The Caribbean (/ˌkærɪˈbiːən, kəˈrɪbiən/ KARR-ib-EE-ən, kə-RIB-ee-ən, locally /ˈkærɪbiæn/ KARR-ib-ee-an; Spanish: el Caribe; French: les Caraïbes; Dutch: de Caraïben), is a subregion in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America to the west, and South America to the south, it comprises numerous islands, cays, islets, reefs, and banks. It includes the Lucayan Archipelago, Greater Antilles, and Lesser Antilles of the West Indies; the Quintana Roo islands and Belizean islands of the Yucatán Peninsula; and the Bay Islands, Miskito Cays, Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina, and Corn Islands of Central America. It also includes the coastal areas on the continental mainland of the Americas bordering the region from the Yucatán Peninsula in North America through Central America to the Guianas in South America.

Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region has thousands of islands, islets, reefs, and cays. Island arcs delineate the northern and eastern edges of the Caribbean Sea: the Greater Antilles in the north and the Lesser Antilles, which includes the Leeward Islands, Windward Islands, and the Leeward Antilles, to the east and south. The nearby northwestern Lucayan Archipelago, comprising The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the island of Barbados in the Lesser Antilles, are considered to be a part of the Caribbean despite not bordering the Caribbean Sea. All the islands in the Antilles, including the Lucayan Archipelago, form the West Indies, a term often interchangeable with the Caribbean. The archipelago of Bermuda is not part of the Caribbean, as it lies in the Sargasso Sea to the north, but it is an associate member of the Caribbean Community.

On the continental mainland of the Americas, the Caribbean coasts of Mexico, Central America, and South America, including the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, Bay Islands Department of Honduras, the North and South Caribbean Autonomous Regions of Nicaragua, the Limón Province of Costa Rica, Cartagena and Barranquilla in Colombia, Maracaibo and Cumaná in Venezuela, are considered part of Caribbean. As with the coastal areas of the mainland, Belize, Panama, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana are often completely included within the Caribbean due to their strong political and cultural ties with the region.

Geopolitically, the islands of the Caribbean are often regarded as a subregion of North America, though sometimes they are included in Middle America, or regarded as its own subregion as the Caribbean. The Caribbean is sometimes considered alongside Latin America as a region.

Generally, the Caribbean region is organized into 33 political entities, including 13 sovereign states, 12 dependencies, 7 overseas territories, and various disputed territories. From 15 December 1954 to 10 October 2010, there was a territory known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five islands, all of which were Dutch dependencies. From 3 January 1958 to 31 May 1962, there was also a short-lived political union called the British West Indies Federation composed of ten English-speaking Caribbean territories, all of which were then British dependencies.

The modern Caribbean is one of the most ethnically diverse regions on the planet, as a result of colonization by the Spanish, English, Dutch, and French; the Atlantic slave trade from Sub-Saharan Africa; indentured servitude from the Indian subcontinent and Asia; as well as modern immigration from around the world.

The region takes its name from the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

The two most prevalent pronunciations of "Caribbean" outside the Caribbean are /ˌkærɪˈbiːən/ (KARR-ə-BEE-ən), with the primary stress on the third syllable, and /kəˈrɪbiən/ (kə-RIB-ee-ən), with the stress on the second. Most authorities of the last century preferred the stress on the third syllable. This is the older of the two pronunciations, but the stressed-second-syllable variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer /ˌkærɪˈbiːən/ (KARR-ə-BEE-ən) while North American speakers more typically use /kəˈrɪbiən/ (kə-RIB-ee-ən), but major American dictionaries and other sources list the stress on the third syllable as more common in American English too. According to the American version of Oxford Online Dictionaries, the stress on the second syllable is becoming more common in UK English and is increasingly considered "by some" to be more up to date and more "correct".

The Oxford Online Dictionaries claim the stress on the second syllable is the most common pronunciation in the Caribbean itself, but according to the Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, the most common pronunciation in Caribbean English stresses the first syllable instead, /ˈkærɪbiæn/ (KARR-ih-bee-an).

The word Caribbean has multiple uses. Its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to Africa, slavery, European colonisation and the plantation system.

• The United Nations geoscheme for the Americas presents the Caribbean as a distinct region within the Americas.
• Physiographically, the Caribbean region is mainly a chain of islands surrounding the Caribbean Sea. To the north, the region is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and the Northern Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the east and northeast. To the south lies the coastline of the continent of South America.

