15°56′N 61°16′W / 15.933°N 61.267°W
Marie-Galante (French pronunciation: [maʁi ɡalɑ̃t], Antillean Creole: Mawigalant or Marigalant) is one of the dependencies of Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France. Marie-Galante has a land area of 158.1 km (61.0 square miles). It had 11,528 inhabitants at the start of 2013, but by the start of 2018 the total was officially estimated to be 10,655, with a population density of 62.5/km (162/sq mi).
The French West Indies or French Antilles (French: Antilles françaises, [ɑ̃tij fʁɑ̃sɛːz]; Antillean Creole: Antiy fwansé) were the parts of France located in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean:
Guadeloupe is an overseas department and region of the French Republic in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and two Îles des Saintes—as well as many uninhabited islands and outcroppings. It is south of Antigua and Barbuda and Montserrat and north of Dominica. The capital city is Basse-Terre, on the southern west coast of Basse-Terre Island; the most populous city is Les Abymes and the main centre of business is neighbouring Pointe-à-Pitre, both on Grande-Terre Island. It had a population of 395,726 in 2024.
Like the other overseas departments, it is an integral part of France. As a constituent territory of the European Union (EU) and the eurozone, the euro is its official currency and any EU citizen is free to settle and work there indefinitely, but it is not part of the Schengen Area. It included Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin until 2007, when they were detached from Guadeloupe following a 2003 referendum.
The dependencies of Guadeloupe are three islands or island groups in the Leeward Islands chain which are administratively part of the neighboring French overseas department of Guadeloupe in the French Lesser Antilles. They are nearby island entities to the south and east of Guadeloupe island. Saint-Barthélemy and the French side of Saint-Martin were dependencies of Guadeloupe before they became autonomous. There are now three dependencies:
In order to distinguish them from the former dependencies to the north (Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin), they are known as the southern islands of Guadeloupe. The unofficial expressions Archipelago of Guadeloupe and Islands of Guadeloupe, which remain only an administrative reality, serve to differentiate the department of Guadeloupe (the French institutional entity including Guadeloupe island and its dependencies) and the two islands of Guadeloupe itself.