What Race Are Guyanese? Nationality, Ethnicity & Guyana’s Diverse Roots

Ask a Guyanese person “What race are Guyanese?” and the shortest accurate answer is: there is no single Guyanese race.

Quick answer: Guyanese is a nationality. Guyana is a multiethnic country whose people include Indigenous peoples, Indo-Guyanese, Afro-Guyanese, mixed-heritage Guyanese, Chinese Guyanese, Portuguese Guyanese and people of other backgrounds. A person can be Guyanese and belong to any of those ethnic communities—or to more than one.

Guyanese is a nationality, not a race

The confusion makes sense if you have never been to Guyana. In some countries, people are used to hearing a nationality and assuming it also tells them what someone looks like. Guyana does not work that way.

“Guyanese” tells you a person is from Guyana or has Guyanese national or family roots. It does not, by itself, tell you that person’s race, ethnicity, religion, language, skin tone or family history.

That distinction matters especially in the diaspora. A Guyanese family in Queens, Toronto, London or Florida may be asked to explain why relatives in the same community can have African, Indian, Indigenous, Chinese, Portuguese, European or mixed ancestry. The answer is in Guyana’s history.

What are the major ethnic groups in Guyana?

The most recent detailed official ethnicity breakdown currently published by Guyana’s Bureau of Statistics comes from the 2012 Population and Housing Census. The Bureau has published the preliminary 2022 population count, but its census page does not yet provide a final 2022 population-composition compendium comparable to the 2012 ethnicity tables.

In the 2012 census, the Bureau reported:

• East Indian: 39.83%
• African/Black: 29.25%
• Mixed: 19.88%
• Amerindian: 10.51%
• Portuguese: 0.26%
• Chinese: 0.18%
• White: 0.06%
• Other: 0.03%

Those are census categories, not instructions for how any individual Guyanese person must identify. Identity can be personal, cultural and familial as well as statistical.

Why is Guyana so ethnically diverse?

Because several very different histories met in the same place.

Indigenous peoples were here first

Guyana’s Indigenous peoples are not an immigrant population. Communities including the Akawaio, Arawak/Lokono, Arekuna, Carib/Karinya, Macushi, Patamona, Wai Wai, Wapichan and Warrau have histories in the territory that long predate European colonization.

The word “Amerindian” appears in Guyana’s census and official institutions, while “Indigenous” is also widely used today. Community identities are more specific than either umbrella term.

African Guyanese history is tied to slavery, emancipation and village life

Europeans forcibly brought enslaved Africans to work on colonial plantations. After emancipation in the 19th century, African Guyanese communities helped build the village movement, churches, schools, businesses, political organizations and cultural traditions that remain central to Guyana.

Traditions such as Kweh-Kweh preserve parts of that African-Guyanese cultural inheritance in distinctly Guyanese forms.

Indo-Guyanese history is tied to indentureship

After emancipation, colonial plantation owners recruited indentured laborers, most of them from India. Indian indentureship to British Guiana began in 1838 and continued into the early 20th century.

Descendants of those migrants shaped Guyanese agriculture, business, religion, food, music and public life. Traditions such as Phagwah became part of Guyana’s national cultural calendar while retaining their Hindu roots.

Chinese and Portuguese communities also shaped Guyana

Portuguese migrants, many from Madeira, arrived in significant numbers during the 19th century, as did Chinese indentured laborers. Their descendants contributed to commerce, food, religion, architecture and urban life.

Guyana’s history also includes European colonial populations and later migrants from other parts of the Caribbean and the world.

What does “mixed Guyanese” mean?

It can mean many things.

A Guyanese person may have ancestry from two or more of the country’s major ethnic communities. The 2012 census grouped people who identified with combined backgrounds under “Mixed Heritage,” but real family histories are more detailed than one box can show.

That is one reason it is better to ask someone how they identify than to guess from appearance, surname, religion or food.

Are Guyanese Indian?

Some Guyanese are of Indian descent; Guyanese people as a whole are not Indian.

Indo-Guyanese are one of Guyana’s largest ethnic communities. Their ancestors largely came from the Indian subcontinent during the indentureship period. But Afro-Guyanese, Indigenous Guyanese, mixed-heritage Guyanese, Chinese Guyanese, Portuguese Guyanese and others are equally Guyanese.

Are Guyanese Black?

Some Guyanese are Black; Guyanese people as a whole are not one race.

Afro-Guyanese are a major part of Guyana’s population and history. But nationality and race are different categories, so “Guyanese” cannot be used as a synonym for “Black.”

Are Guyanese Caribbean or South American?

Geographically, Guyana is in South America. Historically, culturally, politically and linguistically, it also has deep ties to the Caribbean.

That dual identity is one reason Guyana can surprise people who encounter it for the first time. Our guide to where Guyana is explains that relationship in more detail.

Why this question matters in the diaspora

For many Guyanese abroad, “What are you?” is not an abstract question. It can begin in a classroom, workplace or friendship where somebody has never heard of Guyana.

Sometimes the question is curious. Sometimes it comes with assumptions. Either way, the answer is bigger than a race box.

Guyana is what happens when Indigenous histories, slavery, emancipation, indentureship, migration, religion, language, food and family all leave marks on the same country. That complexity is not a problem to simplify. It is part of the story.

Frequently asked questions about Guyanese ethnicity

What race are most Guyanese?

According to Guyana’s 2012 census—the latest detailed official ethnicity breakdown currently published—East Indian was the largest single census category at 39.83%, followed by African/Black at 29.25%, Mixed at 19.88% and Amerindian at 10.51%.

What nationality are people from Guyana?

People from Guyana are Guyanese.

Is Guyanese an ethnicity?

“Guyanese” is primarily a national identity. People may also use it culturally or diasporically, but Guyanese people belong to multiple ethnic groups.

Why do some Guyanese look Indian?

Many Indo-Guyanese descend from indentured laborers who came from India to British Guiana beginning in the 19th century. Appearance alone, however, should not be used to assume someone’s identity.

Why do some Guyanese look African?

Many Afro-Guyanese descend from Africans who were forcibly brought to the colony during slavery. Again, appearance does not tell the whole story of an individual family.

One nationality, many roots

The useful answer to “What race are Guyanese?” is not a one-word label. It is an invitation to understand the country more accurately.

Guyanese people do not all come from the same ancestral path. What connects them is not sameness. It is the shared, complicated making of Guyana—and the many ways people continue to carry that identity at home and abroad.

Carry Guyanese identity your way

Guyanese identity is bigger than any one background. Explore our Guyanese clothing and Guyana apparel, Guyana Flag collection and Guyanese gifts for everyday ways to represent that shared connection to Guyana.

Sources & further reading: Bureau of Statistics, Guyana — Census; 2012 Census Compendium 2: Population Composition; Guyana: A Country Guide to Culture, History, Places & Everyday Life.

Hero photo: female shoppers outside Stabroek Market in Georgetown, Guyana, by David Stanley/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.