Travel to Gibraltar — Unbiased reviews and great deals
from TripAdvisorGibraltar
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Status: Overseas territory
Governor: Francis Richards (2003)
Chief Minister: Peter Caruana
(1996)
Total area: 2 sq mi (6 sq km)
Population (2008 est.): 28,002 (growth
rate: 0.1%); birth rate: 10.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 4.9/1000;
life expectancy: 80.0; density per sq mi: 4,667
Monetary unit: Gibraltar pound
Literacy rate: above 80% (2003
est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2000
est.): $769 million; per capita $27,900. Real growth rate:
n.a. Inflation: 1.5% (1998). Unemployment: 2%
(2001 est.). Arable land: 0%. Agriculture: none.
Labor force: 14,800 (including non-Gibraltar laborers);
services 60%, industry 40%, agriculture negl. Industries:
tourism, banking and finance, ship repairing, tobacco.
Natural resources: negl. Exports: $271 million f.o.b.
(2004 est.): (principally reexports) petroleum 51%, manufactured
goods 41%, other 8%. Imports: $2.967 billion c.i.f. (2004
est.): fuels, manufactured goods, and foodstuffs. Major trading
partners: France, Spain, Turkmenistan, Switzerland, Germany, UK,
Greece, Russia, Italy, U.S., Sweden (2004).
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 19,000 (1997); mobile cellular: 1,620 (1997). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 0 (1998). Radios:
37,000 (1997). Television broadcast stations: 1 (plus
three low-power repeaters) (1997). Televisions: 10,000
(1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 2 (2000).
Internet users: n.a.
Transportation: Railways: total: n.a.
km. Highways: total: 29 km; paved: 29 km; unpaved: 0 km
(2002). Ports and harbors: Gibraltar. Airports: 1
(2002).
International disputes:Gibraltar
residents vote overwhelmingly in referendum against “total
shared sovereignty” arrangement worked out between Spain and
UK to change 300-year rule over colony.
Major sources and definitions
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Gibraltar, at the south end of the Iberian
Peninsula, is a rocky promontory commanding the western entrance to the
Mediterranean. Aside from its strategic importance, it is also a free
port, naval base, and coaling station. It was captured by the Moorish
leader Tarik, crossing from Africa into Spain in 711, and its name is
derived from the Arabic, Jabal-al-Tarik (Mount of Tarik). In the
15th century, it passed to the Moorish ruler of Granada and later became
Spanish. It was captured by an Anglo-Dutch force in 1704 during the War of
the Spanish Succession and passed to Great Britain by the Treaty of
Utrecht in 1713. Since then Spain has continually laid claim to it. Most
of the inhabitants of Gibraltar are of Spanish, Italian, and Maltese
descent, and in 1981 Gibraltarians were granted full British citizenship.
Spanish efforts to recover Gibraltar culminated in a referendum in 1967,
in which the residents voted overwhelmingly to retain their link with
Britain. In response, Spain sealed Gibraltar's land border between 1969
and 1985. In 2002, Britain and Spain discussed sharing the sovereignty of
Gibraltar. In reaction, the government of Gibraltar held a referendum in
Nov. 2002 in which the population voted almost unanimously against shared
sovereignty.
See also Encyclopedia: Gibraltar.
Statistics
Office
http://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/about_gib/statistics/statistics_index.htm
Fact Monster/Information Please®
Database, © 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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