Caribbean people

This article is about people of the Caribbean area or diaspora. For other uses, see Caribbean.

Caribbean people are the people born in or inhabitants of the Caribbean region or people of Caribbean descent living outside the Caribbean. The Caribbean region was initially populated by Amerindians from several different Kalinago and Taino groups. These groups were decimated by a combination of enslavement and disease brought by European colonizers. Descendants of the Taino and Kalinago tribes exist today in the Caribbean and elsewhere but are usually of partial Amerindian ancestry.

Caribbean people

Total population
c. 45–47 million
Regions with significant populations
Colombia	12 million
Cuba	11 million
Haiti	11 million
Dominican Republic	10 million
Puerto Rico	3.4 million
Jamaica	2.7 million
Trinidad and Tobago	1.3 million
Guyana	790 thousand
Suriname	633 thousand
Languages
Mainly: Spanish, French, French-based creole languages (Haitian Creole, Antillean Creole), English, English-based creole languages (Jamaican Patois, Bahamian Creole, Trinidadian Creole, Guyanese Creole, Bajan Creole), Papiamento Minority: Dutch, Caribbean Hindustani, Chinese
Religion
Majority: Christianity Minority: Hinduism Islam Judaism Rastafari Baháʼí Afro-American religion Traditional African religions Amerindian religions Buddhism Sikhism Jainism Zoroastrianism Taoism Confucianism Chinese folk religion Kebatinan Others
Related ethnic groups
Americans, Canadians, Latin Americans

Modern Caribbean people usually further identify by their own specific ethnic ancestry, therefore constituting various subgroups, of which are: Afro-Caribbean (largely descendants of bonded African slaves), Hispanic/Latino-Caribbean (people from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean who descend from solely or a mixture of Spaniards, West Africans, indigenous peoples, other Europeans, Arabs, or Chinese), White Caribbean (largely descendants of European colonizers and some indentured workers), Asian Caribbean who are mainly divided between Indo-Caribbean (largely descendants of Indian jahaji indentured laborers and some free immigrants) and Chinese Caribbean (largely descendants of free Chinese immigrants and some indentured workers), and Indigenous Caribbean (descendants of the indigenous people of the Caribbean with some degree of admixture).

As of 2024, the Caribbean population is estimated to be approximately 44.8 million, with a growth rate of around 0.54% from the previous year.

Culture

Main article: Caribbean culture

• List of Caribbean music genres

See also

• Afro-Caribbean
• British African-Caribbean people
• Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean
• Caribbean region of Colombia
• Indo-Caribbean
• Asian Caribbean
• White Caribbean
• West Indian