British African-Caribbean people

British African-Caribbean people or British Afro-Caribbean people are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens or residents of recent Caribbean heritage who further trace much of their ancestry to West and Central Africa. This includes multi-racial Afro-Caribbean people.

The earliest generations of Afro-Caribbean people to migrate to Britain trace their ancestry to a wide range of Afro-Caribbean ethnic groups, who themselves descend from the disparate African ethnic groups transported to the colonial Caribbean as part of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. British African Caribbeans may also have ancestry from European and Asian settlers, as well as from various Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. The population includes those with origins in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, The Bahamas, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Montserrat, British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Cayman Islands,

The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health published a glossary in which it suggests a definition of Afro-Caribbean or African Caribbean as: "A person of African descent whose ancestors were forcibly brought from West and Central Africa to the Caribbean during the transatlantic slave trade, and who identifies, or is identified, as Afro-Caribbean (in terms of racial classifications, this population approximates to the group known as Negroid or similar terms)." A survey of terms used to describe people of African descent in medical research notes: "The term African Caribbean/Afro-Caribbean when used in Europe and North America usually refers to people with African ancestral origins who migrated via the Caribbean islands." It suggests that use of the term in the UK is inconsistent, with some researchers using it to describe people of both Black and Caribbean descent, whereas others use it to refer to those of either West African or Caribbean background.

The British Sociological Association's guidelines on ethnicity and race state: "African-Caribbean has replaced the term Afro-Caribbean to refer to Caribbean peoples and those of Caribbean origin who are of African descent. There is now a view that the term should not be hyphenated and that indeed, the differences between such groups mean the people of African and Caribbean origins should be referred to separately." The Guardian and Observer style guide prescribes the use of "African-Caribbean" for use in the two newspapers, specifically noting "not Afro-Caribbean".

The Office for National Statistics does not use a singular "ethnic group" category to comprehensively describe or encompass persons who are part of, or identified with, the African-Caribbean community in the United Kingdom. The "Black Caribbean" category had the highest recorded population figures associated with African Caribbean heritage in the 2011 and 2021 United Kingdom censuses. "Black Caribbean" is under a "Black or Black British" heading in the census. "Mixed: White and Black Caribbean" also had a significant recorded population within the country, denoting unquantified partial African Caribbean and "White" ancestry. This ethnic group category was listed under a "Mixed" heading in the census. Outside of censuses, there are notable examples of people with African Caribbean ancestry (often via a grandparent or great-grandparent) who are perceived as, or identify as, white people in the United Kingdom.