West Indies

West Indies
Area239,681 km2 (92,541 sq mi)
Population44,182,048
Population density151.5/km2 (392/sq mi)
Ethnic groupsAfro-Caribbean
Latin-Caribbean
Indo-Caribbean
White-Caribbean
Mixed-Caribbean
Asian-Caribbean
Indigenous
Religions
  • 20.6% no religion
  • 2.5% folk religions
  • 2.1% Hinduism
  • 1.3% others
DemonymWest Indian
Caribbean
West Indy (colloquial)
Countries
Dependencies
Languages
Time zonesUTC−05:00 to UTC−04:00
Internet TLDMultiple
Calling codeMultiple
Largest citiesSanto Domingo
Havana
Port-au-Prince
San Juan
Port of Spain
Kingston
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de los Caballeros
Nassau
Camagüey
Cap-Haïtien
UN M49 code029Caribbean
419Latin America
019Americas
001World

The West Indies are an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies in three archipelagos: the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and the Lucayan Archipelago.

The subregion includes all the islands in the Antilles, in addition to The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the North Atlantic Ocean. The term is often interchangeable with "Caribbean", although the latter may also include coastal regions of Central and South American mainland nations.

West Indies as seen from space at night, 2012