Freeport (province)

The Province of Freeport is a Belhavian province located on the north-central coast of the country. Its name is unique in the majority-Jewish nation for adopting the Belfrasian English name given to it by Lusankyan merchants in the 17th century.

Freeport is home to Freeport City, a bustling seaport in Northern Belhavia and home of the elite Freeport Military Academy. The province has approximately 5.56 million residents (c. 2015), and is the 11th largest province by population in the Empire. Freeport is home to a diverse population of residents with varying heritage and ethnicities, as well as a large military population.

The province is one of the wealthiest in Belhavia, sporting a per-capita income of $68,544. This is largely due to the concentration of wealthy families in the Freeport City suburbs, including such towns as Avalon as well as a significant number of government employees based in the territory.

Freeport also hosts a fertile and temperate climate, and the provincial south produced over $268 million in food and agricultural exports in 2014. There is also a decaying industrial base in and around Freeport City, and international companies such as the Western-based Common Motors and Emmerian-based Hunter Motor Company maintain production plants there. The Kalian Media Group, the multinational mass media corporation, maintains its global headquarters in the province, and the Kalian family is among many elite families to reside in Avalon, an exclusive suburb.

The province is home to the Freeport Provincial University, which, despite its name, is a private for-profit university that attracts students from all over Belhavia and abroad.

Politically, the province has swung since the late 1990s from a solid green province to a blue-leaning swing province. It is also the home province of President Eli Goldman, whose 1998 special Senate election win sparked the province's rightward voting trend.