Capital:Basse-Terre
Population: 421 632 inhabitants
Official language: French
Majority group: guadeloupean Creole (96,8%)
Minority groups: French and martinican Creole, Haitian, etc.
Political system: French department of overseas (DOM)
Colonial language: French
Constitutional articles (language): art. 2 of the Constitution of 1992 of Republic
Linguistic laws: all Republic linguistic laws of which the law n° 84-747 of August 2 1984 relative to the expertises of the regions of Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique and The Union; the law n° 75-620 of July 11 1975 relative to the education; the law n° 84-52 of January 26, 1984 considering the higher education; the law of orientation n° 89-486 of July 10, 1989 considering the education; the decree n° 93-535 of March 27, 1993 carrying approval of the notebook of the missions and the loads of the national Society of the French broadcasting and television overseas of the (RFO).

Guadeloupe is part of the French Antilles and constitutes, since 1946, a overseas French department (named as DOM). Like Martinique, Guadeloupe is situated in the Small Antilles, that form a rosary of islands in circle bow between Port Rico and the South American continent, for equal distance of the Venezuela coasts and the island of Haiti (look at the regional card). contrary to Martinique which is constituted of only one island, Guadeloupe forms an archipelago of 1780 km² consisting of eight islands of which the Grande Terre (to the East) and the Terre Basse (to the west), which are the two main islands separated by a narrow channel, the Salty river, but bound by a bridge. The Grande Terre and the Terre Basse form what one calls the continental Guadeloupe (in the shape of butterfly) constituent thus the biggest "island" of the French Antilles. The administrative capital of the Guadeloupe department is situated all at the southwest of the island of the Terre Basse and carries the name of the island: Basse Terre.

Four islands, considered as the dependences of the continental Guadeloupe, are situated all around of the Terre Basse and the Grande Terre: these are the islands of the Saints to a few 10 km in the southeast of Terre Basse, composed of two main islands (Terre –de-Haut and Terre-de-Bas) and of six uninhabited islets, the Marie-Galante island to 40 km to the southeast, the islands of the Petite-Terre to the southeast of the Grande Terre tip and the island of The Desirade to the East of Grande Terre (look at the card of Guadeloupe and its dependences).
Guadeloupe also counts two islands relatively distant of the archipelago since they are situated to 180 km in the East of Port Rico: Saint-Bartholomew and Saint-Martin. These islands, distant one of the other of 25 km, are situated to more of 200 km in the north of the Grande Terre of which they separated (look at the card of the Petite Antilles) by several English-speaking islands: Saint-Kitts-Et-Nevis, Antigua-Et-Barbuda as well as Montserrat (British colony).

The island of Saint-Martin (look at the detailed description), situated to 25 km in the west of Saint-Bartholomew, appears particular to the point of view geopolitics. Indeed, since 1648, Saint-Martin is shared between France (53 km²) and Netherlands (34 km²); the part French, named Saint-Martin, occupy the north part with Creek like county seat, while constituting with Saint-Bartholomew one of the three precincts of Guadeloupe, the two other being the Terre Basse and the Grande Terre. The Dutch part, named Sint Maarten (in Dutch) with Philipsburg like county seat, shape with some islands to the south what one calls the Dutch Antilles, more precisely Islands-Of-Wind (Saba, Sint Eustatitus and Sint Maarten). Underline that in Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten border materialized between the French and Dutch territories, the circulation of goods and people being entirely free, doesn't exist. The islands of Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten and Saint-Bartholomew possess distinct local flags of the one of Guadeloupe:

Within the Small Antilles, Guadeloupe and Martinique are separated one of the other by a non French-speaking island: the Dominique's island (officially of English language). So, the nearest neighbours of Guadeloupe are Montserrat (of English language) to the north and Saint Lucia (of English language) to the south. In short, the two French departments of the Antilles that is Guadeloupe and Martinique are distributed in three zones separated the some of the other:
1) To the north of the island of Saint Lucia: the island of Martinique separated of Guadeloupe by the Dominique.
2) To the north of the Dominique's island: Guadeloupe with the islands of Grande Terre, Terre Basse, the Saints, Marie-Galante, Petite Terre and the Desirade.
3) To the north of the Antigua-Et-Barbuda islands: the precinct guadeloupean of Saint-Bartholomew and the French part of Saint-Martin.
The French department of Guadeloupe is cut in three precincts(Terre Basse, Point To-Clown and Saint-Martin / Saint-Bartholomew) subdivided in 43 cantons and 34 townships. The French state is represented by the prefect established in the city of Terre Basse and two sub-prefects of which one to Tip-To-Clown (island of the Grande Terre) and the other to Creek (island Saint-Martin). The administrative capital is the Terre Basse (island of the Terr-Bas), but the city of Tip-To-Clown became the real crossroads economic of this overseas French department. The cities of importance are The Abymeses (63 000 inhabitants) and its international airport, Point To-Clown (28 000 inhabitants) and the capital administrative Terre Basse (15 000 inhabitants).

Finally, as French department, Guadeloupe is part of the European Union within which she constitutes a "region ultraperipheric". TO this title, she benefits from "specific measures" that adapt the communal right while taking into account the characteristic and constrained particular of the region.