A Few Facts About St. Eustatius:
* St. Eustatius has a population of 2900.
* St. Eustatius is located in the north eastern Caribbean, 150 miles east of Puerto Rico (latitude 17.00, longitude 63.04), 90 miles east of St. Croix, 38 miles south of St. Maarten and 17 miles southeast of Saba.
* St. Eustatius is pronounced “SINT U-STAY-SHUS”. Statia is pronounced “STAY-SHA”
* St. Eustatius is an island of 11.8 square miles.
* St. Eustatius is a Municipality of the Netherlands Antilles. Day to day local affairs are managed by an elected Island Council, presided over by a Lieutenant-Governor.
* Statia remains part of the Netherlands Antilles. The Dutch government assumes responsibility for Statia’s foreign affairs, but the island has its own lieutenant-governor and internal autonomy. The Netherlands Antilles form two autonomous parts of the Netherlands. The main part consists of all the islands except Aruba which withdrew from the Netherlands Antilles to become an autonomous member of the Netherlands in 1986. The Netherlands Antilles seat of government is in Willemstadt, Curaçao.
* The Dutch Caribbean, consists of six islands : Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, St. Eustatius, Saba and Sint Maarten. Aruba maintains a separate identity, while the other islands are the Netherlands Antilles.
* English is spoken everywhere on Statia but Dutch is the official language. The government is the major employer.