Flag	Country or territory	Sovereignty	Status	Area (km)	Population (2021 est.)	Density (people per km)	Capital
	Anguilla	United Kingdom	Overseas territory	91	15,753	164.8	The Valley
	Antigua and Barbuda	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	442	93,219	199.1	St. John's
	Aruba	Kingdom of the Netherlands	Constituent kingdom	180	106,537	594.4	Oranjestad
	The Bahamas	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	13,943	407,906	24.5	Nassau
	Barbados	Independent	Republic	430	287,025	595.3	Bridgetown
	Bay Islands Department	Honduras	Department	229	110,000	480	Coxen Hole
	Belize	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	22,966	400,031	17.79	Belmopan
	Bermuda	United Kingdom	Overseas territory	53.2	63,913	1,338	Hamilton
	Bonaire	Kingdom of the Netherlands	Special Municipality	294	20,104	41.1	Kralendijk
	British Virgin Islands	United Kingdom	Overseas territory	151	31,122	152.3	Road Town
	Cayman Islands	United Kingdom	Overseas territory	264	68,136	212.1	George Town
	Cuba	Independent	Republic	109,886	11,256,372	102.0	Havana
	Curaçao	Kingdom of the Netherlands	Constituent kingdom	444	190,338	317.1	Willemstad
	Dominica	Independent	Republic	751	72,412	89.2	Roseau
	Dominican Republic	Independent	Republic	48,671	11,117,873	207.3	Santo Domingo
	Federal Dependencies of Venezuela	Venezuela	Dependency	342	2,155	6.3	Gran Roque
	French Guiana	France	Overseas department	83,846	297,449	3.6	Cayenne
	Grenada	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	344	124,610	302.3	St. George's
	Guadeloupe	France	Overseas department	1,628	396,051	246.7	Basse-Terre
	Guyana	Independent	Republic	214,970	804,567	3.502	Georgetown
	Haiti	Independent	Republic	27,750	11,447,569	361.5	Port-au-Prince
	Jamaica	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	10,991	2,827,695	247.4	Kingston
	Martinique	France	Overseas department	1,128	368,796	352.6	Fort-de-France
	Montserrat	United Kingdom	Overseas territory	102	4,417	58.8	Plymouth (Brades)
	Navassa Island	United States/Haiti	Territory (uninhabited)	5	0	0.0	n/a
	Panama	Independent	Republic	8,409.3	4,351,267	150	Panama City
	Puerto Rico	United States	Commonwealth	9,100	3,256,028	448.9	San Juan
	Quintana Roo	Mexico	State	44,705.2	1,857,985	42	Chetumal
	Saba	Netherlands	Special municipality	13	1,537	118.2	The Bottom
	San Andrés and Providencia	Colombia	Department	52.5	75,167	1431	San Andrés
	Saint Barthélemy	France	Overseas collectivity	21	7,448	354.7	Gustavia
	Saint Kitts and Nevis	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	261	47,606	199.2	Basseterre
	Saint Lucia	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	539	179,651	319.1	Castries
	Saint Martin	France	Overseas collectivity	54	29,820	552.2	Marigot
	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	389	104,332	280.2	Kingstown
	Sint Eustatius	Netherlands	Special municipality	21	2,739	130.4	Oranjestad
	Sint Maarten	Kingdom of the Netherlands	Constituent kingdom	34	44,042	1176.7	Philipsburg
	Suriname	Independent	Republic	163,821	612,985	3.9	Paramaribo
	Trinidad and Tobago	Independent	Republic	5,130	1,525,663	261.0	Port of Spain
	Turks and Caicos Islands	United Kingdom	Overseas territory	948	45,114	34.8	Cockburn Town
	United States Virgin Islands	United States	Territory	347	100,091	317.0	Charlotte Amalie
Total				235,897	44,636,789	189.4

The oldest evidence of humans in the Caribbean is in southern Trinidad at Banwari Trace, where remains have been found from 7,000 years ago. These pre-ceramic sites, which belong to the Archaic (pre-ceramic) age, have been termed Ortoiroid. The earliest archaeological evidence of human settlement in Hispaniola dates to about 3600 BC, but the reliability of these finds is questioned. Consistent dates of 3100 BC appear in Cuba. The earliest dates in the Lesser Antilles are from 2000 BC in Antigua. A lack of pre-ceramic sites in the Windward Islands and differences in technology suggest that these Archaic settlers may have Central American origins. Whether an Ortoiroid colonization of the islands took place is uncertain, but there is little evidence of one.

DNA studies changed some of the traditional beliefs about pre-Columbian indigenous history. According to National Geographic, "studies confirm that a wave of pottery-making farmers—known as Ceramic Age people—set out in canoes from the northeastern coast of South America starting some 2,500 years ago and island-hopped across the Caribbean. They were not, however, the first colonizers. On many islands they encountered a foraging people who arrived some 6,000 or 7,000 years ago ... The ceramicists, who are related to today's Arawak-speaking peoples, supplanted the earlier foraging inhabitants—presumably through disease or violence—as they settled new islands."

Between 400 BC and 200 BC, the first ceramic-using agriculturalists, the Saladoid culture, entered Trinidad from South America. They expanded up the Orinoco River to Trinidad, and then spread rapidly up the islands of the Caribbean. Some time after 250 AD another group, the Barancoid, entered Trinidad. The Barancoid society collapsed along the Orinoco around 650 AD and another group, the Arauquinoid, expanded into these areas and up the Caribbean chain. Around 1300 AD a new group, the Mayoid, entered Trinidad and remained the dominant culture until Spanish settlement.

At the time of the European discovery of most of the islands of the Caribbean, three major Amerindian indigenous peoples lived on the islands: the Taíno in the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas and the Leeward Islands; the Island Caribs and Galibi in the Windward Islands; and the Ciboney in western Cuba. The Taínos are subdivided into Classic Taínos, who occupied Puerto Rico and part of Hispaniola; Western Taínos, who occupied the Bahamian archipelago, Cuba, Jamaica, and part of Hispaniola; and the Eastern Taínos, who occupied the northern Lesser Antilles. The southern Lesser Antilles, including Guadeloupe, Dominica, and Trinidad, were inhabited by both Carib-speaking and Arawak-speaking groups.

Soon after Christopher Columbus came to the Caribbean, both Portuguese and Spanish explorers began claiming territories in Central and South America. These early colonies brought gold to Europe; most specifically England, the Netherlands, and France. These nations hoped to establish profitable colonies in the Caribbean. Colonial rivalries made the Caribbean a cockpit for European wars for centuries.

Columbus, and the early colonists of Hispaniola, treated the indigenous peoples brutally, even enslaving children. In 1512, after pressure from Dominican friars, the Laws of Burgos were introduced by the Spanish Crown to better protect the rights of the New World natives. The Spanish used a form of slavery called the Encomienda, where slaves would be awarded to the conquistadors, who were charged with protecting and converting their slaves. This had a devastating impact on the population, so starting in 1503, slaves from Africa were imported to the colony.

