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Location and GeographyThe Cayman Islands comprises Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. The three islands are situated in the western Caribbean, about 150 miles south of Cuba, 480 miles south of Miami, Florida, and 180 miles northwest of Jamaica. George Town, the capital, is on the western shore of Grand Cayman. Geographically, the Cayman Islands is part of the Cayman Ridge, which extends westward from Cuba. The Cayman Trench, the deepest part of the Caribbean at a depth of over four miles, separates the three small islands from Jamaica. Grand Cayman, the largest of the three islands, is approximately 22 miles long with an average width of four miles. Of its total area of about 78 square miles, almost half is wetland. The most striking feature is the shallow, reef-protected lagoon, the North Sound, which has an area of about 35 square miles. The island is low-lying, with the highest point only about 60 feet above sea level. Cayman Brac lies about 89 miles northeast of Grand Cayman. It is about 12 miles long, with an average width of 1 1/4 miles. Its terrain is the most spectacular of the three islands. The Bluff, a massive central limestone outcrop, rises steadily along the length of the island up to 140 ft. above the sea at the eastern end. Little Cayman lies five miles west of Cayman Brac and is approximately ten miles long with an average width of just over a mile. The island is low-lying, with a few areas on the north shore rising to 40 ft. above sea level. Together, the islands have a land area of about 100 square miles. There are no rivers on any of the islands, but there are large areas of luxuriant vegetation. The coasts are largely protected by offshore reefs and in many places by a mangrove fringe that often extends into inland swamps that play a key role in the islands' ecology. Almost 2,000 acres of dry forests and mangrove wetland are protected by the National Trust for the Cayman Islands. An internationally acclaimed system of marine parks is managed by the Department of Environment.
ClimateThe temperature, summer or winter, seldom goes lower than 70 deg. F. or higher than 90 deg. F. The average is 78 deg. F. in the winter and about 84 deg. F in the summer. The average annual humidity in 2000 was 77 percent. Rainfall varies over the Islands and seasonally, but in George Town, the capital on Grand Cayman, the average monthly figure for 2000 was 4.7 inches. Between May and October the prevailing winds are from east to south; from November to April, the coolest season of the year, prevailing winds are from the northeast to northwest. The hurricane season typically lasts from June to November.
Flora and FaunaOver the last two million years, parts of the Cayman Islands remained continually above water despite dramatic fluctuations in the global sea level. During that time, the islands were gradually colonised by animals and plants from the neighbouring Greater Antilles, particularly Cuba and Jamaica, and also from Central America and the eastern Caribbean. As time passed, many of these evolved into species and subspecies unique to the Cayman Islands. At one time the forests of Cayman abounded in tall mahogany and logwood, but today the trees are of much smaller varieties. Coconut and thatch palm, seagrape, almond and casuarina (Australian pine) are abundant; breadfruit, papaya, avocado, citrus, mango and naseberry are the predominant fruit trees. Several commercial crop and livestock farms are in operation, and backyard gardens yield a wide variety of produce, including citrus, bananas, plantains, mangoes, yams, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, cassava, watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, green and hot peppers, tomatoes, leafy vegetables, coconuts, and honey. Tropical marine life of all kinds are found in the Caribbean waters surrounding the Islands, especially in Cayman's coral reefs, known worldwide by scuba divers who claim the Islands offers some of the best scuba diving in the world. The green turtle, for which the Islands were once named Las Tortugas, is still found and fished (in season, by licence and for local consumption only) in the seas surrounding the Islands. The Cayman Turtle Farm breeds the turtle and markets turtle meat locally. Hundreds of turtles are released into the wild each year as part of the farm's conservation role. On shore there are few indigenous animals. The agouti (a large rodent), bats, non-poisonous snakes, iguana, other small lizards, freshwater turtle (the hickatee), land crabs and two species of tree frogs are the most common. Grand Cayman's rare and endangered Blue Iguana can be viewed at the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park. More than 180 species of birds have been identified in Cayman. Among the most predominant are the Antillean Grackle, the smooth-billed Ani, and many species of heron, including the Green-backed Heron, the Yellow-crowned Night Heron, and the Snowy Egret. The common Ground Dove, the Bananaquit and the Cayman Parrot, Cayman's national bird, also abound.
PopulationThe population of the Islands at the last census, taken in 1999, was 39,410, of whom 53 percent were Caymanian. 2000's estimated population was 40,900. At the 1999 census, 19 per cent of the population were under 15 years of age, and about six percent were over 65. The non-institutionalised resident total was divided between Grand Cayman (23,881), Cayman Brac (1,822) and Little Cayman (115). Figures for the main settlements on Grand Cayman were: George Town, 20,626; West Bay, 8,243; Bodden Town, 5,764; East End, 1,371; and North Side, 1,079. Cayman Brac's main settlements are West End, Stake Bay, Watering Place and Spot Bay. Of the 14,908 households in the Islands in 1999, 45 percent were owner-occupied. These households include the apartment and condominium sector, catering to a large percentage of visitors as well as non-Caymanians residing and working here in the short- to medium-term. In 1999 about 58 percent of the total work force were non-Caymanians having been admitted under the work permit system, which controls the inflow of foreign skills and labor needed. In 1999 the majority of work permits were granted to workers from West Indian and Central American countries, followed by the United States and Canada, and the United Kingdom and Ireland. The main language is English. Spanish is frequently spoken as a second language.
The EconomyThe main industries are financial services, tourism, and real estate sales and development. Service industries, such as construction, jewelry manufacture, hotel and restaurant operations, retail trades, and scuba diving and boat rentals are ancillary to the main industries. The Cayman Islands Government has never depended on the British Government for its recurrent budget, and all aid for capital projects has ceased for over 18 years.
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