The Falkland Islands are a homogeneous society, with the majority of inhabitants descended from Scottish and Welsh immigrants who settled the territory in 1833. The 2006 census listed some Falklands residents as descendants of French, Gibraltarians and Scandinavians.
Covering an area of around 7,500 square kilometers in the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean, the Falkland Islands encompass some 778 islands. Despite the fact they're only 483 kilometers off the coast of Argentina and 12,000 kilometers from England the islands are a British Overseas Territory.
The politics of the Falkland Islands takes place in a framework of a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary representative democratic dependency as set out by the constitution, whereby the Governor exercises the duties of head of state in the absence of the monarch and the Chief Executive acts as the head of government, with an elected Legislative Assembly to propose new laws and hold the executive to account.