Saint Lucians - Settlements

On the basis of French ecclesiastical principles of organization, Saint Lucia is divided into eleven geo-demographic districts for purposes of administration: Ansye-la Raye, Canaries, Castries, Choiseul, Dennery, Gros Islet, Laborie, Michoud, Soufrière, and Vieux Fort. Approximately three-fifths of the population is concentrated in Castries, the island's capital, in the north, and Vieux Fort, a semi-industrial zone in the south. The rest of the population is dispersed along the coastline, in the other nine administrative zones. Thickly forested mountains in the interior of the island preclude either cultivation or habitation.

Parallel to this pattern is the Saint Lucian notion of spatial zoning. The island is divided into two discrete geosocial zones—"town" and "country." "Town" almost always refers to Castries, whereas "country" is generically applied to all other inhabited regions, including those areas that contain relatively large pockets of settlement and industry.