People of the Dominican Republic

Dominicans
Dominicanos

Map of the Dominican people around the world
Total population
14 million Diaspora 2.5 million
Regions with significant populations
Dominican Republic	9,341,916 (2017)[1][2]
United States	2,393,718 (2021)[3][4]
Spain	190,190 (2021 census)[5][6]
Puerto Rico	54,025 (2021)[7][8]
Italy	48,000 (2020)(28,812 as 2022)[8]
Canada	23,130[9]
Chile	19,481 (2021)[10]
Venezuela	14,743 (2015)[11]
Switzerland	11,154[12]
Germany	11,091 (2015)[11]
United Kingdom	10,000[13][failed verification]
Netherlands	8,688 (2015)[11]
Panama	8,095 (2015)[11]
Curaçao	7,000[8]
Aruba	5,000[8]
U.S. Virgin Islands	5,442[14][8]
Sint Maarten	4,000[8]
France	3,843 (2019)[15]
Belgium	3,000[8]
Mexico	2,849 (2020)[16]
Austria	2,942[17]
Turks and Caicos Islands	2,000[8]
British Virgin Islands	2,000[8]
Antigua and Barbuda	2,000[8]
Haiti	2,000[8]
Languages
Dominican Spanish
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic;[18] Protestant
Related ethnic groups
Spaniards, other Latin Americans

Dominicans (Spanish: Dominicanos) are people identified with the country of Dominican Republic. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Dominicans, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Dominican.^[19][20]

Majority of Dominicans trace their ancestry to the European settlers (mainly Spaniards), native Taíno people, and various enslaved Afro-Caribbean peoples.^[19][21] Due to this fusion, all Dominicans are of mixed-race heritage,^[22][23] tracing roots mainly to these three sources, the vast majority being evenly mixed,^[24] and smaller numbers being predominantly European or African.^[25] The demonym Dominican is derived from Santo Domingo (Spanish equivalent Saint Dominic) and directly inherited from the name of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, which was synonymous with the island of Hispaniola as a whole and centered in the city of Santo Domingo, the capital of modern Dominican Republic.^[26][27] Recent immigrants and their children, who are legal citizens of the Dominican Republic, can be considered "Dominican" by nationality but not ethnicity due to not having ancestral roots in the country.

"Dominican" was historically the name for the inhabitants of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, the site of the first Spanish settlement in the Western Hemisphere. Majority of Dominicans primarily trace their origin to the Captaincy General's European settlers, with native Taino and African influences.^[28]

The majority of Dominicans reside in the Dominican Republic, while there is also a large Dominican diaspora, mainly in the United States and Spain. The total population of the Dominican Republic in 2016 was estimated by the National Bureau of Statistics of the Dominican Republic at 10.2 million, with 9.3 million of those being natives of the country, and the rest being of foreign origin.^[2]