Antigua (ȧntē' gwȧ), British West Indies, one of a group of islands (the Windward) which compose the Lesser Antilles, situated to the east of Porto Rico and separating the Caribbean Sea from the Atlantic. It is 54 miles in circumference, enclosing an area of 108 square miles or, with its dependent islands of Barbuda and Redonda, 170 square miles in all. Antigua is the seat of government in the Leeward Islands

Colony of Britain, and has, besides a nominated governor and executive council, a legislative council consisting of eight official and eight unofficial members. The chief town is St. John (population, 1911, 9,262); the population of the colony with its dependencies, 38,899. It has a local telephone line 90 miles in extent, is connected with the West India and Panama Telegraph Company's cable, and is reached by periodic steam vessels, direct from England, New York and Canada. Its chief exports embrace sugar, cotton and pineapples.