Caribbean Sea countries
The 20 countries with a shore on the Caribbean Sea: the island nations of the Antilles, the Caribbean coast of Central America and Mexico, and Colombia and Venezuela on the South American mainland.
20 countriesAs of September 2026Short notes, not sourcedSuggest a correction
The Caribbean Sea covers about 2.75 million km², enclosed by the arc of the Antilles to the north and east, Central America to the west and South America to the south. It is part of the Atlantic, and opens into the Gulf of Mexico through the Yucatán Channel. The Cayman Trough, between Cuba and Jamaica, is its deepest point, at about 7,700 m.
Columbus reached it in 1492, and it takes its name from the Caribs, one of the peoples living there. Its islands were fought over by Spain, Britain, France and the Netherlands for centuries, which is why Spanish, English, French and Dutch, and creoles built on them, are all spoken there today. The Panama Canal, opened in 1914, links it to the Pacific.
The Greater Antilles4
The four big islands in the north.
CubaIts long south coast faces the Caribbean, and its north the Atlantic.
HaitiShares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.
Dominican RepublicSanto Domingo, founded in 1496, is the oldest continuously inhabited European city in the Americas.
The Lesser Antilles7
The chain of smaller islands to the east, between the Caribbean and the open Atlantic.
Trinidad and TobagoOnly about 11 km from Venezuela at its closest, and geologically part of South America.
Central America and Mexico7
MexicoThe Yucatán Peninsula’s east coast, with Cancún, faces the Caribbean.
BelizeHas the longest barrier reef in the Americas, and the Great Blue Hole.
GuatemalaIts short Caribbean coast is on the Gulf of Honduras.
NicaraguaIts Caribbean side, the Mosquito Coast, is wet, thinly settled and home to Miskito and Afro-Caribbean communities.
PanamaThe Panama Canal runs from Colón on the Caribbean to Panama City on the Pacific.
South America2
Close calls
The Bahamas and Barbados
Both are thought of as Caribbean countries, but the Bahamas lie north of Cuba in the Atlantic, and Barbados is east of the Lesser Antilles chain, so neither has a Caribbean Sea shore.
Guyana and Suriname
Both are members of the Caribbean Community and feel more Caribbean than South American, but their coasts face the Atlantic.
Territories
Many Caribbean islands aren’t independent countries: Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and other British territories, Aruba and Curaçao (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands), and Guadeloupe and Martinique, which are part of France.
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