Americans of West Indian (Caribbean) birth or descent
Ethnic group
Caribbean AmericansDistribution of Caribbean Americans |
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13 million (about 4% of total U.S. population) |
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Mainly in the metropolitan area of New York and Miami, to a lesser degree Orlando, Tampa, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and Atlanta, among others. Majority in the states of New York, Florida, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland and Georgia and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Smaller populations in Texas, California, Illinois, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Detroit, Louisiana and Rhode Island. |
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American English, Dutch, English-based creole languages (Jamaican Patois, Guyanese Creole, Trinidadian Creole, Tobagonian Creole, Bajan Creole, Sranan Tongo, Bahamian Creole, Virgin Islands Creole, etc.), French, French-based creole languages (Haitian Creole, Antillean Creole), Caribbean Spanish (Dominican Spanish, Puerto Rican Spanish, Cuban Spanish), Caribbean Hindustani, Chinese |
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Predominantly: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam
Minority: Rastafari, Traditional African Religion, Afro-American religions, Amerindian Religion, Buddhism, Judaism, Jainism, Baháʼí, East Asian religions |
Caribbean born Populations, 1960-2009[1]
Year
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Number
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1960
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1970
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1980
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1990
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2000
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2009
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Caribbean Americans or West Indian Americans are Americans who trace their ancestry to the Caribbean. Caribbean Americans are a multi-ethnic and multi-racial group that trace their ancestry further in time to Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. As of 2016, about 13 million — about 4% of the total U.S. population — have Caribbean ancestry.[2]
The Caribbean is the source of the United States' earliest and largest island immigrant group and the primary source of growth of the islander population in the U.S. The region has exported more of its people than any other region of the world since the abolition of slavery in 1834.[3]
The largest Caribbean immigrant sources to the U.S. are Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. U.S. citizens from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands also migrate to the US proper (known as Stateside Puerto Ricans and Stateside Virgin Islands Americans, respectively).