Caribbean Netherlands is a group of three islands - Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (BES) - which are special municipalities of the Netherlands. As of 1 January 2016, Bonaire's population totaled approximately 19,400permanent residents, an increase of 500 from 2015. From 2011 they switched from using to the Dutch Guilder to the American dollar rather than the euro (as they use in the European Netherlands)