{"population":44542,"blurb":{"text":"Turks and Caicos Islands is a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and northern West Indies. They are known primarily for tourism and as an offshore financial centre. The resident population in 2023 was estimated by The World Factbook at 59,367, making it the third-largest of the British overseas territories by population. However, according to a Department of Statistics estimate in 2022, the population was 47,720.","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turks_and_Caicos_Islands"},"vexillology":{"text":"The current flag of the Turks and Caicos Islands was adopted on 7 November 1968, and modified in 1999. Prior to this, the islands had several different flags either proposed or utilised.","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Turks_and_Caicos_Islands"},"flagDesign":{"text":"The flag of the Turks and Caicos Islands features a Blue Ensign with the Union Flag in the canton, defaced with the coat of arms of the Turks and Caicos Islands in the centre-right. The coat of arms, which was granted on 28 September 1965, takes the shape of a yellow shield which contains a queen conch shell, lobster, and a Melocactus. The Melocactus, which is visually similar to the traditional Turkish fez, give the islands the first half of their name.\n\nWhether the lobster on the coat of arms should have eight or ten legs has been disputed. It has been suggested that the original version of the flag showed ten legs, as would be accurate due to the decapod nature of lobsters, and that the first pair of smaller legs were hidden under the antennae and were subsequently missed in later drawings. It is thought that the lobster present on the coat of arms is a Caribbean spiny lobster (panulirus argus), which does indeed have ten legs.\n\nThe current flag was modified in 1999 when a white outline was added to the shield and the badge height was increased to approximately half of the hoist width.","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Turks_and_Caicos_Islands"},"photos":["https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Turks_%26_Caicos_National_Museum.jpg/500px-Turks_%26_Caicos_National_Museum.jpg","https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Blue_Tang_and_Squirrelfish.jpg/500px-Blue_Tang_and_Squirrelfish.jpg","https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Cockburn_Town.jpg/500px-Cockburn_Town.jpg","https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Grand_Turk%2C_Replica_of_Friendship_7_-_panoramio.jpg/500px-Grand_Turk%2C_Replica_of_Friendship_7_-_panoramio.jpg"]}