People of the Dominican Republic People of the Dominican Republic Dominicans () are people who are ethnically associated with the Dominican Republic. "Dominican" was historically the name for the inhabitants of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, and was retained after the nation's independence. The majority of Dominicans reside in the Dominican Republic, although there is also a large Dominican diaspora, mainly in the United States and Spain. The population of the Dominican Republic in 2016 was estimated at 10.2 million by the National Bureau of Statistics of the Dominican Republic.. Historically the Dominican Republic was known as Santo Domingo, the name of its present
People of the Dominican Republic are most prominent in food, family structure, religion, and music. Many Arawak/Taíno names and words are used in daily conversation and for many foods native to the Dominican Republic. Spanish is the predominant language in the Dominican Republic; the local dialect is called Dominican Spanish, it closely resembles Canarian Spanish, and borrowed vocabularies from the Arawak language. Schools are based on a Spanish educational model, with English and French being taught as secondary languages in both private and public schools. Haitian Creole is spoken by the population of Haitian descent. There is a community of about 8,000 speakers of Samaná