At the time of abolition, there were over 950 people of African ancestry enslaved by 116 families. Slavery was abolished in the Cayman Islands in 1833. The results of the first census taken in the islands in 1802 showed the population on Grand Cayman to be 933, with 545 of those inhabitants being enslaved. Many were brought to the islands from Africa this is evident today with the majority of native Caymanians being of African and/or English descent. With settlement, after the first royal land grant by the Governor of Jamaica in 1734, came the perceived need for slaves. Following several unsuccessful attempts at settlement in what had by now become a haven for pirates, a permanent English-speaking population in the islands dates from the 1730s. That same year saw an attack on a turtle fishing settlement on Little Cayman by the Spanish under Manuel Ribeiro Pardal. Įngland took formal control of the Cayman Islands, along with Jamaica, as a result of the Treaty of Madrid of 1670. He was the grandson of the original settler named Bodden who was probably one of Oliver Cromwell's soldiers at the taking of Jamaica in 1655. The first recorded permanent inhabitant of the Cayman Islands, Isaac Bodden, was born on Grand Cayman around 1661. Ĭayman Islands National Museum, George Town, Grand Cayman Immigrants from over 130 countries and territories reside in the Cayman Islands. The territory's economic success attracts many workers from around the world. With a GDP per capita of $91,392, the Cayman Islands has the highest standard of living in the Caribbean. The territory is a major world offshore financial centre for international businesses and wealthy individuals, largely as a result of the state not charging taxes on any income earned or stored. The Cayman Islands is considered to be part of the geographic Western Caribbean Zone as well as the Greater Antilles. The capital city is George Town on Grand Cayman, which is the most populous of the three islands.
The 264-square-kilometre (102-square-mile) territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the south of Cuba and northeast of Honduras, between Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. The Cayman Islands ( / ˈ k eɪ m ən/) is a self-governing British Overseas Territory, the largest by population, in the western Caribbean Sea.