Back Karibiese gebied AF Karibik ALS ካሪቢያን AM الكاريبي Arabic كاريبى ARZ Caribe (rexón) AST Kariba is Antilla AVK Karib hövzəsi AZ کارائیپ AZB Карыбы BE

Caribbean


This article is about the group of islands. For the body of water surrounding them, see Caribbean Sea. For the indigenous inhabitants of the Caribbean or people of Caribbean descent, see Caribbean people. For other uses, see Caribbean (disambiguation).
Caribbean
Area239,681 km2 (92,541 sq mi)
Population44,182,048[1][2]
Population density151.5/km2 (392/sq mi)
Ethnic groupsAfro-Caribbean, Latino or Hispanic, Indigenous Caribbean (Taino) (Spanish, Portuguese, Criollo, Mestizo, Mulatto, Pardo, and Zambo), Indian, European, Chinese, Jewish, Arab, Amerindian, Javanese,[3] Hmong, Multiracial
ReligionsChristianity, Hinduism, Islam, Afro-American religions, Traditional African religions, Rastafari, Native American religions, Judaism, Buddhism, Chinese folk religions (incl. Confucianism and Taoism), Bahá'í, Kebatinan, Sikhism, Irreligion, others
DemonymCaribbean, West Indian
Countries13
Dependencies12
Languages
Time zonesUTC−05:00 to UTC−04:00
Internet TLDMultiple
Calling codeMultiple
Largest cities
UN M49 code029 – Caribbean
419 – Latin America and the Caribbean
019 – Americas
001 – World

The Caribbean (/ˌkærɪˈbiːən, kəˈrɪbiən/ KARR-ib-EE-ən, kə-RIB-ee-ən, locally /ˈkærɪbiæn/ KARR-ib-ee-an;[4] Spanish: el Caribe; French: les Caraïbes; Dutch: de Caraïben) is a subregion of the Americas that includes the Caribbean Sea and its islands, some of which are surrounded by the Caribbean Sea[5] and some of which border both the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean;[6] the nearby coastal areas on the mainland are often also included in the region. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, and north of South America.

Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region has more than 700 islands, islets, reefs, and cays. Island arcs delineate the northern and eastern edges of the Caribbean Sea:[7] the Greater Antilles in the north and the Lesser Antilles, which includes the Leeward Antilles, in the east and south. The nearby Lucayan Archipelago, comprising The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, is considered to be a part of the Caribbean despite not bordering the Caribbean Sea. All the islands in the Antilles plus the Lucayan Archipelago form the West Indies, which is often interchangeable with the term Caribbean. On the mainland, Belize, Guyana, and Suriname are often included as parts of the Caribbean due to their political and cultural ties with the region; the eastern and northern coasts of Central and South American countries such as the Bay Islands Department of Honduras, the North and South Caribbean Autonomous Regions of Nicaragua, the Limón Province of Costa Rica, Colón Province of Panama, and the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina in Colombia are also occasionally considered culturally Caribbean.[8]

Geopolitically, the islands of the Caribbean are often regarded as a subregion of North America, though sometimes they are included in Middle America or left as a subregion of their own[9][10] and are organized into 33 political entities, including 13 sovereign states, 12 dependencies, one disputed territory, and seven other overseas territories. From December 15, 1954, to October 10, 2010, there was a territory known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five islands, all of which were Dutch dependencies.[11] From January 3, 1958, to May 31, 1962, there was also a short-lived political union called the West Indies Federation composed of ten English-speaking Caribbean territories, all of which were then British dependencies.

Due to a history of waves of immigration brought by colonization by the Spanish, English, Dutch, and French, the Atlantic slave trade from Africa, and Indentured servitude from Asia, as well as modern immigration, the modern Caribbean is one of the most ethnically diverse regions on the planet.

  1. ^ "World Population Prospects 2022". population.un.org. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  2. ^ "World Population Prospects 2022: Demographic indicators by region, subregion and country, annually for 1950-2100" (XSLX). population.un.org ("Total Population, as of 1 July (thousands)"). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  3. ^ McWhorter, John H. (2005). Defining Creole. Oxford University Press US. p. 379. ISBN 978-0-19-516670-5.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference dce was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Engerman, Stanley L. (2000). "A Population History of the Caribbean". In Haines, Michael R.; Steckel, Richard Hall (eds.). A Population History of North America. Cambridge University Press. pp. 483–528. ISBN 978-0-521-49666-7. OCLC 41118518.
  6. ^ Hillman, Richard S.; D'Agostino, Thomas J., eds. (2003). Understanding the contemporary Caribbean. London, UK: Lynne Rienner. ISBN 978-1588266637. OCLC 300280211.
  7. ^ Asann, Ridvan (2007). A Brief History of the Caribbean (Revised ed.). New York: Facts on File, Inc. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-8160-3811-4.
  8. ^ Higman, B. W. (2011). A Concise History of the Caribbean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. xi. ISBN 978-0521043489.
  9. ^ "North America" Archived 2015-05-03 at the Wayback Machine. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia; "... associated with the continent is Greenland, the largest island in the world, and such offshore groups as the Arctic Archipelago, the Bahamas, the Greater and Lesser Antilles, the Queen Charlotte Islands, and the Aleutian Islands," but also "North America is bounded ... on the south by the Caribbean Sea," and "according to some authorities, North America begins not at the Isthmus of Panama but at the narrows of Tehuantepec."
  10. ^ The World: Geographic Overview, The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency; "North America is commonly understood to include the island of Greenland, the isles of the Caribbean, and to extend south all the way to the Isthmus of Panama."
  11. ^ The Netherlands Antilles: The joy of six, The Economist Magazine, April 29, 2010

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