The Virgin Islands are an archipelago, part of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean Sea. The Leeward Islands are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles, where the Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean.

The Virgin Islands are divided into two political entities; on the east, Anegada, Jost Van Dyke, Tortola, Virgin Gorda, and over fifty other smaller islands are administered as an overseas territory of the United Kingdom; and in the... west, St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas, and Water Island are governed as an unincorporated territory of the United States.

Christopher Columbus named the islands Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Vírgenes, shortened to

West of the Virgin Islands lie the islands of Vieques and Culebra, that since a 1990s tourist campaign have re-christened themselves the Spanish Virgin Islands, though they are seldom identified as such on maps and atlases. The "Spanish Virgin Islands", or Passage Islands, are just east of Puerto Rico, and governed as part of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Natives speak Spanish, and the culture is similar to Puerto Rico.