The ethnic composition of Trinidad and Tobago reflects a history of conquest and immigration. While the earliest inhabitants were of Amerindian heritage, since the 20th century the two dominant groups in the country were those of South Asian and of African heritage.
Indians-South Asian Indo-Trinidadians and Tobagonians make up the country's largest ethnic group (approximately 35.43 percent). They are primarily descendants from
indentured workers from South Asia and India, brought to replace freed African slaves who refused to continue working on the sugar plantations from other Islands. Through cultural preservation residents of Indian descent continue to maintain the religions and traditions from their ancestral homeland.
Sub-Saharan African Afro–Trinidadians and Tobagonians make up the country's second largest ethnic group, with approximately 34.22 percent of the population. Afro-Trinidadians are the descendants of enslaved West and Central Africans brought to the Trinidad and Tobago in the last few years of the Spanish colonial era and the beginning of the English colonial period through the
trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Other origins Chinese,
Amerindians,
Europeans,
Arabs,
Hispanic/
Latinos,
Douglas (mixed Indian and African), multiracial people, and
Jews, reside in Trinidad and Tobago. White Trinidadians are descendants of Spanish, British, French, Corsican, Portuguese or German settlers. A small mixed indigenous
Carib population is present around the
Santa Rosa Carib Community. There is also a
Cocoa panyol population who are of Spanish, indigenous, and African descent who came from
Venezuela between the late 19th and early 20th century to work on the
cocoa estates. ==Emigration==