While early slave traders were Portuguese and Spanish, known as the First Atlantic System, by the 17th century the trade became dominated by British, French, and Dutch merchants. This was known as the Second Atlantic System. 5 million African slaves would be taken to the Caribbean, and around half would be traded to the British Caribbean islands. Slavery was abolished first in the Dutch Empire in 1814. Spain abolished slavery in its empire in 1811, with the exceptions of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo. Slavery was not abolished in Cuba until 1886. Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, and slavery proper in 1833. France abolished slavery in its colonies in 1848.

The Caribbean was known for pirates, especially between 1640 and 1680. The term "buccaneer" is often used to describe a pirate operating in this region. The Caribbean region was war-torn throughout much of its colonial history, but the wars were often based in Europe, with only minor battles fought in the Caribbean. Some wars, however, were born of political turmoil in the Caribbean itself.

In 1791, a slave rebellion in the French colony of Saint-Domingue led to the establishment in 1804 of Haiti, the first republic in the Caribbean. Neighboring Santo Domingo (now Dominican Republic) would attain its independence on three separate occasions in 1821, 1844 and 1865. Cuba became independent in 1898 following American intervention in the War of Independence during the Spanish-American war. Following the war, Spain's last colony in the Americas, Puerto Rico, became an unincorporated territory of the United States.

Between the 1960s and '80s, most of the British holdings in the Caribbean achieved political independence, starting with Jamaica in 1962, then Trinidad and Tobago (1962), British Guiana (1966), Barbados (1966), the Bahamas (1973), Grenada (1974), Dominica (1978), St. Lucia (1979), St. Vincent (1979), Antigua and Barbuda (1981), and St. Kitts and Nevis (1983). Presently, the United States, Britain, France and the Netherlands still have some Caribbean possessions.

The decline of the export industries meant a need to diversify the economies of the Caribbean territories. The tourism industry started developing in the early 20th century, rapidly developing in the 1960s when regular international flights made vacations affordable and is now a $50 billion industry. Another industry that developed in the early 20th century was offshore banking and financial services, particularly in The Bahamas and the Cayman Islands, as the proximity of the Caribbean islands to North America made them an attractive location for branches of foreign banks seeking to avail themselves of less complicated regulations and lower tax rates.

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The United States has conducted military operations in the Caribbean for at least 100 years.

Since the Monroe Doctrine, the United States gained a major influence on most Caribbean nations. In the early part of the 20th century this influence was extended by participation in the Banana Wars. Victory in the Spanish–American War and the signing of the Platt Amendment in 1901 ensured that the United States would have the right to interfere in Cuban political and economic affairs, militarily if necessary. After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, relations deteriorated rapidly leading to the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and successive US attempts to destabilize the island, based upon Cold War fears of the Soviet threat. The US invaded and occupied Hispaniola for 19 years (1915–34), subsequently dominating the Haitian economy through aid and loan repayments. The US invaded Haiti again in 1994. After the 2004 Haitian coup d'état, the US were accused by CARICOM of arranging it to remove elected Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In 1965, 23,000 US troops were sent to the Dominican Republic to quash a local uprising against military rule (see Dominican Civil War). President Lyndon Johnson had ordered the invasion to stem what he deemed to be a "Communist threat". However, the mission appeared ambiguous and was roundly condemned throughout the hemisphere as a return to gunboat diplomacy. In 1983, the US invaded Grenada to remove populist left-wing leader Maurice Bishop. The US maintains a naval military base in Cuba at Guantanamo Bay. The base is one of five unified commands whose "area of responsibility" is Latin America and the Caribbean. The command is headquartered in Miami, Florida.

• 
  Counter-attack by Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces supported by T-34 tanks near Playa Giron during the Bay of Pigs Invasion, 19 April 1961.
• 
  A Marine heavy machine gunner monitors a position along the international neutral corridor in Santo Domingo, 1965.
• 
  A Soviet-made BTR-60 armored personnel carrier seized by US forces during Operation Urgent Fury (1983)
• 
  US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, Bell AH-1 Cobra and Bell OH-58 Kiowa helicopters on deck of the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) off Haiti, 1994.

The geography and climate in the Caribbean region varies: Some islands in the region have relatively flat terrain of non-volcanic origin. These islands include Aruba (which has minor volcanic features), Curaçao, Barbados, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Saint Croix, the Bahamas, and Antigua. Others possess rugged towering mountain-ranges like the islands of Saint Martin, Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Dominica, Montserrat, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, Saint Thomas, Saint John, Tortola, Grenada, Saint Vincent, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Trinidad and Tobago.

Definitions of the terms Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles often vary. The Virgin Islands as part of the Puerto Rican bank are sometimes included with the Greater Antilles. The term Lesser Antilles is often used to define an island arc that includes Grenada but excludes Trinidad and Tobago and the Leeward Antilles.

The waters of the Caribbean Sea host large, migratory schools of fish, turtles, and coral reef formations. The Puerto Rico Trench, located on the fringe of the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea just to the north of the island of Puerto Rico, is the deepest point in all of the Atlantic Ocean.

The region sits in the line of several major shipping routes with the Panama Canal connecting the western Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean.

The climate of the area is tropical, varying from tropical rainforest in some areas to tropical monsoon and tropical savanna in others. There are also some locations that are arid climates with considerable drought in some years, and the peaks of mountains tend to have cooler temperate climates.

Rainfall varies with elevation, size and water currents, such as the cool upwellings that keep the ABC islands arid. Warm, moist trade winds blow consistently from the east, creating both rain forest and semi arid climates across the region. The tropical rainforest climates include lowland areas near the Caribbean Sea from Costa Rica north to Belize, as well as the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, while the more seasonal dry tropical savanna climates are found in Cuba, northern Colombia and Venezuela, and southern Yucatán, Mexico. Arid climates are found along the extreme northern coast of Venezuela out to the islands including Aruba and Curaçao, as well as the northwestern tip of Yucatán.

