Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
About 13% of the population is white, many of them US mainlanders who've come to
escape the politics and busyness of American life, or to retire in the sun.
BVI Life
In the BVI, West Indian and American influences are more overt than anything British,
though you will sense the UK's hand in the formal institutions of government, education,
religion and the law. But go to the grocery store and you're more likely to find Oreo cookies
than McVitie's biscuits, and Carib beer than Newcastle Ale. And you'll pay for them in US
dollars, the local currency since 1959.
Compared to their US cousins, the British Virgin Islands are better off financially, rank-
ing 24th in the world for per capita GDP at $38,500. In general, most people live quite
comfortably. Unemployment and crime rates are both low here, as well.
The population is a mix of professional people working in financial services (ie lots of
accountants, trust lawyers and investment brokers), folks working the tourist trade and ad-
venturers whose biochemistry is intricately tied to the seas. Many are UK and US expats,
especially in the financial services industry, where foreign workers fill around 80% of jobs.
ISLANDS
PROVERBS &
WITTICISMS
Buddy, me a walkin' behin'
Discretion is the better part of valor
Speak up, or, used ironically, You talk too
much
Yo' mout' is a one-room house
If yo' put yo' ear a mango root, yo'
will hear de crab cough
Patience is a virtue
Bettah fo' sure dan for sorry
Haste makes waste
Man got two wife; him sleep hungry
You can get too much of a good thing
Yo' a run from de jumbie a' meet de
coffin
Out of the frying pan, into the fire
