The terms multiracial people or mixed-race people refer to people who are of more than one race,[1] and the terms multi-ethnic people or ethnically mixed people refer to people who are of more than one ethnicity.[2][3] A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed-race people in a variety of contexts, including multiethnic, polyethnic, occasionally bi-ethnic, Métis, Muwallad,[4]Melezi,[5]Coloured, Dougla, half-caste, ʻafakasi, mestizo,[6]mutt,[7]Melungeon,[8]quadroon,[9]octoroon, sambo/zambo,[10]Eurasian,[11]hapa, hāfu, Garifuna, pardo, and Gurans. A number of these once-acceptable terms are now considered offensive, in addition to those that were initially coined for pejorative use.
Individuals of mixed-race backgrounds make up a significant portion of the population in many parts of the world. In North America, studies have found that the mixed-race population is continuing to grow. In many countries of Latin America, mestizos make up the majority of the population and in some others also mulattoes. In the Caribbean, mixed-race people officially make up the majority of the population in the Dominican Republic (73%), Aruba (68%), and Cuba (51%).[12]
^Ualiyeva, Saule K., and Adrienne L. Edgar, 'In the Laboratory of Peoples’ Friendship: Mixed People in Kazakhstan from the Soviet Era to the Present', in Rebecca C. King-O'Riain, and others (eds), Global Mixed Race (New York, NY, 2014; online edn, NYU Press Scholarship Online, 24 March 2016), https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814770733.003.0004, accessed 7 September 2023.