The present population of Guyana is racially and ethnically heterogeneous, composed chiefly of the descendants of immigrants who came to the country either as enslaved people or as indentured laborers. The population therefore comprises groups of persons with nationality backgrounds from Europe (United Kingdom and Portugal), Africa, China, and India, with the Amerindians as the indigenous population. These groups of diverse nationality backgrounds have been fused together by a common language, i.e., English and Creole.

The largest nationality sub-group is that of the Asian Indians, comprising 43.5 percent of the population in 2002. They are followed by people of African heritage (30.2 percent). The third in rank are those of Mixed Heritage (16.7 percent), while the Amerindians are fourth with 9.2 percent. The smallest groups are whites (0.06 percent or 476 persons and the Chinese (0.19 percent or 1395). A small group (0.01 percent or 112 persons) did not identify their race/ethnic background.