People, languages and culture

Belize is a country of minorities that add up to a nation. The 2022 Population and Housing Census, the most recent, counted 397,483 people, and asked each of them which ethnic group they belong to.

Who lives here

Group (2022 census)	People	Share
Mestizo / Hispanic / Latino	205,646	51.7%
Creole	100,111	25.2%
Maya Ketchi	26,230	6.6%
Maya Mopan	15,932	4.0%
Garifuna	15,845	4.0%
Mennonite	15,249	3.8%
East Indian	6,111	1.5%
Caucasian / White	2,905	0.7%
Maya Yucatec	2,160	0.5%
Chinese	1,344	0.3%
Indian, other, and not stated	5,950	1.5%

Counting the three Maya groups together, about 11% of Belizeans are Maya.

The groups are not spread evenly. More than half of Belize District (57%) is Creole. In Toledo, in the far south, 64.7% of people are Maya. Mestizos are the majority in every district except Belize and Toledo. More than half of all Garifuna live in Stann Creek. Mennonite communities are proportionally largest in Orange Walk (10.8%) and Corozal (8.8%).

Some background, briefly.

• Mestizo Belizeans include the descendants of refugees from Yucatán and Nicaragua in the 1800s; San Pedro itself was settled by Mestizo refugees from Yucatán’s Caste War in 1848. Many Central Americans have arrived since.
• Creole (Kriol) Belizeans trace their roots to the settlement era: the Baymen and the enslaved Africans brought to cut logwood and mahogany.
• Maya: the census counts three Maya peoples, Yucatec, Mopan and Ketchi, and Maya languages are spoken most widely in Toledo, where 47.0% of people speak Ketchi.
• Garifuna are a people of mixed indigenous Caribbean and African origin who were forced off the island of St. Vincent in the eighteenth century and settled along the Caribbean coast of Central America. Their language, dance and music are recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (proclaimed 2001, inscribed 2008).
• Mennonites came later still. German is spoken in their communities.
• East Indian and Chinese Belizeans include descendants of indentured workers brought from India and China in the 1800s.

About one resident in nine was born abroad. The census counted 45,644 foreign-born people in 2022; 41.8% were born in Guatemala, 18.6% in El Salvador and 15.2% in Honduras. The United States (6.5%) and Mexico (5.5%) came next.

Languages

English is the official language, and in 2022 it was spoken by 75.5% of people aged four and over, up from 62.9% in 2010. But the everyday soundtrack is multilingual. Among people aged four and over:

• English: 75.5%
• Spanish: 54.0%
• Kriol (Belizean Creole): 49.0%
• Maya Ketchi: 6.3%, and Maya Mopan: 3.9%
• German: 3.1%
• Garifuna: 2.0%

Many people speak more than one language, which is why the figures add up to far more than 100%. In San Pedro you will hear Spanish and English all day, often in the same sentence, with Kriol in between. Nationally, Spanish is strongest in the north: 82.5% of people in Corozal and 83.6% in Orange Walk speak it.

Faith

The census recorded Roman Catholics as the largest group, at 31.8%, but people with no religious affiliation were close behind at 31.0%, up from 15.5% in 2010. Pentecostals were about 9%; every other group was under 5%.

Holidays

Belize’s public holidays (2026 dates) are New Year’s Day; George Price Day (15 January); National Heroes and Benefactors Day (9 March); Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Monday; Labour Day (1 May); Emancipation Day (1 August); St. George’s Caye Day (10 September) and Independence Day (21 September); Indigenous People’s Resistance Day (12 October); Garifuna Settlement Day (19 November); Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Food

Belizean food is a map of the people. Some of the dishes you will meet, as the Belize Tourism Board describes them:

• Rice and beans: white rice and red kidney beans, “unofficially considered the dish” of the country, usually with stewed or fried chicken.
• Stew chicken: chicken rubbed with annatto paste and browned with garlic, vinegar, onions and peppers.
• Fry jacks: fluffy fried dough.
• Relleno: a Mestizo dish kept for Sundays and special occasions.
• Escabeche: chicken with onions in vinegar and peppers, eaten with corn tortillas, from the north.
• Chimole, or “black dinner”: a black soup made with black recado, with Maya and Mestizo roots.
• Hudut: a Garifuna coconut-based fish soup.
• Cowfoot soup and meat pies, from the central coast.
• On the islands: conch, shrimp, ceviche and, in season, lobster (see the fishing rules).

Belize’s best-known bottle is Marie Sharp’s hot sauce, made from habanero peppers, carrots and onions. The national beer is Belikin.