50 Fun Facts About Dominica

By what nickname is Dominica known for its lush, largely rainforested landscape?

It is the youngest and most mountainous island in the Lesser Antilles and still volcanically active.

What is the capital of Dominica?

The French named it after the reeds, roseaux, that grew along the riverbanks; it lies on the sheltered western coast.

Columbus named the island Dominica because he first sighted it on what?

The name abbreviates the Latin dies Dominica, 'day of the Lord'; the sighting came in November 1493 on his second voyage.

Dominica's two nearest neighbours are overseas departments of which country?

Guadeloupe lies to the northwest and Martinique to the south-southeast, both part of the European Union.

Dominica became an independent republic in which year?

Independence day is 3 November, the anniversary of Columbus's sighting; Patrick John was the first prime minister.

The world's second-largest hot spring, in the island's volcanic interior, is called what?

It is 60 to 75 metres across and only Frying Pan Lake in New Zealand is bigger.

The only hot lake in the world larger than Dominica's is in which country?

Frying Pan Lake sits in the Waimangu Valley near Rotorua; the water at the edges of Boiling Lake measures 82-92 °C.

Which critically endangered bird, found only on Dominica, appears on the national flag?

Also called the imperial amazon, only about 50 mature birds were thought to survive in the wild in 2019.

The parrot on Dominica's flag makes it one of very few national flags to feature which colour?

The bird's chest really is dark purple; the ten green stars around it stand for the ten parishes.

The ten green stars on Dominica's flag represent what?

The parishes are all named after saints, from St Andrew to St Peter; the red disc stands for justice.

The indigenous Kalinago people called the island Wai'tu kubuli, meaning what?

Some islanders want to adopt Waitukubuli as the country's name to stop confusion, and misdirected mail, with the Dominican Republic.

In which year did the British Crown grant Dominica's Kalinago Territory?

The 3,700-acre district on the east coast was formerly called the Carib Reserve; its centre is the hamlet of Salybia.

Dominica's highest peak, Morne Diablotins, rises to roughly what height?

It is the tallest of a chain of volcanic cones that includes Morne aux Diables and Morne Trois Pitons.

Dominica claims to have how many rivers, one for each day of the year?

The abundance of water feeds hydroelectric plants and countless waterfalls, including the twin Trafalgar Falls.

Which cetacean lives in Dominica's waters year-round, making the island a prime spot for watching them?

Humpbacks, orcas and several dolphin species pass through, but the deep-diving residents are the main draw.

Who became the Caribbean's first female prime minister when she took office in Dominica in 1980?

The 'Iron Lady of the Caribbean' was also the island's first woman lawyer and urged the US to intervene in Grenada in 1983.

Dominica's 'Iron Lady' is best remembered for urging the US to intervene where in 1983?

She stood beside Ronald Reagan as the invasion was announced.

Who became Prime Minister of Dominica in 2004 after the death of Pierre Charles?

He took over on the death of Pierre Charles in January 2004 and went on to become the island's longest-serving prime minister.

Which Category 5 hurricane made a direct landfall on Dominica on 18 September 2017?

It destroyed housing and infrastructure beyond repair and stripped the island of its vegetation.

Which 1979 hurricane killed 56 people on Dominica and dominated the island's first year of independence?

It struck as a Category 4 storm and helped end Interim Prime Minister Oliver Seraphin's brief premiership.

Much of which 2006 Disney film was shot on Dominica, standing in for the fictional island of Pelegosto?

Some scenes for the third film, At World's End, were also filmed there.

Which Dominica-born novelist wrote Wide Sargasso Sea?

Born Ella Gwendoline Rees Williams in 1890, she depicts the island obliquely in the 1966 novel.

Wide Sargasso Sea was written as a prequel to which classic novel?

It gives a life story to Bertha, the 'madwoman in the attic', and revived Jean Rhys's career.

The 'mountain chicken', a delicacy known on Dominica as the crapaud, is actually what?

