Afro-Dominicans

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Afro-Dominicans (also referred to as African Dominicans or Black Dominicans; Spanish: Dominicanos negros) are Dominicans of total or predominant Sub-Saharan African (Black African) ancestry. They are a minority in the country representing 7.5% or 642,018 of the population, according to the 2022 census. In a previous estimate they were 7.5% of the Dominican Republic's population according to a survey published in 2021 by the United Nations Population Fund. About 4.0% of the people surveyed claim an Afro-Caribbean immigrant background, while only 0.2% acknowledged Haitian descent. Currently there are many black illegal immigrants from Haiti, who are not included within the Afro-Dominican demographics as they are not legal citizens of the nation. The first black people in the island were brought by European colonists as indentured workers from Spain and Portugal known as Ladinos. When the Spanish Crown outlawed the enslavement of Natives in the island with the Laws of Burgos, slaves from West Africa and Central Africa were imported from the 16th to 18th centuries due to labor demands. However, with the decline of the sugar industry in the colony the importation of slaves decreased, leading to a rise in free blacks, which eventually became the majority within the Afro-Dominican demographic by the late 1700s. Many of these Africans eventually intermixed with the Europeans, Mestizos, and Natives creating a triracial culture. In the 19th and 20th centuries black immigrants from the French and British West Indies, as well as the United States came to the island and settled in coastal regions increasing the black population. The Afro-Dominican population can now be found in most parts of the country, from coastal areas such as San Cristobal and San Pedro de Macoris to deep inland areas such as Cotui and Monteplata. There is a lack of recent official data because the National...