“Out of Many, One People” is Jamaica’s motto, and this page sets out who the many are: the census count of every ethnic group, where each one came from and when, and how the island’s make-up has changed from the Taíno to today.
Edition 2026, compiled 11 October 2026. Next scheduled update: October 2027. Ethnic origin figures are from STATIN’s 2011 census, the latest available; the 2022 census ethnic tables have not yet been published.
Jamaica ethnic group stats at a glance
| Stat | Amount | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 92.11% | 2011 | STATIN |
| Mixed | 6.06% | 2011 | STATIN |
| East Indian | 0.75% | 2011 | STATIN |
| Chinese | 0.19% | 2011 | STATIN |
| White | 0.16% | 2011 | STATIN |
| Other | 0.07% | 2011 | STATIN |
| Taíno population when Columbus arrived | about 60,000 (estimate) | 1494 | The Gleaner |
| Enslaved Africans landed in Jamaica | about 927,000 | 1655–1807 | Eltis, via Deason et al. |
| Enslaved population at abolition | 311,070 | 1834 | Higman |
| Indians arrived as indentured workers | more than 36,000 | 1845–1917 | African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica |
| Chinese, including mixed Chinese | 12,394 | 1943 census | via Chinese Jamaicans history |
| Germans settled at Seaford Town | about 250 | 1835 | The Gleaner |
| Jewish community | just under 200 | current | World Jewish Congress |
| People identifying as Taíno (Yamaye) | about 3,000 | current estimate | Minority Rights Group |
Ethnic origin, 2001 and 2011 censuses
| Ethnic origin | 2011 | People (approx.) | 2001 | People (approx.) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 92.11% | 2,471,963 | 91.61% | 2,378,161 | ▲ 0.5 pts |
| Mixed | 6.06% | 162,633 | 6.21% | 161,209 | ▼ 0.2 pts |
| East Indian | 0.75% | 20,128 | 0.89% | 23,104 | ▼ 0.1 pts |
| Chinese | 0.19% | 5,099 | 0.20% | 5,192 | 0.0 pts |
| White | 0.16% | 4,294 | 0.18% | 4,673 | 0.0 pts |
| Other | 0.07% | 1,879 | 0.08% | 2,077 | 0.0 pts |
| Not reported | 0.65% | 17,444 | 0.82% | 21,287 | ▼ 0.2 pts |
| Total | 100% | 2,683,707 | 100% | 2,595,962 | – |
The Black share rose slightly between 2001 and 2011 while every minority group shrank as a share of the population. East Indians remain the largest minority after people of mixed heritage.
Source: STATIN, Population and Housing Census 2011, General Report Vol. I, Table (xii). STATIN publishes percentages; the numbers of people are calculated by Jamaica Homes from those percentages and are approximate. The census asks people which group they consider themselves to belong to, so the figures measure self-identification, not ancestry. The totals are the population for whom ethnic origin was collected and are slightly below the full census counts.
Ancestry is more mixed than the census suggests
Many Jamaicans who tick “Black” also have European, Indian, Chinese or Middle Eastern forebears. In the late 1980s the US Library of Congress estimated that 76% of Jamaicans were of wholly African descent, 15% Afro-European and about 4% Afro-Indian or Afro-Chinese. Genetic studies tell the same story: 97.5% of Jamaicans’ maternal lines trace to sub-Saharan Africa, with the Gold Coast (today’s Ghana) the biggest single source, while just over 40% of paternal lines are European.
Sources: Library of Congress, Caribbean Islands: A Country Study (1987); Deason et al., BMC Evolutionary Biology (2012); Benn-Torres et al. (2007).
Who are Jamaicans: the groups and when they came
| Group | Arrived | Numbers | Today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taíno | First settlers from about AD 600 | About 60,000 in 1494 | Largely wiped out under Spanish rule; about 3,000 people identify as Taíno |
| Spanish settlers, with Portuguese Jews | 1494 to 1655 | About 1,500 in the colony in 1655 | Spanish rule ended in 1655; the Jewish community dates from this period |
| Africans | From 1513; mass arrivals 1660s–1807 | About 927,000 landed | The ancestors of most Jamaicans |
| English, Scots and Irish | From 1655 | 7,768 whites in 1673; 15,776 in 1844 | 0.16% identify as White |
| Maroons | Free communities from 1655 | Treaties with the British in 1739 and 1740 | Accompong, Moore Town, Charles Town, Scott’s Hall |
| Germans | 1834–1836 | More than 1,000 came; about 250 founded Seaford Town | About 160 of German descent in Seaford Town |
| East Indians | 1845–1917 | More than 36,000; 12,109 went home | 0.75% identify as East Indian |
| Chinese | From 1854 | 680 arrived in 1884 alone | 0.19% identify as Chinese |
| Lebanese and Syrians | From the 1890s | No official count | Prominent in business and politics |
| Jewish refugees | 1938–1945 | About 1,400 at the Gibraltar Camp | Community of just under 200 today |
The Taíno
When Columbus landed in 1494 the island, which the Taíno called Yamaye, had an estimated 60,000 people. Spanish settlement from 1509, forced labour and European diseases destroyed Taíno society within a few generations, though Taíno words (hammock, barbecue, canoe, hurricane), foods such as cassava and the name Jamaica itself survive. A Yamaye Taíno revival movement now works with Maroon communities, and about 3,000 people identify as Taíno.
