St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is a territory in the Africa card group. British Overseas Territory with three constituent parts.
Africa and its surrounding islands. The dot marks Jamestown; the mapped territory is highlighted in gold.
Natural Earth · locator mapThis territory combines widely separated island groups in the South Atlantic. Saint Helena is rugged, with steep coastal cliffs and an upland interior. Ascension has extensive volcanic terrain, including lava fields and cinder cones.
Tristan da Cunha lies much farther south and is dominated by a central volcanic peak. Its settlement occupies a limited area of lower ground beside the sea. The islands should not be imagined as a compact archipelago with one shared climate.
Saint Helena has a mild maritime climate. Ascension is warmer and drier, while Tristan da Cunha is much farther south and has cooler, wetter oceanic conditions.
Isolation has produced distinctive plants and animals. Saint Helena’s uplands, Ascension’s nesting beaches and Tristan’s oceanic environments differ substantially. Their separation and different latitudes make local conditions more informative than a single territorial average.
The Union Flag shown represents this British Overseas Territory. Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha also each have their own local flag.
Sources: Saint Helena Government · constitution · Saint Helena Government · statistics · CIA World Factbook · Archived geography
Steep volcanic slopes descend to the island’s coast.
Photo: Kevstan · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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The isolated volcanic island rises from the South Atlantic.
English is the main language across Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
The islands are widely separated and have distinct settlement histories. Local forms of English, particularly on Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha, preserve characteristic pronunciations and vocabulary rather than forming one uniform island dialect.
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha are widely separated South Atlantic islands with distinct settlement histories. Saint Helena passed from East India Company administration to the British Crown in 1834. The 2009 constitution gave the three parts equal constitutional status within one territory.
Sources: Saint Helena Government · constitution · Saint Helena Government · statistics
The islands have different economies. Saint Helena relies on public services, external support, tourism and fishing; Ascension supports communications and military facilities; Tristan da Cunha depends heavily on its lobster fishery.
Sources: Saint Helena Government · constitution · Saint Helena Government · statistics
3,980 on Saint Helena · Resident on-island population, June 2025. Excludes Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
Saint Helena’s GDP was £40.7 million in 2024/25 at market prices. This covers Saint Helena only and is not directly comparable to the constant-2015-US-dollar country charts.
Sources: Saint Helena Government · constitution · Saint Helena Government · statistics
British Overseas Territory with separate constitutional arrangements for Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. Saint Helena has a governor, elected Legislative Council and ministerial government; the other islands have administrators and island councils.
Sources: Saint Helena Government · constitution · Saint Helena Government · statistics
Three questions about St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
Sources: Saint Helena Government · constitution · Saint Helena Government · statistics
Prepared 24 September 2026. World Bank series: SP.POP.TOTL (persons) and NY.GDP.MKTP.KD (constant 2015 US dollars); downloaded 24 September 2026, provider update 13 July 2026. UNDP values use the 2025 report and 2023 observation year. These are dated statistical snapshots, not live population or economic counters.
Maps use Natural Earth geographic data. Background geography, flag descriptions and selected historical facts use archived public-domain CIA World Factbook profiles, supplemented by the sources linked above. The Factbook is no longer updated; dated statistics here come from the separately named providers.
