# White Caribbean people

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. White Caribbean people include:
* White Antiguans and Barbudans
* Béké
* White Bahamians
* White Barbadians
* White Belizeans
* White Bermudians
* White Caymanians
* White Dominicans (Dominica)
* White Dominicans (Dominican Republic)
* White Guyanese
** Portuguese Guyanese
* White Haitians
** French Haitians
** German Haitians
** Italian Haitians
** Polish Haitians
* White Jamaicans
** German Jamaicans
** Irish Jamaicans
** Scottish Jamaicans
** Spanish Jamaicans
** Portuguese Jamaicans
* White Kittitians and Nevisians
* White Puerto Ricans
* White Surinamese
** Dutch Surinamese
** Portuguese Surinamese
* White Trinidadians and Tobagonians
** Portuguese Trinidadians and Tobagonians

## History

The first Europeans to arrive in the Caribbean were Spaniards who discovered Hispaniola. Many white people in the Caribbean owned Afro-Caribbean slaves. Many whites came to the Caribbean during the colonial era.

## European ancestry by country
### Cuba

Self-identified white people in Cuba make up 64.1% of the total population, according to the census of 2012, with the majority being of Spanish descent. However, after the mass exodus resulting from the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Cuba's white population diminished. Today, the various records that claim to show the percentage of whites in Cuba are conflicting and uncertain; some reports (usually coming from Cuba) still report a similar-to-pre-1959 number of 65%, and others (usually from outside observers) report 40–45%. Although most white Cubans are of Spanish descent, others may have French, Portuguese, German, Italian, or Russian ancestry. During the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, large waves of Canarians, Catalans, Andalusians, Castilians, and Galicians immigrated to Cuba. Between 1901 and 1958, more than a million Spaniards arrived in Cuba from Spain; many of these and their descendants left after Castro's Communist regime took power. The country also saw an increase in the coming of Jewish immigrants. Historically, Chinese descendants in Cuba were classified as white. Though more recent censuses would add a yellow (or amarilla) racial category before its removal in 21st century census results.
An autosomal study from 2014 found the genetic makeup in Cuba to be 72% European, 20% African, and 8% Native American with different proportions depending on the self-reported ancestry (White, Mulatto or Mestizo, and Black). According to this study Whites are on average 86% European, 6.7% African and 7.8% Native American with European ancestry ranging from 65% to 99%. 75% of whites are over 80% European and 50% are over 88% European According to a study in 2011 Whites are on average 5.8% African with African ancestry ranging from 0% to 13%. 75% of whites are under 8% African and 50% are under 5% African. A study from 2009 analysed the genetic structure of the three principal ethnic groups from Havana City (209 individuals), and the contribution of parental populations to its genetic pool. A contribution from Indigenous peoples of the Americas was not detectable in the studied sample.
| Self-reported ancestry | European | African | Native American |
| White | 86% | 6.7% | 7.8% |
| White (Havana) | 86% | 14% | 0% |
| Mulatto/Mestizo | 50.8% | 45.5% | 3.7% |
| Mulatto/Mestizo (Havana) | 60% | 40% | 0% |
| Black | 29% | 65.5% | 5.5% |
| Black (Havana) | 23% | 77% | 0% |

### Dominican Republic

The 1750 estimates show that there were 30,863 whites, or 43.7% out of a total population of 70,625, in the colony of Santo Domingo. other estimates include 1790 with 40,000 or 32% of the population, and in 1846 with 80,000 or 48.5% of the population.
The first census of 1920 reported that 24.9% identified as white. The second census, taken in 1935, covered race, religion, literacy, nationality, labor force, and urban–rural residence. The 2022 census reported that 1,611,752 or 18.7% of Dominicans 12 years old and above self identify as white. This was the first census since 1960 to gather data on ethnic-racial identification.
Identifying as white 1920–2022 :
| Year | Population | % |
| 1920 | 223,144 | 24.9 |
| 1935 | 192,732 | 13.0 |
| 1950 | 600,994 | 28.14 |
| 1960 | 489,580 | 16.1 |
| 2022 | 1,611,752 | 18.7 |
White Dominicans were estimated to be 17.8% of the Dominican Republic's population, according to a 2021 survey by the United Nations Population Fund. with the vast majority being of Spanish descent. Notable other ancestries includes French, Italian, Lebanese, German, and Portuguese.
The government of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo made a point of increasing the white population, or "whitening" the racial composition of the country, by rejecting black immigrants from Haiti and local blacks as foreigners. He also welcomed Jewish refugees in 1938 and Spanish farmers in the 1950s as part of this plan. The country's German minority is the largest in the Caribbean.

### Haiti

The white and the mulatto population of Haiti are classified about 5% of its population, while 95% is classified being African descent.
That 5% minority group comprises people of many different ethnic and national backgrounds, who are French, Spanish, Polish and other European ancestry, as well as the Jewish diaspora, arriving from the Polish legion and during the Holocaust, Germans (18th century and World War I), and Italian.

### Puerto Rico

An early census on the island was conducted by Governor Francisco Manuel de Lando in 1530. An exhaustive 1765 census was taken by Lieutenant General Alexander O'Reilly, which, according to some sources, showed 17,572 whites out of a total population of 44,883. The censuses from 1765 to 1887 were taken by the Spanish government who conducted them at irregular intervals. The 1899 census was taken by the United States War Department. Since 1910, Puerto Rico has been included in every decennial census taken by the United States.
Self identify as white 1765 - 2020 (census) :
| Year | Population | % | Year | Population | % |
| 1765 | 17,572 | - | 1887 | 474,933 | 59.5 |
| 1775 | 30,709 | 40.4 | 1897 | 573,187 | 64.3 |
| 1787 | 46,756 | 45.5 | 1899 | 589,426 | 61.8 |
| 1802 | 78,281 | 48.0 | 1910 | 732,555 | 65.5 |
| 1812 | 85,662 | 46.8 | 1920 | 948,709 | 73.0 |
| 1820 | 102,432 | 44.4 | 1930 | 1,146,719 | 74.3 |
| 1827 | 150,311 | 49.7 | 1940 | 1,430,744 | 76.5 |
| 1827 | 150,311 | 49.7 | 1950 | 1,762,411 | 79.7 |
| 1836 | 188,869 | 52.9 | 2000 | 3,064,862 | 80.5 |
| 1860 | 300,406 | 51.5 | 2010 | 2,825,100 | 75.8 |
| 1877 | 411,712 | 56.3 | 2020 | 560,592 | 17.1 |
In 2010, Self-identifierd white Puerto Ricans are said to comprise the majority of the island's population, with 75.8% of the population identifying as white. Though in the 2020 U.S. census, this percentage dropped to 17.1%. People of self-identified multiracial descent are now the largest demographic in the country, at 49.8%.
In 1899, one year after the U.S. invaded and took control of the island, 61.8% identified as white. In 2000, for the first time in fifty years, the census asked people to define their race and found the percentage of whites had risen to 80.5% (3,064,862); not because there has been an influx of whites to the island (or an exodus of non-White people), but a change of race perceptions, mainly because Puerto Rican elites wished to portray Puerto Rico as the "white island of the Antilles", partly as a response to scientific racism.
Geologist Robert T. Hill published a book titled Cuba and Porto Rico, with the other islands of the West Indies (1899), wrote that the island was "notable among the West Indian group for the reason that its preponderant population is of the white race" and "Porto Rico, at least, has not become Africanized".
According to a genetic research by the University of Brasília, Puerto Rican genetic admixture consists in a 60.3% European, 26.4% African, and 13.2% Amerindian ancestry.