Caribbean

Dominican Republic Travel Podcast with Carlos Peña

Hosted by Carlos Peña — a new episode every day from Dominican Republic.

The show follows Carlos Peña as he settles in different parts of the Dominican Republic, learning each place before moving on. Travelling in the country means negotiating a landscape of rugged highlands, fertile valleys and coastal plains, with Santo Domingo as the historic and demographic core. Geography shapes every journey.

Over the course of the series, Carlos covers Santo Domingo, the Cibao Valley, the Cordillera Central and the southern coastal plains. That means episodes range from the capital’s colonial streets to mountain trails around Pico Duarte, and from valley farming towns to the low-lying coast. The interior gets as much attention as the beach resorts.

The show unfolds across a couple of years, so the wet and dry seasons shape what Carlos encounters. He returns to places he has already visited in the Cibao Valley and the Cordillera Central, noticing how rainfall, farming rhythms and local life shift between visits. Knowing a place properly, for him, means watching it change rather than passing through once.

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The basics

Dominican Republic at a glance

Capital

Santo Domingo

Population 2025

11,520,487

Area

48,670 sq km

Languages

Spanish (official)

Time zone

UTC-4

Currency

Dominican pesos (DOP)

GDP per capita 2025

$11,059

Life expectancy 2024

73.9 years

Urban population 2025

72.5%

Inflation 2025

3.9%

Internet users 2024

91.0%

Government

Presidential republic

Country file

Dominican Republic in depth

Reference data on the country — geography, people, history, economy and transport.

Geography and climate

Location

Caribbean, eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, east of Haiti

Terrain

Rugged highlands and mountains interspersed with fertile valleys

Climate

Tropical maritime; little seasonal temperature variation; seasonal variation in rainfall

Elevation

Highest point: Pico Duarte 3,098 m
Lowest point: Lago Enriquillo -46 m
Mean elevation: 424 m

Area

Total: 48,670 sq km
Land: 48,320 sq km
Water: 350 sq km

Size comparison

Slightly more than twice the size of New Jersey

Coastline

1,288 km

Land borders

Total: 376 km
Border countries: Haiti 376 km

Natural resources

Nickel, bauxite, gold, silver, arable land

Land use

Agricultural land: 55.4% (2023 est.)
Arable land: 20.2% (2023 est.)
Permanent crops: 11.3% (2023 est.)
Permanent pasture: 23.8% (2023 est.)
Forest: 46.6% (2023 est.)
Other: 0% (2023 est.)

Natural hazards

Lies in the middle of the hurricane belt and subject to severe storms from June to October; occasional flooding; periodic droughts

Note

Shares island of Hispaniola with Haiti (eastern two-thirds makes up the Dominican Republic, western one-third is Haiti); the second largest country in the Antilles (after Cuba); geographically diverse with the Caribbean's tallest mountain, Pico Duarte, and lowest elevation and largest lake, Lago Enriquillo

People and society

Population

Total: 10,899,292 (2025 est.)
Male: 5,506,679
Female: 5,392,613

Nationality

Noun: Dominican(s)
Adjective: Dominican

Ethnic groups

Mixed 70.4% (Mestizo/Indio 58%, Mulatto 12.4%), Black 15.8%, White 13.5%, other 0.3% (2014 est.)

Languages

Languages: Spanish (official)
Major-language sample(s): La Libreta Informativa del Mundo, la fuente indispensable de información básica. (Spanish)

Religions

Evangelical 50.2%, Roman Catholic 30.1%, none 18.5%, unspecified 1.2% (2023 est.)

Median age

Total: 29.6 years (2025 est.)
Male: 29.1 years
Female: 29.4 years

Life expectancy

Total population: 72.6 years (2024 est.)
Male: 71 years
Female: 74.3 years

Urbanisation

Urban population: 84.4% of total population (2023)
Rate of urbanization: 1.64% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

Where people live

Coastal development is significant, especially in the southern coastal plains and the Cibao Valley, where population density is highest; smaller population clusters exist in the interior mountains (Cordillera Central)

Largest cities

3.524 million SANTO DOMINGO (capital) (2023)

Background and government

Background

The Taino -- indigenous inhabitants of Hispaniola prior to the arrival of Europeans -- divided the island now known as the Dominican Republic and Haiti into five chiefdoms and territories. Christopher COLUMBUS explored and claimed the island on his first voyage in 1492; it became a springboard for Spanish conquest of the Caribbean and the American mainland. In 1697, Spain recognized French dominion over the western third of the island, which in 1804 became Haiti. The remainder of the island, by then known as Santo Domingo, sought to gain its own independence in 1821, but the Haitians conquered and ruled it for 22 years; it finally attained independence as the Dominican Republic in 1844. In 1861, the Dominicans voluntarily returned to the Spanish Empire, but two years later, they launched a war that restored independence in 1865.

A legacy of unsettled and mostly non-representative rule followed, capped by the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas TRUJILLO from 1930 to 1961. Juan BOSCH was elected president in 1962 but was deposed in a military coup in 1963. In 1965, the US led an intervention in the midst of a civil war sparked by an uprising to restore BOSCH. In 1966, Joaquin BALAGUER defeated BOSCH in the presidential election. BALAGUER maintained a tight grip on power for most of the next 30 years, until international reaction to flawed elections forced him to curtail his term in 1996. Since then, regular competitive elections have been held.

Government

Presidential republic

Capital

Santo Domingo

Time zone

UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)

Local name

República Dominicana

Independence

27 February 1844 (from Haiti)

National day

Independence Day, 27 February (1844)

Economy and cost of living

Overview

Surging middle-income tourism, construction, mining, and telecommunications OECS economy; major foreign US direct investment and free-trade zones; developing local financial markets; improving debt management; declining poverty

GDP per capita

Real GDP per capita 2024: $24,200 (2024 est.)
Real GDP per capita 2023: $23,300 (2023 est.)
Real GDP per capita 2022: $23,000 (2022 est.)

Inflation

Inflation rate (consumer prices) 2024: 3.3% (2024 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices) 2023: 4.8% (2023 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices) 2022: 8.8% (2022 est.)

Unemployment

Unemployment rate 2024: 5.5% (2024 est.)
Unemployment rate 2023: 5.6% (2023 est.)
Unemployment rate 2022: 5.6% (2022 est.)

Exchange rate

Currency: Dominican pesos (DOP) per US dollar -
Exchange rates 2024: 59.565 (2024 est.)
Exchange rates 2023: 56.158 (2023 est.)
Exchange rates 2022: 55.141 (2022 est.)
Exchange rates 2021: 57.221 (2021 est.)
Exchange rates 2020: 56.525 (2020 est.)

Main industries

Tourism, sugar processing, gold mining, textiles, cement, tobacco, electrical components, medical devices

Agriculture

Sugarcane, bananas, papayas, plantains, avocados, rice, milk, watermelons, vegetables, pineapples (2023)

Transport and connectivity

Airports

32 (2025)

Railways

Total: 496 km (2014)
Standard gauge: 354 km (2014) 1.435-m gauge
Narrow gauge: 142 km (2014) 0.762-m gauge

Ports

Total ports: 17 (2024)
Large: 0
Medium: 2
Small: 7
Very small: 6
Size unknown: 2
Ports with oil terminals: 7
Key ports: Andres (Andres Lng Terminal), Las Calderas, Puerto de Haina, Puerto Plata, Punta Nizao Oil Terminal, San Pedro de Macoris, Santa Barbara de Samana, Santa Cruz de Barahona, Santo Domingo