The critically endangered Leptodactylus fallax survives only on Dominica and Montserrat and has been ravaged by chytrid fungus.

The musical genre cadence-lypso was created in 1973 by Gordon Henderson and which Dominican band?

It spread through the Creole world and the French Antilles and paved the way for modern Creole music.

Dominican Creole, spoken alongside the island's official language, is based on which tongue?

The World Creole Music Festival has celebrated the culture since 1997.

The Waitukubuli National Trail holds what distinction?

It runs 115 miles from Scott's Head in the south to Cabrits National Park in the north.

Morne Trois Pitons, established in 1975, was Dominica's first what?

It contains the Valley of Desolation, Titou Gorge and Emerald Pool and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Which currency does Dominica use?

It shares the currency with its partners in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.

Dominica was ceded to Great Britain in 1763 under an agreement signed in which city?

The French invaded again in 1795 and 1805 but the British held on and made English the official language.

In 1838 Dominica became the first British West Indian colony to have what?

The so-called Mulatto Ascendancy followed the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.

Between 1958 and 1962 Dominica was a province of which short-lived political union?

After it dissolved, the island became an associated state of the UK in 1967 with control of its internal affairs.

Dominica's population at the 2011 census was roughly how many?

The capital alone accounts for under 15,000 of them.

Dominica offers what to investors in exchange for waiving the seven-year residence requirement?

The economic citizenship programme is a major source of government revenue.

Dominica belongs to which chain within the Lesser Antilles?

It won the Windward Islands football tournament in 1971 with wins over St Vincent and Grenada.

Which people had the Kalinago displaced from Dominica by the 15th century?

The Kalinago, long called Caribs, resisted European settlement so fiercely that France and England agreed in 1660 to leave the island to them.

Raymond Breton, the first regular European visitor to Dominica between 1642 and 1650, was what?

Raymond Breton compiled early records of the Kalinago language.

Dominica's land area is roughly how large?

It is a little larger than Singapore, but far more rugged.

During WWII, thousands of Free French refugees fled to Dominica from which Vichy-controlled islands?

They stayed in Roseau and villages around the island.

Dominica's Kalinago Territory covers roughly what area?

Its residents remained largely isolated from the rest of the island for most of the 20th century.

The imperial amazon parrot measures on average about how long?

Males weigh about 900 grams, making it large for its genus, with a dark purple chest and green back.

How hot were the edges of Dominica's famous hot lake when first recorded in 1870?

Two Englishmen, Edmund Watt and Henry Nicholls, could not measure the actively boiling centre.

The head of state of Dominica is a what?

The island has been a republic within the Commonwealth since independence; Charles Savarin became its eighth president in 2013.

Thea LaFond won Dominica's first Olympic medal, a gold at Paris 2024, in which event?

She had already become the country's first Commonwealth Games medallist in 2018; Jérôme Romain's 12th place in 1996 was the previous Olympic best.

Dominica's classic breakfast pairs saltfish with which fried-dough staple?

Street vendors sell the combination all day as a fast snack alongside fried chicken, fish and fruit smoothies.

Which country donated EC$33 million to build Dominica's 8,000-seat Windsor cricket stadium?

The same donor helped rebuild the island's main coastal highways between the early 2010s and 2015, alongside the European Union.

Which musical genre native to Dominica is built around the accordion?

The island's music blends Haitian, Afro-Cuban, African and European traditions, and is celebrated at the World Creole Music Festival held since 1997.

In which sport did Dominica's only Winter Olympians, a married couple, compete at Sochi in 2014?

Gary and Angela di Silvestri spent US$175,000 registering as citizens; she never started her race and he pulled out after a few hundred metres.

Which airport on Dominica's northeast coast was the island's main airport in 2025?

It took direct flights from Miami and Newark; a new Dominica International Airport at Wesley was under construction in 2025.

Which activist and writer, a friend of Jean Rhys, set her 1954 novel The Orchid House in Dominica?

Rhys herself depicted the island only obliquely, in Wide Sargasso Sea.