While the region generally is sunny much of the year, the wet season from May through November sees more frequent cloud cover (both broken and overcast), while the dry season from December through April is more often clear to mostly sunny. Seasonal rainfall is divided into 'dry' and 'wet' seasons, with the latter six months of the year being wetter than the first half. The air temperature is hot much of the year, varying from 25 to 33 C (77 F to 90 F) between the wet and dry seasons. Seasonally, monthly mean temperatures vary from only about 5 C (7 F) in the northern most regions, to less than 3 C in the southernmost areas of the Caribbean.

Hurricane season is from June to November, but they occur more frequently in August and September and more common in the northern islands of the Caribbean. Hurricanes that sometimes batter the region usually strike northwards of Grenada and to the west of Barbados. The principal hurricane belt arcs to northwest of the island of Barbados in the Eastern Caribbean. A great example being recent events of Hurricane Irma devastating the island of Saint Martin during the 2017 hurricane season.

Sea surface temperatures change little annually, normally running from 30 °C (87 °F) in the warmest months to 26 °C (76 °F) in the coolest months. The air temperature is warm year round, in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and only varies from winter to summer about 2–5 degrees on the southern islands and about a 10–20 degrees difference on the northern islands of the Caribbean. The northern islands, like the Bahamas, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, may be influenced by continental masses during winter months, such as cold fronts.

Aruba: Latitude 12°N

Puerto Rico: Latitude 18°N

Cuba: at Latitude 22°N

Lucayan Archipelago

•  The Bahamas
•  Turks and Caicos Islands (United Kingdom)

Greater Antilles

•  Cayman Islands (United Kingdom)
•  Cuba
• Hispaniola
  •  Haiti
  •  Dominican Republic
•  Jamaica
•  Puerto Rico (U.S. Commonwealth)
  • Spanish Virgin Islands
• Navassa Island

Lesser Antilles

• Leeward Islands
  •  United States Virgin Islands (U.S.)
    • Saint Croix
    • Saint Thomas
    • Saint John
    • Water Island
  •  British Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
    • Tortola
    • Virgin Gorda
    • Anegada
    • Jost Van Dyke
  •  Anguilla (United Kingdom)
  •  Antigua and Barbuda
    • Antigua
    • Barbuda
    • Redonda
  • Saint Martin, politically divided between
    •  Saint Martin (France)
    •  Sint Maarten (Kingdom of the Netherlands)
  •  Saba (Caribbean Netherlands, Netherlands)
  •  Sint Eustatius (Caribbean Netherlands, Netherlands)
  •  Saint Barthélemy (French Antilles, France)
  •  Saint Kitts and Nevis
    • Saint Kitts
    • Nevis
  •  Montserrat (United Kingdom)
  •  Guadeloupe (French Antilles, France) including
    • Les Saintes
    • Marie-Galante
    • La Désirade
• Windward Islands
  •  Dominica
  •  Martinique (French Antilles, France)
  •  Saint Lucia
  •  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
    • Saint Vincent
    • The Grenadines
  •  Grenada
    • Grenada
    • Carriacou and Petite Martinique
  •  Barbados
  •  Trinidad and Tobago
    • Tobago
    • Trinidad
• Leeward Antilles
  •  Aruba (Kingdom of the Netherlands)
  •  Curaçao (Kingdom of the Netherlands)
  •  Bonaire (Caribbean Netherlands, Netherlands)

All islands at some point were, and a few still are, colonies of European nations; a few are overseas or dependent territories:

• British West Indies/Anglophone Caribbean – Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bay Islands, Guyana, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Croix (briefly), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago (from 1797) and the Turks and Caicos Islands
• Danish West Indies – Possession of Denmark-Norway before 1814, then Denmark, present-day United States Virgin Islands
• Dutch West Indies – Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, Bay Islands (briefly), Saint Croix (briefly), Tobago, Surinam and Virgin Islands
• French West Indies – Anguilla (briefly), Antigua and Barbuda (briefly), Dominica, Dominican Republic (briefly), Grenada, Haiti (formerly Saint-Domingue), Montserrat (briefly), Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Eustatius (briefly), Sint Maarten, St. Kitts (briefly), Tobago (briefly), Saint Croix, the current French overseas départements of French Guiana, Martinique and Guadeloupe (including Marie-Galante, La Désirade and Les Saintes), the current French overseas collectivities of Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin
• Portuguese West Indies – present-day Barbados, known as Os Barbados in the 16th century when the Portuguese claimed the island en route to Brazil. The Portuguese left Barbados abandoned years before the British arrived.
• Spanish West Indies – Cuba, Hispaniola (present-day Dominican Republic), Haiti (until 1659, lost to France), Puerto Rico, Jamaica (until 1655, lost to Great Britain), the Cayman Islands (until 1670 to Great Britain) Trinidad (until 1797, lost to Great Britain) and Bay Islands (until 1643, lost to Great Britain), coastal islands of Central America (except Belize), and some Caribbean coastal islands of Panama, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela.
• Swedish West Indies – present-day French Saint-Barthélemy, Guadeloupe (briefly) and Tobago (briefly).
• Courlander West Indies – Tobago (until 1691)

The British West Indies were united by the United Kingdom into a West Indies Federation between 1958 and 1962. The independent countries formerly part of the B.W.I. still have a joint cricket team that competes in Test matches, One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals. The West Indian cricket team includes the South American nation of Guyana, the only former British colony on the mainland of that continent.

In addition, these countries share the University of the West Indies as a regional entity. The university consists of three main campuses in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, a smaller campus in the Bahamas and Resident Tutors in other contributing territories such as Trinidad.

The Caribbean islands have one of the most diverse eco systems in the world. The animals, fungi and plants, and have been classified as one of Conservation International's biodiversity hotspots because of their exceptionally diverse terrestrial and marine ecosystems, ranging from montane cloud forests, to tropical rainforest, to cactus scrublands. The region also contains about 8% (by surface area) of the world's coral reefs along with extensive seagrass meadows, both of which are frequently found in the shallow marine waters bordering the island and continental coasts of the region.

