The Falklands Now

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On the war's 40th anniversary, Mike Wooldridge reports on life in the Falklands today.

On the 40th anniversary of the war, Mike Wooldridge reports from the Falklands on the  extraordinary economic and social transformation of these remote South Atlantic islands.

In the last forty years, the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic have gone from being an impoverished overseas British territory to a rich one, with a per capita income comparable to Norway or Qatar, and from an isolated community of mostly British settlers to a cosmopolitan population of many different nationalities from all over the world. 

Before the war, the Falklands were a distant outpost of Britain, more British than Britain. But these rocky, rural islands were also in decline, losing so many people to emigration life on the Falklands seemed barely viable. Now the islands are unrecognisable, their politics, economy and infrastructure transformed by lucrative sales of fishing licences to foreign fleets, tourism and the prospect of rich offshore oil deposits. This new prosperity has also attracted newcomers from all over the world – from the Philippines, Chile, Zimbabwe and beyond. People born in the Falkland islands are now a minority.  In a referendum held in 2013, all but three voters elected to remain a self-governing British territory, but inevitably the Falklands are now no longer as British as they once were. 

What does this mutating identity and new-found economic confidence mean for the Falklands’ future? On the 40th anniversary of the war, Mike Wooldridge revisits the islands to report on the extraordinary transformation that has taken place in the last four decades and the challenges that remain, with neighbouring Argentina continuing to claim sovereignty over the islands.  

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