The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a country of 300,000 people on more than 700 islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, located southeast of the U.S. state of Florida and east of the Florida Keys.
The official language is English.
The Bahamas became a British colony in 1718. Today it is a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy, wherein the British monarchy serves as the head of state and King/Queen of The Bahamas, represented locally by a Governor-General.
Religions are diverse and many Bahamians are devout in their practices and beliefs. Protestant Christian denominations are in the majority. There are also significant Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox populations.
The official currency is the Bahamian dollar, although the U.S. dollar is widely accepted.