For the fungi, there is a modern checklist based on nearly 90,000 records derived from specimens in reference collections, published accounts and field observations. That checklist includes more than 11,250 species of fungi recorded from the region. As its authors note, the work is far from exhaustive, and it is likely that the true total number of fungal species already known from the Caribbean is higher. The true total number of fungal species occurring in the Caribbean, including species not yet recorded, is likely far higher given the generally accepted estimate that only about 7% of all fungi worldwide have been discovered. Though the amount of available information is still small, a first effort has been made to estimate the number of fungal species endemic to some Caribbean islands. For Cuba, 2200 species of fungi have been tentatively identified as possible endemics of the island; for Puerto Rico, the number is 789 species; for the Dominican Republic, the number is 699 species; for Trinidad and Tobago, the number is 407 species.

Many of the ecosystems of the Caribbean islands have been devastated by deforestation, pollution, and human encroachment. The arrival of the first humans is correlated with extinction of giant owls and dwarf ground sloths. The hotspot contains dozens of highly threatened animals (ranging from birds, to mammals and reptiles), fungi and plants. Examples of threatened animals include the Puerto Rican amazon, two species of solenodon (giant shrews) in Cuba and the Hispaniola island, and the Cuban crocodile.

The region's coral reefs, which contain about 70 species of hard corals and from 500 to 700 species of reef-associated fishes have undergone rapid decline in ecosystem integrity in recent years, and are considered particularly vulnerable to global warming and ocean acidification. According to a UNEP report, the Caribbean coral reefs might go extinct in next 20 years due to human population explosion along the coast lines, overfishing, the pollution of coastal areas and global warming.

Some Caribbean islands have terrain that Europeans found suitable for cultivation for agriculture. Tobacco was an important early crop during the colonial era, but was eventually overtaken by sugarcane production as the region's staple crop. Sugar was produced from sugarcane for export to Europe. Cuba and Barbados were historically the largest producers of sugar. The tropical plantation system thus came to dominate Caribbean settlement. Other islands were found to have terrain unsuited for agriculture, for example Dominica, which remains heavily forested. The islands in the southern Lesser Antilles, Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, are extremely arid, making them unsuitable for agriculture. However, they have salt pans that were exploited by the Dutch. Sea water was pumped into shallow ponds, producing coarse salt when the water evaporated.

The natural environmental diversity of the Caribbean islands has led to recent growth in eco-tourism. This type of tourism is growing on islands lacking sandy beaches and dense human populations.

• 
  Epiphytes (bromeliads, climbing palms) in the rainforest of Dominica
• 
  A green and black poison frog, Dendrobates auratus
• 
  Caesalpinia pulcherrima, Guadeloupe
• 
  Costus speciosus, a marsh plant, Guadeloupe
• 
  An Atlantic ghost crab (Ocypode quadrata) in Martinique
• 
  Crescentia cujete, or calabash fruit, Martinique
• 
  Thalassoma bifasciatum (bluehead wrasse fish), over Bispira brunnea (social feather duster worms)
• 
  Two Stenopus hispidus (banded cleaner shrimp) on a Xestospongia muta (giant barrel sponge)
• 
  A pair of Cyphoma signatum (fingerprint cowry), off coastal Haiti
• 
  The Martinique amazon (Amazona martinicana), an extinct species of parrot in the family Psittacidae
• 
  Anastrepha suspensa, a Caribbean fruit fly
• 
  Hemidactylus mabouia, a tropical gecko in Dominica

Life expectancy in some countries of the Caribbean in 2022, according to estimation of the World Bank Group:

Countries & territories	2022				Historical data									recovery from COVID-19: 2019→2022
	All	Male	Female	Sex gap	2014	2014 →2019	2019	2019 →2020	2020	2020 →2021	2021	2021 →2022	2022
Saint Martin	80.55	77.50	83.66	6.16	79.97	0.02	79.98	0.17	80.15	0.23	80.38	0.17	80.55	0.57
Virgin Islands (U.S.)	80.32	77.10	83.70	6.60	78.87	0.80	79.67	0.15	79.82	0.25	80.07	0.25	80.32	0.65
Puerto Rico	79.72	75.58	83.90	8.32	78.93	0.13	79.06	−1.02	78.04	2.12	80.16	−0.44	79.72	0.66
Antigua and Barbuda	79.24	76.51	81.64	5.14	77.86	0.83	78.69	0.15	78.84	−0.34	78.50	0.74	79.24	0.55
Cuba	78.16	75.79	80.56	4.77	77.85	−0.24	77.61	−0.04	77.57	−3.88	73.68	4.47	78.16	0.54
Barbados	77.71	75.68	79.58	3.90	76.48	0.78	77.26	0.14	77.39	0.18	77.57	0.14	77.71	0.45
British Virgin Islands	76.37	73.62	79.26	5.63	75.61	0.25	75.86	−0.01	75.85	−1.36	74.49	1.88	76.37	0.51
Grenada	75.33	72.59	78.30	5.71	74.98	−0.12	74.86	0.06	74.92	0.01	74.94	0.40	75.33	0.47
Aruba	74.99	72.14	77.68	5.54	75.60	0.65	76.25	−0.53	75.72	−1.10	74.63	0.37	74.99	−1.26
Turks and Caicos Islands	74.92	72.17	77.99	5.82	77.14	−1.81	75.33	−0.32	75.00	−0.41	74.59	0.34	74.92	−0.40
Trinidad and Tobago	74.71	71.31	78.15	6.85	74.22	0.01	74.23	0.18	74.41	−1.44	72.97	1.74	74.71	0.48
Sint Maarten	74.41	71.96	77.14	5.18	76.77	−1.34	75.44	−0.85	74.58	−0.61	73.97	0.44	74.41	−1.03
Bahamas	74.36	70.76	77.84	7.09	73.37	−2.16	71.20	1.47	72.68	−1.08	71.60	2.76	74.36	3.15
Dominican Republic	74.17	71.04	77.54	6.49	72.87	0.71	73.58	−0.69	72.89	−0.27	72.61	1.56	74.17	0.59
Dominica	72.98	69.88	76.45	6.58	69.43	4.12	73.56	0.09	73.65	−0.84	72.81	0.17	72.98	−0.58
St. Kitts and Nevis	72.03	68.68	75.67	6.98	70.97	0.61	71.57	0.05	71.63	0.06	71.68	0.34	72.03	0.45
World	72.00	69.60	74.53	4.93	71.88	1.10	72.98	−0.74	72.24	−0.92	71.33	0.67	72.00	−0.98
Caribbean small states	71.63	68.84	74.50	5.66	72.68	−0.16	72.52	0.06	72.58	−1.58	71.00	0.63	71.63	−0.89
St. Lucia	71.29	68.00	74.89	6.88	72.86	0.58	73.44	−0.03	73.42	−2.30	71.11	0.18	71.29	−2.15
Jamaica	70.63	68.53	72.74	4.20	72.98	−1.22	71.77	0.10	71.87	−1.37	70.50	0.13	70.63	−1.14
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	68.97	66.69	71.73	5.04	74.47	−1.64	72.83	−0.71	72.13	−2.50	69.63	−0.66	68.97	−3.86
Haiti	63.73	60.89	66.69	5.80	62.99	1.27	64.25	−0.20	64.05	−0.86	63.19	0.54	63.73	−0.53
Cayman Islands	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	82.01	—	—	—