Africans and the Maroons
The Spanish brought the first enslaved Africans in 1513. After the English captured the island in 1655, Jamaica became the largest slave colony in the British Caribbean: about 927,000 Africans were landed between 1655 and 1807, when the British slave trade was abolished. Most came from the Gold Coast (the Akan peoples), the Bight of Biafra, the Bight of Benin and West Central Africa. So many died from overwork and disease that the enslaved population never grew on its own: it stood at about 354,000 in 1808 and 311,070 at abolition in 1834, and full freedom came on 1 August 1838.
Enslaved people who escaped into the mountains formed the Maroon communities. After decades of war, the British signed treaties with the Leeward Maroons under Cudjoe in 1739 and the Windward Maroons in 1740. Accompong in St Elizabeth, Moore Town in Portland, Charles Town in Portland and Scott’s Hall in St Mary still hold treaty rights.
Europeans
English settlers, soldiers and indentured servants came after 1655, along with many Scots and Irish, whose surnames are among the most common in Jamaica today. White people were 87% of the population in 1662 but only 45% by 1673 and about 4% by the 1844 census, as the plantation economy relied on enslaved Africans. Between 1834 and 1836 more than 1,000 Germans arrived from Bremen to replace freed workers; about 250 founded Seaford Town in Westmoreland in December 1835, where about 160 people of German descent still live. The White share of the population fell from 0.77% in 1960 to 0.16% in 2011.
East Indians
After emancipation, planters turned to India for labour. The first 261 indentured workers arrived at Old Harbour Bay on the Blundell on 10 May 1845, now marked as Indian Arrival Day. By the time indenture ended in 1917 more than 36,000 had come, mostly from northern India; only 12,109 received their passage home. Indian Jamaicans brought curry goat, roti and the festival of Hosay, and many settled in St Mary, Clarendon, Westmoreland and St Thomas.
Chinese
The first Chinese came in 1854, directly from China and from Panama, where they had worked on the railway. A larger group of 680, mostly Hakka from Guangdong, arrived in 1884. Chinese Jamaicans soon ran much of the island’s retail trade: by the 1960s they owned most groceries, dry goods stores and supermarkets. The 1943 census counted 12,394 Chinese, including 5,515 of mixed Chinese and African heritage. Many left during the political violence of the 1970s, mainly for Canada and the United States, and the 2011 census counted 0.19% as Chinese.
Lebanese, Syrians and Jews
Christians from Mount Lebanon, then part of Ottoman Syria, began arriving in the 1890s. Many first worked in the banana trade, then moved into retail and became leading merchants, and the community produced Prime Minister Edward Seaga. Jews have lived in Jamaica since the Spanish period, many of them Portuguese Jews fleeing the Inquisition. They built synagogues at Port Royal and Spanish Town, won full political rights in 1831, and in the Second World War about 1,400 Jewish refugees were sheltered at the Gibraltar Camp in Kingston. Shaare Shalom synagogue on Duke Street, with its sand floor, is the last in the island.
What changed this year
- First edition. This page brings together the 2011 census ethnic origin figures and the history of each group.
- Anniversaries. Celebrations of 180 years since the first East Indians arrived continued into May 2026, with a ceremony at Old Harbour Bay, where they landed.
- Still to come. STATIN has not yet released ethnic origin results from the 2022 census. We will add them, and figures by parish, when published.
How this page is updated
Jamaica Homes refreshes this page every October, and sooner when STATIN publishes new census tables. Historical figures are estimates from the sources named; where sources differ we give the most widely cited figure.
| Edition | Main changes |
|---|---|
| October 2026 | First edition: 2001 and 2011 ethnic origin, historical arrivals, ancestry studies and group histories. |
Sources: STATIN, Population and Housing Census 2011, General Report Vol. I; The Gleaner, “A brief history of Jamaica’s population and census” (30 October 2022), Gleaner history pages on the Germans and the Lebanese, and “Bond sealed at Old Harbour Bay” (4 May 2026); African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica, East Indian Heritage in Jamaica; National Museum Jamaica; Deason et al., “Interdisciplinary approach to the demography of Jamaica”, BMC Evolutionary Biology (2012), citing Eltis (2009) and Higman (1976); Library of Congress, Caribbean Islands: A Country Study; World Jewish Congress; Minority Rights Group International.