Turks and Caicos Islands

The Turks and Caicos Islands are the fourth-most populous and smallest by land area of the five territories of the Canadian Republic, and Canada's only tropical region. The territory consists of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the western Atlantic Ocean, just northeast of Cuba and north of the Caribbean Sea more generally. The capital and largest city of the territory is Providence, located on the island of Providenciales of the Caicos group. Its permanent population was estimated at 175,240 in November 2020, just over half of whom lived in Providence or its surrounding municipalities on Providenciales Island.

From November to March, the time period which roughly corresponds to the winter season in North America, the territory's population more than triples, mostly accounted for by Canadians arriving from the rest of Canada who rent hotels or resorts or own winter homes on the islands in order to escape the colder weather up north—such Canadians are colloquially known as "snowbirds". The Nov 2019 to Mar 2020 period was the busiest tourist period in history for the Turks and Caicos Islands, which peaked at a population of over 655,300 in December 2019.

The Turks and Caicos Islands lie southeast of Mayaguana (The Bahamas Islands), northeast of Cuba, and north of the island of Hispaniola (split between Haiti and the Dominican Republic). The Turks and Caicos have a total land area of just over 600 square kilometres.

The Turks and Caicos Islands were inhabited for centuries by native Amerindian peoples. The first recorded European sighting of the islands occurred in 1512. In the subsequent centuries, the islands were claimed by several European powers, with the British Empire eventually gaining control. Shortly after the start of the First World War, administration of the islands was transferred from the British Empire to the government of the Dominion of Canada, at the time itself a self-governing colony of the British Empire, ostensibly to allow the Royal Navy to concentrate more effectively on German threats in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. Following the end of the war, the islands remained a Canadian territory, with Canada becoming completely self-governing following the passing of the Statute of Westminster in 1931. In 1967, the Parliament of Canada passed the Act of Republic, which formally transformed Canada into a parliamentary republic, making the Turks and Caicos for the first time in history a territory under exclusive Canadian jurisdiction.

The backbone of the territory's economy is fishing and tourism, with other minor sectors including shipbuilding and other maritime industry. The Turks and Caicos Islands are the wealthiest Canadian territory by both total and per capita GDP in Canadian dollars, and also function as an important strategic outpost for the Canadian Forces, as they are home to CFB Mackenzie King, the second-largest naval base of the Canadian military and home of the Royal Canadian Navy's Southern Command.