• Arawak peoples
  • Igneri
  • Taíno
• Caquetio people
• Ciboney
• Ciguayo
• Garifuna
• Kalina
• Kalinago
• Lucayan
• Macorix
• Raizal

At the time of European contact, the dominant ethnic groups in the Caribbean included the Taíno of the Greater Antilles and northern Lesser Antilles, the Island Caribs of the southern Lesser Antilles, and smaller distinct groups such as the Guanajatabey of western Cuba and the Ciguayo of eastern Hispaniola. The population of the Caribbean is estimated to have been around 750,000 immediately before European contact, although lower and higher figures are given. After contact, social disruption and epidemic diseases such as smallpox and measles (to which they had no natural immunity) led to a decline in the Amerindian population. such as the Kongo, Igbo, Akan, Fon and Yoruba as well as military prisoners from Ireland, who were deported during the Cromwellian reign in England. Immigrants from Britain, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and Denmark also arrived, although the mortality rate was high for both groups.

The population is estimated to have reached 2.2 million by 1800. Immigrants from India, China, Indonesia, and other countries arrived in the mid-19th century as indentured servants. After the ending of the Atlantic slave trade, the population increased naturally. The total regional population was estimated at 37.5 million by 2000.

In Haiti and most of the French, Anglophone and Dutch Caribbean, the population is predominantly of African origin; on many islands there are also significant populations of mixed racial origin (including Mulatto-Creole, Dougla, Mestizo, Quadroon, Cholo, Castizo, Criollo, Zambo, Pardo, Asian Latin Americans, Chindian, Cocoa panyols, and Eurasian), as well as populations of European ancestry: Dutch, English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish ancestry. Asians, especially those of Chinese, Indian descent, and Javanese Indonesians, form a significant minority in parts of the region. Indians form a plurality of the population in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname. Most of their ancestors arrived in the 19th century as indentured laborers.

The Spanish-speaking Caribbean populations are primarily of European, African, or racially mixed origins. Cuba has a European majority, along with a significant population of African ancestry. Puerto Rico has a mixed race majority with a mixture of European-African-Native American (tri-racial), and a large White and West African (black) minority. The Dominican Republic has the largest mixed-race population, primarily descended from Europeans, West Africans, and Amerindians.

The majority of Jamaica is of West African origin, in addition to a significant population of mixed racial background, and has minorities of Chinese, Europeans, Indians, Latinos, Jews, and Arabs. This is a result of years of importation of slaves and indentured laborers, and migration. Most multi-racial Jamaicans refer to themselves as either mixed race or brown. Similar populations can be found in the Caricom states of Belize, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad and Tobago has a multi-racial cosmopolitan society due to the arrivals of Africans, Indians, Chinese, Arabs, Jews, Latinos, and Europeans along with the native indigenous Amerindians population. This multi-racial mix of the Caribbean has created sub-ethnicities that often straddle the boundaries of major ethnicities and include Mulatto-Creole, Mestizo, Pardo, Zambo, Dougla, Chindian, Afro-Asians, Eurasian, Cocoa panyols, and Asian Latinos.

Spanish (64%), French (25%), English (14%), Dutch, Haitian Creole, and Papiamento are the predominant official languages of various countries in the region. However, virtually every Caribbean country has a distinct creole language or dialect that often serves as its vernacular language. Most of these do not enjoy official status, with the aforementioned Haitian Creole and Papiamento being notable exceptions. Other languages such as Caribbean Hindustani, Chinese, Javanese, Arabic, Hmong, Amerindian languages, other African languages, other European languages, and other Indian languages can also be found.

Christianity is the predominant religion in the Caribbean (84.7%). Other religions in the region are Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Rastafari, Buddhism, Chinese folk religion (incl. Taoism and Confucianism), Baháʼí, Jainism, Sikhism, Kebatinan, Traditional African religions, Yoruba (incl. Trinidad Orisha), Afro-American religions, (incl. Santería, Palo, Umbanda, Brujería, Hoodoo, Candomblé, Quimbanda, Orisha, Xangô de Recife, Xangô do Nordeste, Comfa, Espiritismo, Santo Daime, Obeah, Candomblé, Abakuá, Kumina, Winti, Sanse, Cuban Vodú, Dominican Vudú, Louisiana Voodoo, Haitian Vodou, and Vodun).

