwest, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the west, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela to the southwest, and Guyana to the southeast.
  Barbados' total land area is 430 km², and it has a coastline of 97 km length. Sometimes compared to a pear or leg of mutton for its physical shape.
context_section_description: Barbados is Caribbean: an island between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Venezuela
  Map references
  Central America and the Caribbean
caption: Barbados's offshore coral reefs.
exif: {}