This is a list of metropolitan areas of the West Indies. As described by Encyclopædia Britannica Online, the West Indies are a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles (3,200 km) long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north. From the peninsula of Florida on the mainland of the United States, the islands stretch 1,200 miles (1,900 km) southeastward, then 500 miles (800 km) south, then west along the north coast of Venezuela on the South American mainland.[1] Any city, town, or any other form of settlement that lies within this area can be considered a West Indiean city. Despite this, some countries such as Guyana, Suriname, and Belize which lie in South America and Central America respectively, are not geographically a part of the West Indies, but because of their historical, cultural, and political standpoint they have always been included as one.
The following is a list of the first forty-three West Indian metropolitan areas by their total population. The list makes a distinction between cities that lie within the Caribbean Community or CARICOM and those that do not.
| # | Metropolitan area name | Country | Population | Metro area | Density (/km2) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greater Santo Domingo | Dominican Republic | 3,813,214 | 1,400.79 km2 | 2,722.2/km2 | The oldest permanent city established by Europeans in the Americas, largest city in the Caribbean and capital of the Dominican Republic.[2] |
| 2 | Port-au-Prince | Haiti | 3,000,000 [3] | 735.78 km2 | 3,817.89/km2 | Capital of Haiti and second largest Caribbean city.[4] |
| 3 | Havana | Cuba | 2,141,993 | 721.1 km2 | 2,970.5/km2 | Capital of Cuba and third largest Caribbean city.[5] |
| 4 | Santiago de los Caballeros | Dominican Republic | 1,329,091 | 75 km2 | 17,721.2/km2 | |
| 5 | Kingston and Saint Andrew Corporation | Jamaica | 651,880 | 480 km2 | 1,358.1/km2 | Capital of Jamaica and most populous English-speaking Caribbean city.[6] |
| 6 | East-West Corridor | Trinidad and Tobago | 548,000 | 899 km2 | 609.6/km2 | |
| 7 | Carrefour | Haiti | 439,581 | 164.9 km2 | 2,665.7/km2 | |
| 8 | San Juan | Puerto Rico | 434,374 | 199.2 km2 | 2,180.6/km2 | The capital and largest city of Puerto Rico .[7] |
| 9 | Santiago de Cuba | Cuba | 423,392 | 1,023.8 km2 | 413.5/km2 | |
| 10 | Delmas | Haiti | 377,187 | 80.2 km2 | 4,703.1/km2 | |
| 11 | Greater Georgetown | Guyana | 354,964 | 147.6 km2 | 2,404.9/km2 | The capital and largest city of Guyana as well as the largest West Indian city located below sea level. .[8] |
| 12 | Camagüey | Cuba | 301,574 | 1,106 km2 | 272.6/km2 | |
| 13 | Puerto Plata | Dominican Republic | 277,981 | 459.71 km2 | 604.7/km2 | |
| 14 | Holguín | Cuba | 269,618 | 666 km2 | 404.8/km2 | |
| 15 | Nassau | Bahamas | 248,948 | 207 km2 | 1,206.6/km2 | Capital and largest city in the Bahamas.[9] |
| 16 | Paramaribo | Suriname | 242,946 | 183 km2 | 1,327.6/km2 | Largest city and capital of Suriname. .[10] |
A clickable map of some major cities in the Caribbean
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