Caribbean societies are very different from other Western societies in terms of size, culture, and degree of mobility of their citizens. The current economic and political problems the states face individually are common to all Caribbean states. Regional development has contributed to attempts to subdue current problems and avoid projected problems. From a political and economic perspective, regionalism serves to make Caribbean states active participants in current international affairs through collective coalitions. In 1973, the first political regionalism in the Caribbean Basin was created by advances of the English-speaking Caribbean nations through the institution known as the Caribbean Common Market and Community (CARICOM) which is located in Guyana.

Certain scholars have argued both for and against generalizing the political structures of the Caribbean. On the one hand the Caribbean states are politically diverse, ranging from socialist systems towards more capitalist Westminster-style parliamentary systems. Other scholars argue that these differences are superficial, and that they tend to undermine commonalities in the various Caribbean states. Contemporary Caribbean systems seem to reflect a "blending of traditional and modern patterns, yielding hybrid systems that exhibit significant structural variations and divergent constitutional traditions yet ultimately appear to function in similar ways". The political systems of the Caribbean states share similar practices.

The influence of regionalism in the Caribbean is often marginalized. Some scholars believe that regionalism cannot exist in the Caribbean because each small state is unique. On the other hand, scholars also suggest that there are commonalities amongst the Caribbean nations that suggest regionalism exists. "Proximity as well as historical ties among the Caribbean nations has led to cooperation as well as a desire for collective action". These attempts at regionalization reflect the nations' desires to compete in the international economic system.

Furthermore, a lack of interest from other major states promoted regionalism in the region. In recent years, the Caribbean has suffered from a lack of U.S. interest. "With the end of the Cold War, U.S. security and economic interests have been focused on other areas. As a result there has been a significant reduction in U.S. aid and investment to the Caribbean." The lack of international support for these small, relatively poor states, helped regionalism prosper.

Following the Cold War another issue of importance in the Caribbean has been the reduced economic growth of some Caribbean States due to the United States and European Union's allegations of special treatment toward the region by each other.

The Lomé Convention, which allowed banana exports from the former colonies of the Group of African, Caribbean and Pacific states (ACP) to enter Europe cheaply, came into effect in 1976. In 1999, the United States under President Bill Clinton launched a challenge in the World Trade Organization against the EU over Europe's preferential program, known as The World Trade Organization sided in the United States' favour and the beneficial elements of the convention to African, Caribbean and Pacific states have been partially dismantled and replaced by the Cotonou Agreement.

During the US/EU dispute, the United States threatened to impose large tariffs on European Union goods (up to 100%) to pressure Europe to change the agreement with the Caribbean nations in favour of the Cotonou Agreement.

Farmers in the Caribbean have complained of falling profits and rising costs as the Lomé Convention weakens. Some farmers have faced increased pressure to turn towards the cultivation of illegal drugs, which has a higher profit margin and fills the sizable demand for these illegal drugs in North America and Europe.

Many Caribbean nations have sought to deepen ties with the continent of Africa. The African Union-bloc has referred to the Caribbean as the potential "Sixth Region" of the African Union. Some Caribbean states have already moved to join Africa institutions including Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, and the Bahamas which have all became members of the African Export Import Bank. And the Caribbean Development Bank signing a cooperation strategic partnership agreement with the African Development Bank (AfDB) At present Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, and Suriname are at various stages of establishing direct air flights with Africa to boost person-to-person links and boost trade between both regions.

The first inter-regional Africa-Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Summit took place in September 2021. In August 2023 the African Union's African Export–Import Bank officially opened its first Caribbean Community office in Barbados beginning the process of integrating willing Caribbean states as the 6th region of the African Union.[1][2]

Caribbean nations have also started to more closely cooperate in the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force and other instruments to add oversight of the offshore industry. One of the most important associations that deal with regionalism amongst the nations of the Caribbean Basin has been the Association of Caribbean States (ACS). Proposed by CARICOM in 1992, the ACS soon won the support of the other countries of the region. It was founded in July 1994. The ACS maintains regionalism within the Caribbean on issues unique to the Caribbean Basin. Through coalition building, like the ACS and CARICOM, regionalism has become an undeniable part of the politics and economics of the Caribbean. The successes of region-building initiatives are still debated by scholars, yet regionalism remains prevalent throughout the Caribbean.

The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez launched an economic group called the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), which several eastern Caribbean islands joined.

Here are some of the bodies that several islands share in collaboration:

• African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States
• Association of Caribbean States (ACS), Trinidad and Tobago
• Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC), Trinidad and Tobago
• Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organizations (CANTO), Trinidad and Tobago
• Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Guyana
• Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Barbados
• Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDERA), Barbados
• Caribbean Educators Network
• Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC), Saint Lucia
• Caribbean Environment Programme (CEP), UN Environment Programme–administered Regional Seas Programme, secretariat located in Kingston, Jamaica
• Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), Barbados and Jamaica
• Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), Trinidad and Tobago
• Caribbean Food Crops Society, Puerto Rico
• Caribbean Football Union (CFU), Jamaica
• Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA), Florida and Puerto Rico
• Caribbean Initiative (Initiative of the IUCN)
• Caribbean Programme for Economic Competitiveness (CPEC), Saint Lucia
• Caribbean Regional Environmental Programme (CREP), Barbados
• Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), Belize
• Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM), Barbados and Dominican Republic
• Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), Trinidad and Tobago
• Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), Barbados
• Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)
• Foundation for the Development of Caribbean Children, Barbados
• Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Centre (LACNIC), Brazil and Uruguay
• Latin American and the Caribbean Economic System, Venezuela
• Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), Saint Lucia
• United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Chile and Trinidad and Tobago
• University of the West Indies, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Antigua & Barbuda. In addition, the fourth campus, the Open Campus was formed in June 2008 as a result of an amalgamation of the Board for Non-Campus Countries and Distance Education, Schools of Continuing Studies, the UWI Distance Education Centres and Tertiary Level Units. The Open Campus has 42 physical sites in 16 Anglophone Caribbean countries.
• West Indies Cricket Board, Antigua and Barbuda

