Caribbean people are the people born in or inhabitants of the
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
region or people of Caribbean descent living outside the Caribbean. The Caribbean region was initially populated by
Amerindians
In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...
from several different
Kalinago
The Kalinago, also called Island Caribs or simply Caribs, are an Indigenous people of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. They may have been related to the Mainland Caribs (Kalina) of South America, but they spoke an unrelated language know ...
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.
Modern Caribbean people usually further identify by their own specific ethnic ancestry, therefore constituting various subgroups, of which are:
Afro-Caribbean
Afro-Caribbean or African Caribbean people are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern Afro-Caribbean people descend from the Indigenous peoples of Africa, Africans (primarily fr ...
(largely descendants of bonded African slaves),
Multiracial Caribbean (descendants of two or more ethnicities, such as
Mulattos
( , ) is a racial classification that refers to people of mixed African and European ancestry only. When speaking or writing about a singular woman in English, the word is (). The use of this term began in the United States shortly ...
,
Mestizos
( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed Ethnic groups in Europe, European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to ...
and
Douglas
Douglas may refer to:
People
* Douglas (given name)
* Douglas (surname)
Animals
* Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking
* Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil ...
),
Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
/
Latino-Caribbean (
Spanish-speaking Caribbean people who largely descend from solely or a mixture of
Spaniards
Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance-speaking ethnic group native to the Iberian Peninsula, primarily associated with the modern nation-state of Spain. Genetically and ethnolinguistically, Spaniards belong to the broader Southern a ...
, West Africans and
Taino peoples),
White Caribbean
White Caribbean or European Caribbean is the term for people who are born in the Caribbean whose ancestors are from Europe or people who emigrated to the Caribbean from Europe and had acquired citizenship in their respective Caribbean countries. ...
(largely descendants of
European colonizers),
Asian Caribbean
Asian Caribbean people are Caribbean people who trace their full or a partial ancestry to Asia. The majority of the modern Asian Caribbean populations were the result of indentured labourers that were brought to the colonial Caribbean after the ...
who are mainly divided between
Indo-Caribbean
Indo-Caribbean or Indian-Caribbean people are people from the Caribbean who trace their ancestry to the Indian subcontinent. They are descendants of the Jahaji indentured laborers from British India, who were brought by the British, Dutch, and ...
(largely descendants of
Indian jahaji indentured laborers and some free immigrants) and
Chinese Caribbean
Chinese Caribbean people (sometimes Sino-Caribbean people ) are people who are of predominately of Han Chinese ethnic origins living throughout the Caribbean. There are small but significant populations of Chinese and their descendants in all cou ...
(largely descendants of free Chinese immigrants and some indentured workers), and
Indigenous Caribbean (largely 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
*
List of Caribbean music genres
Caribbean music genres are very diverse. They are each synthesis of Music of Africa, African, European, Asian and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous influences, largely created by descendants of African enslaved people (see Afro-Carib ...
See also
*
Afro-Caribbean
Afro-Caribbean or African Caribbean people are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern Afro-Caribbean people descend from the Indigenous peoples of Africa, Africans (primarily fr ...
*
British African-Caribbean people
British African-Caribbean people or British Afro-Caribbean people are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens or residents of recent Caribbean heritage who further trace much of their ancestry to West Africa, West and Ce ...
*
Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean
At the time of first contact between Europe and the Americas, the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean included the Taíno of the northern Lesser Antilles, most of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas, the Kalinago of the Lesser Antilles, the Cigua ...
*
Caribbean region of Colombia
*
Indo-Caribbean
Indo-Caribbean or Indian-Caribbean people are people from the Caribbean who trace their ancestry to the Indian subcontinent. They are descendants of the Jahaji indentured laborers from British India, who were brought by the British, Dutch, and ...
*
Asian Caribbean
Asian Caribbean people are Caribbean people who trace their full or a partial ancestry to Asia. The majority of the modern Asian Caribbean populations were the result of indentured labourers that were brought to the colonial Caribbean after the ...
*
White Caribbean
White Caribbean or European Caribbean is the term for people who are born in the Caribbean whose ancestors are from Europe or people who emigrated to the Caribbean from Europe and had acquired citizenship in their respective Caribbean countries. ...
*
West Indian
A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED''), the term ''West Indian'' in 1597 described the indigenous inhabitants of the West In ...
*
West Indian American
Caribbean Americans or West Indian Americans are Americans who trace their ancestry to the West Indies in particular or Caribbean in general. Caribbean Americans are a multi-ethnic and multi-racial group that trace their ancestry further in tim ...
*
Caribbean Canadians
References
External links
{{Caribbean diaspora