# Out Islands

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The **Out Islands** are the islands of [The Bahamas](/source/The_Bahamas) other than [New Providence](/source/New_Providence), which contains the capital and largest city, [Nassau](/source/Nassau,_Bahamas), and [Grand Bahama](/source/Grand_Bahama), home to the city of [Freeport](/source/Freeport,_Bahamas).[1][2] The Out Islands are also known as the **Family Islands**, a term adopted in the 1970s,[1][3] and include island groups such as the [Abaco Islands](/source/Abaco_Islands) and [Eleuthera](/source/Eleuthera).[4] There are approximately 700 Out Islands, only a small number of which are inhabited.[2]

## History and population

See also: [History of the Bahamas](/source/History_of_the_Bahamas)

*A History of the Bahamian People* notes that even as Nassau became a more important port, "the majority of the Out Islands remained fixed in the [age of sail](/source/Age_of_sail) well into the twentieth century."[5] A significant number of [American Loyalists](/source/American_Loyalists) fleeing from the [Revolution](/source/American_Revolution) migrated to the Bahamas (including the Out Islands), along with their slaves, profoundly influencing the islands' history.[6]

Specifically, some 300 white families (owning an estimated 5,000 slaves) fled from [East Florida](/source/East_Florida) to New Providence; among these, the majority of the whites stayed on New Providence, while two-thirds of the slaves went to the previously undeveloped Out Islands.[7] *A History of the Bahamian People* notes that the Out Islands were historically "a miniature replica of Nassau's socialeconomic system based on race, differential wealth, and economic power" with some settlements being inhabited entirely by [Afro-Bahamians](/source/Afro-Bahamian), others by white Bahamians, and others by mixed communities generally dominated by whites.[8]

In 1980, a Cuban [MiG](/source/MiG) fighter jet attacked a [Bahamian patrol boat](/source/Royal_Bahamas_Defence_Force), the *HMBS* Flamingo, in the Out Islands, killing four Bahamian marines. Survivors of the attack came ashore on [Ragged Island](/source/Ragged_Island,_Bahamas). The Cuban government maintained that it had mistaken the ship for a [pirate](/source/Piracy) vessel. The incident greatly angered Bahamians, and Cuba later issued an apology and reparations.[9][10]

## Economy and demographics

The Out Islands are more sparsely inhabited and less economically developed than New Providence and Grand Bahama.[2] The most populous of the Out Islands are [Abaco](/source/Abaco_Islands), [Andros](/source/Andros,_Bahamas), and [Eleuthera](/source/Eleuthera); the Out Islands tend to be less populous as one moves southward.[11]

Poverty has historically been high in the Out Islands, given the small size of the islands and the lack of natural resources.[12] In 2013, the Bahamas Department of Statistics reported a poverty rate of 17.16% in the Out Islands, compared to 12.58% in Nassau and 9.69% in Grand Bahama.[13]

At the beginning of the 20th century, more than 75% of all Bahamians lived in the Out Islands; by the 1970s, two-thirds of all Bahamians lived in Nassau or elsewhere on New Providence Island.[14] This dramatic population shift was related to a lack of stable job market in the Out Islands; only [pineapple](/source/Pineapple) cultivation and salt-raking provided steady wage jobs, and only on a few islands.[15] Today, tourism is economically significant in the Out Islands; beaches, [snorkeling](/source/Snorkeling), and [scuba diving](/source/Scuba_diving) are the principal tourist draws.[16] A 2017 academic study reported that the relative economic importance of [shark diving](/source/Shark_tourism) was greater in the Out Islands than elsewhere in the Bahamas.[13]

## See also

- [List of islands of the Bahamas](/source/List_of_islands_of_the_Bahamas)

## Works cited

- Michael Craton & Gail Saunders, *A History of the Bahamian People: From Aboriginal Times to the End of Slavery* (Vol. 1: University of Georgia Press, 1992: paperback ed., 2009).
- Michael Craton & Gail Saunders, *A History of the Bahamian People: From the Ending of Slavery to the Twenty-First Century* (Vol. 2: University of Georgia Press, 1998: paperback ed., 2000).

## Notes

1. David Hamilton-Jones, "Problems of Inter-Island Shipping in Archipelagic Small Island Countries: Fiji and the Cook Islands" in *The Political Economy of Small Tropical Islands: The Importance of Being Small* (eds. Helen M. Hintjens & Makyn D. D. Newitt: University of Exeter Press, 1992), p. 202.

1. Raeann R. Hamon, "'It's Better in the Bahamas': From Relationship Initiation to Marriage" in *Mate Selection Across Cultures* (eds. Raeann R. Hamon & Bron B. Ingoldsby, Sage Publications, 2003), p. 22.

1. Craton & Saunders, Vol. 2, p. 359.

1. Craton & Saunders, Vol. 2, p. 131.

1. Craton & Saunders, Vol. 2, p. 74.

1. Gail Saunders, *Bahamian Loyalists and Their Slaves* (Macmillan Caribbean, 1983), p. 58.

1. Craton & Saunders, Vol. 1, p. 188.

1. Craton & Saunders, Vol. 2, p. 132.

1. Anthony P. Maingot, Caribbean International Relations" in *The Modern Caribbean* (eds. Franklin W. Knight & Colin A. Palmer, 1989), pp. 279-280.

1. Stephen Webbe, [Bahamas seethes over patrol-boat sinking](https://www.csmonitor.com/1980/0519/051931.html), *Christian Science Monitor* (May 19, 1980).

1. Stephanie Hackert, "ICE Bahamas: Why and how?" *ICAME Journal*, Vol. 34, pp. 41–53.

1. [Bridget Brereton](/source/Bridget_Brereton), "Society and Culture in the Caribbean: The British and French West Indies, 1870-1980" in *The Modern Caribbean* (eds. Franklin W. Knight & Colin A. Palmer, 1989), p. 101.

1. Andrea R. Haas, Tony Fedler & Edward J. Brooks, [The contemporary economic value of elasmobranchs in The Bahamas: Reaping the rewards of 25 years of stewardship and conservation](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320716307224), *Biological Conservation*, Vol. 207 (March 2017), pp. 55–63.

1. Craton & Saunders, Vol. 2, pp. 131 & 176.

1. Howard Johnson, "Labour Systems in Postemancipation Bahamas" in *Social and Economic Studies*, vol. 37, no. 1/2 (1988).

1. Kenneth C. Buchan, "The Bahamas" in *Marine Pollution Bulletin*, Vol. 41, Nos. 1-6, pp. 94-111 (2000), at p. 101.

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