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

• Anguilla – rice, peas and fish
• Antigua and Barbuda – fungee and pepperpot
• Bahamas – Guava duff, Conch Salad, Peas n' Rice, and conch fritters
• Barbados – cou-cou and flying fish
• Belize – rice and beans, stew chicken with potato salad; white rice, stew beans and fry fish with cole slaw
• British Virgin Islands – fish and fungee
• Cayman Islands – turtle stew, turtle steak, grouper, conch stew, Cayman-style beef with rice and beans, cassava cake
• Colombian Caribbean – rice with coconut milk, arroz con pollo, sancocho, Arab cuisine (due to the large Arab population)
• Cuba – platillo Moros y Cristianos, ropa vieja, lechon, maduros, ajiaco
• Dominica – mountain chicken, rice and peas, dumplings, saltfish, dashin, bakes (fried dumplings), coconut confiture, curry goat, cassava farine, oxtail
• Dominican Republic – arroz con pollo with stewed red kidney beans, pan fried or braised beef, salad/ ensalada de coditos, empanadas, mangú, sancocho
• Grenada – oil down, Roti and rice & chicken
• Guyana – roti and curry, pepperpot, cook-up rice, metemgee, pholourie
• Haiti – griot (fried pork) served with du riz a pois or diri ak pwa (rice and beans)
• Jamaica – ackee and saltfish, callaloo, jerk chicken, curry chicken
• Montserrat – Goat water
• Puerto Rico – yellow rice with green pigeon peas, saltfish stew, roasted pork shoulder, Puerto Rican style pasteles (root vegetable meat patties), chicken fricassée, pasteles, mofongo, tripe soup, tostones, alcapurria, codfish fritters, coconut custard, rice pudding, guava turnovers, Mallorca bread
• Saint Kitts and Nevis – goat water, coconut dumplings, spicy plantain, saltfish, breadfruit
• Saint Lucia – callaloo, dal roti, dried and salted cod, green bananas, rice and beans
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – roasted breadfruit and fried jackfish
• Suriname – brown beans and rice, roti and curry, peanut soup, battered fried plantain with peanut sauce, nasi goreng, moksi-alesi, bara, pom
• Trinidad and Tobago – doubles, curry with roti or dal bhat, aloo pie, phulourie, callaloo, bake and shark, curry crab and dumpling
• United States Virgin Islands – stewed goat, oxtail or beef, seafood, callaloo, fungee
• Venezuela Caribbean – fried fish with salad and rise, tostones, sancocho, patacon, pabellon

• Engerman, Stanley L. "A Population History of the Caribbean", pp. 483–528 in A Population History of North America Michael R. Haines and Richard Hall Steckel (Eds.), Cambridge University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-521-49666-7.
• Hillman, Richard S., and Thomas J. D'agostino, eds. Understanding the Contemporary Caribbean, London: Lynne Rienner, 2003 ISBN 1-58826-663-X.

• Develtere, Patrick R. 1994. "Co-operation and development: With special reference to the experience of the Commonwealth Caribbean" ACCO, ISBN 90-334-3181-5
• Gowricharn, Ruben, ed. Caribbean Transnationalism: Migration, Pluralization, and Social Cohesion. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2006. ISBN 978-0-7391-1167-3
• Henke, Holger, and Fred Reno, eds. Modern Political Culture in the Caribbean. Kingston: University of West Indies Press, 2003. ISBN 976-640-135-7
• Heuman, Gad. Brief Histories: The Caribbean. London: Hodder Arnold, 2006. ISBN 9780340763636
• de Kadt, Emanuel, (editor). Patterns of foreign influence in the Caribbean, Oxford University Press, 1972. ISBN 0-19-214988-1
• Knight, Franklin W. and Colin A. Palmer, eds. The Modern Caribbean (The University of North Carolina Press, 1989). ISBN 0-8078-1825-9
• Kurlansky, Mark. 1992. A Continent of Islands: Searching for the Caribbean Destiny. Addison-Wesley Publishing. ISBN 0-201-52396-5
• Langley, Lester D. The United States and the Caribbean in the Twentieth Century. London: University of Georgia Press, 4th edition, 1989. ISBN 0-8203-1153-7
• Maingot, Anthony P. The United States and the Caribbean: Challenges of an Asymmetrical Relationship. Westview Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8133-2242-1
• Palmié, Stephan, and Francisco A. Scarano, eds. The Caribbean: A History of the Region and Its Peoples (University of Chicago Press; 2011); 660 pp.; writings on the region since the pre-Columbian era. ISBN 978-0-226-64506-3
• Ramnarine, Tina K. Beautiful Cosmos: Performance and Belonging in the Caribbean Diaspora. London: Pluto Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7453-1767-0
• Rowntree, Lester, Martin Lewis, Marie Price, William Wyckoff. Diversity Amid Globalization: World Regions, Environment, Development, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 4th edition, 2009. ISBN 978-0-13-600554-4

• Digital Library of the Caribbean
• Latin American, Caribbean, Latinx, and Iberian Free Online Resources (LACLI)
• Manioc, open access digital Library, books, images, conferences, articles about the Caribbean
• Federal Research Division of the U.S. Library of Congress: Caribbean Islands (1987)
• Media related to Caribbean at Wikimedia Commons

14°31′32″N 75°49′06″W / 14.52556°N 75.81833°W / 14.52556; -75.81833