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 Saint
Martin is a tropical island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately
150 miles east of Puerto Rico. The 88 km² (38 square-mile)
island is divided roughly in half between France and the Netherlands;
it is the smallest inhabited land mass in the world that is
divided between two nations (with the possible exception of
a small island in Boundary Lake, between the U.S. and Canada).The
southern Dutch half is called Sint Maarten and is part of
the Netherlands Antilles; the northern French half is called
Saint-Martin and is part of the French overseas région
and département of Guadeloupe. Collectively, the two
territories are known as, "St.-Martin/St. Maarten",
"St. Martins", or simply, "SXM" (SXM is
the IATA identifier for Princess Juliana International Airport,
the island's main airport). Remarkably, neither of the two
halves of Saint Martin warrants a separate FIPS PUB 10-4 territory
code; they are presumably coded as GP (Guadeloupe) and NT
(Netherlands Antilles).
The main towns are Marigot (French side) and
Philipsburg (Dutch side).
 The
French part of the island has a land area of 53.20 km²
(20.5 sq mi). At the 2002 supplementary French census, the
population in the French part of the island was 31,349 inhabitants
(up from only 8,072 inhabitants at the 1982 census, a quadrupling
in just 20 years), which means a population density of 589
inh. per km² in 2002.
Sint Maarten, the Dutch part of the island, has a land area
of 34 km² (13.1 sq mi). At the 2001 Netherlands Antilles
census, the population in Sint Maarten was 30,594 inhabitants,
which means a population density of 900 inh. per km².
In 2004 the population of Sint Maarten was estimated at 33,119
inhabitants.
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