The islands were named "Santa Úrsula y las Once Mil Vírgenes" by Christopher Columbus in 1493 after the legend of Saint Ursula and the 11,000 virgins.

This is commonly believed to distinguish it from the neighbouring American territory which changed its name from the "Danish West Indies" to "Virgin Islands of the United States" in 1917.

Moreover, the territory's Constitutional Commission has expressed the view that "every effort should be made" to encourage the use of the name "Virgin Islands".

[5] The Dutch established a permanent settlement on the island of Tortola by 1648,[5] frequently clashing with the Spanish who were based on nearby Puerto Rico.

[5] The islands prospered economically until the middle of the nineteenth century, when a combination of the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834, a series of disastrous hurricanes, and the growth in the sugar beet crop in Europe and the United States[14] significantly reduced sugar cane production and led to a period of economic decline.

[15] The British Virgin Islands comprise around 60 tropical Caribbean islands, ranging in size from the largest, Tortola, being 20 km (12 mi) long and 5 km (3 mi) wide, to tiny uninhabited islets, altogether about 150 square kilometres (58 square miles) in extent.

[24][25] Visiting Tortola on 13 September 2017, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that he was reminded of photos of Hiroshima after it had been hit by the atom bomb.

[28] Entrepreneur Richard Branson, a resident of Necker Island, called on the UK government to develop a massive disaster recovery plan to include "both through short-term aid and long-term infrastructure spending".

[24][31] Boris Johnson's visit to Tortola on 13 September 2017 during his Caribbean tour was intended to confirm the UK's commitment to helping restore British islands but he provided no additional comments on the aid package.

[32][33] He did confirm that HMS Ocean had departed for the BVI carrying items like timber, buckets, bottled water, food, baby milk, bedding and clothing, as well as ten pickup trucks, building materials and hardware.

The Legislature consists of the King (represented by the Governor) and a unicameral House of Assembly made up of 13 elected members plus the Speaker and the Attorney General.

While statistics and hard data are relatively rare, and are not regularly published by governmental sources in the British Virgin Islands, the then-Premier did announce that in 2013 there was a 14% decline in recorded crime compared to 2012.

[42] The British and US Virgin Islands sit at the axis of a major drugs transshipment point between Latin America and the continental United States.

[46] According to Transparency International, the British Virgin Islands is one of the top incorporation hubs for anonymous companies used to conceal assets and stolen funds.

[3] The British Virgin Islands enjoys one of the more prosperous economies of the Caribbean region, with a per capita average income of around $47,000 (2022 est.

[44] Tourists frequent the numerous white sand beaches, visit The Baths on Virgin Gorda, snorkel the coral reefs near Anegada, or experience the well-known bars of Jost Van Dyke.

On 10 September 2013, British Prime Minister David Cameron said "I do not think it is fair any longer to refer to any of the Overseas Territories or Crown Dependencies as tax havens.

"[56][57] Yet journalist and author for The Economist, Nicholas Shaxson, writes in his 2016 Treasure Islands, tax havens and the men who stole the world: "...Britain sits, spider-like, at the centre of a vast international web of tax havens, which hoover up trillions of dollars' worth of business and capital from around the globe and funnel it up to the City of London.

[58] In 2022, the verified nature of beneficial ownership registers of the British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies were a crucial tool in giving effect to sanctions against Russia and Belarus, enabling the efficient identification and seizure of yachts, real estate and businesses.

The Letter of Entrustment dated 14 July 2010 was originally provided to the Government of the British Virgin Islands and authorised the Government of the BVI "to negotiate and conclude Agreements relating to taxation that provide for exchange of information on tax matters to the OECD standard" (Paragraph 2 of the FATCA Agreement).

Further, this would put the British Virgin Islands in a position where it would be at a severe disadvantage because other International Finance Centres do not have this in place, and in the case of the US and the UK, there is very little near-term prospect of the same.

[62] In a judgment dated 22 November 2022, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has at last decided that open public access to the beneficial owner registers of EU member state companies is no longer valid, as it is in contravention of articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the Charter).

The US appears to have come to a similar conclusion regarding balancing confidentiality and legitimate privacy with the Anti-Money Laundering advantages of having verified beneficial ownerships registers.

The UK's Crown Dependencies have already stated that they will not implement public registers without beforehand having received fresh legal advice on the matter and it is thought that the Overseas Territories would logically take a similar position.

[64][3] The British Virgin Islands has met challenges in recruiting sufficient numbers in recent years, having been affected by hurricanes Irma and Maria, and having continued to lag behind other jurisdictions in providing a reliable permanent residence regime.

This has had a knock-on effect in limiting schooling and amenities when compared to IFCs like Cayman, UAE, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

As of 2 July 1991, the British Virgin Islands holds Associate Member status in CARICOM, the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).

[1] Estimates put the population at 35,800 (July 2018) yet in 2022, it is thought to be much less than 30,000 post-Irma and with people having left during COVID lockdowns due to unemployment in the tourism industry.

[76] Unusually, the territory has one of the highest drowning mortality rates in the world, being higher than other high-risk countries such as China and India.

The traditional music of the British Virgin Islands is called fungi after the local cornmeal dish with the same name, often made with okra.