50 free Barbados trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Barbados is a small coral island with an outsized story. It is where grapefruit was born, where the world's oldest rum distillery still operates, where George Washington made his only trip abroad, and where the greatest all-rounder in cricket history learned the game. It became independent in 1966 and dropped the monarchy for a republic in 2021, naming Rihanna a National Hero on the same night. This quiz covers the whole island: geography (why is it flatter than its neighbours?), history (the sugar revolution, the 1661 slave code, Bussa's rebellion, independence), symbols (the broken trident on the flag, the pegged dollar), culture and food (Crop Over, cou-cou and flying fish, Bajan Creole, the Landship) and sport (Sobers, Worrell, Marshall, Kensington Oval). Questions start easy and get hard. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and other reference pages before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Barbados?
Bridgetown
A third of the country's population lives there, in the parish of Saint Michael.
Q 02Within the Caribbean region, Barbados holds which geographic distinction?
It is the easternmost island
It sits out in the Atlantic, about 168 km east of Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent.
Q 03Barbados became a republic, replacing the Queen with a ceremonial president, on 30 November of which year?
2021
The date was chosen as the 55th anniversary of independence; Prince Charles attended the ceremony.
Q 04Which Barbadian singer was declared a National Hero on the night the island became a republic in 2021?
Rihanna
She was born in Saint Michael in 1988 and had already been made an official ambassador of Barbados in 2018.
Q 05Barbados gained independence from Britain on 30 November of which year?
1966
It was the fourth English-speaking West Indian country to do so, after Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana.
Q 06Who was Barbados's first prime minister, known as the "Father of Independence"?
Errol Barrow
His birthday, 21 January, is a public holiday, and he was named a National Hero in 1998.
Q 07Who became Barbados's first female prime minister in 2018?
Mia Mottley
Her party won all 30 seats in the House of Assembly in 2018, 2022 and again in 2026.
Q 08Who served as the first president of Barbados, from 2021 to 2025?
Sandra Mason
She had been the island's last governor-general and was jointly nominated by the prime minister and the opposition leader.
Q 09The trident on the flag of Barbados is deliberately shown broken to symbolise what?
The break from colonial rule
The whole trident was held by Britannia on the colonial coat of arms; the flag was raised at midnight on independence day.
Q 10What do the two ultramarine bands on the flag of Barbados represent?
The sea and the sky
The gold band in the middle stands for the sand of the beaches.
Q 11Since 1975 the Barbadian dollar has been fixed to the US dollar at roughly what rate?
2 to 1
Officially US$1 = BBD$1.98, though shops simply use two-for-one.
Q 12What is the national dish of Barbados?
Cou-cou and flying fish
Cou-cou is cornmeal and okra cooked to a soft polenta; pudding and souse is the other classic Saturday meal.
Q 13Mount Gay, with a deed dating to 1703, claims to be the world's oldest what?
Commercial rum distillery
It is named for Sir John Gay Alleyne, the manager who ran it so well the company was renamed after him.
Q 21Which Barbadian became the first black captain of the West Indies cricket team in the 1950s?
Frank Worrell
The Australia-West Indies Test trophy is named after him; he was born within a mile of Kensington Oval.
Q 22Barbadian fast bowler Malcolm Marshall retired as the West Indies' leading Test wicket-taker with how many?
376
Courtney Walsh passed him in 1998; Marshall did it despite being far shorter than most fast bowlers.
Q 23Barbados hosted the final of the Cricket World Cup in which year?
2007
Kensington Oval was rebuilt for the event and later staged the 2024 T20 World Cup final too.
Q 14Which citrus arose in 18th-century Barbados as an accidental sweet orange–pomelo cross?
Grapefruit
It was once called the "forbidden fruit" of Barbados; by the 2020s China grew over half the world's supply.
Q 15Which crop, introduced from Dutch Brazil in 1640, made Barbados a major plantation economy?
Sugar cane
Tobacco had been the first export until prices collapsed in the 1630s.
Q 16Barbados's 1661 slave code, the first comprehensive one in an English colony, was a model for which mainland colony?
Carolina
It also shaped the codes of Jamaica, Georgia and Antigua; Bajan speech influenced the Gullah language of the Carolinas.
Q 17Where does the famous statue commemorating Bussa's 1816 rebellion in Barbados stand?
On a roundabout east of Bridgetown
It was the first of three big slave rebellions in the British West Indies before abolition in 1833.
Q 18Thousands of Irish were forcibly shipped to Barbados as servants in the 1650s, a practice known by what verb?
Being Barbadosed
Their descendants include the "Redlegs", a poor white community still found in the Scotland District.
Q 19Which future US president made his only trip outside what is now the United States to Barbados in 1751?
George Washington
He was 19, accompanying his tubercular half-brother Lawrence, and caught smallpox while there.
Q 20Which Barbadian cricketer scored a then-record 365 not out in 1958 and is called the greatest all-rounder ever?
Garfield Sobers
He was knighted in 1975 and named one of the island's National Heroes in 1998.
Q 24Kensington Oval, the island's Test ground, staged its first Test match in which year?
1930
West Indies and England drew; the ground has been called the "Mecca" of West Indian cricket.
Q 25Barbados's carnival-style Crop Over festival originally began in 1687 to mark what?
The end of the sugar harvest
It died out and was revived as a tourist draw in 1974; it climaxes with the Grand Kadooment parade.
Q 26Crop Over ends each year with the Grand Kadooment parade on which day?
First Monday in August
Costume bands parade to soca and calypso; the festival begins in June.
Q 27Barbadians colloquially call themselves what?
Bajans
It comes from a 19th-century shortening of "Barbadian"; the island itself is nicknamed "Bim".
Q 28Bajan Creole is notable among Caribbean creoles for what?
Its grammar most resembles standard English
Emigration to the American South means it left traces in the Gullah language.
Q 29Barbados's name most likely comes from a Portuguese or Spanish word meaning what?
The bearded ones
Possibly for the hanging roots of the bearded fig tree, or the supposedly bearded Kalinago people.
Q 30Barbados is much flatter than its neighbours because it is geologically made of what?
Coral limestone
Roughly 90 m of coral cap the island, formed as sediment scraped off the South American plate pushed it up.