White Bermudians are Bermudians of total or predominantly European ancestry, most notably the British Isles and Portugal, who stand out for having light skin and self-identify as white. In a more official sense, the Department of Statistics uses the term "white". The 2016 Bermuda census reported that White Bermudians are currently the second-largest group representing 31.0% of the population.[7]
On 2 June 1609, Sir George Somers had set sail from Plymouth, England aboard Sea Venture, the new flagship of the Virginia Company, leading a fleet of nine vessels, loaded with several hundred settlers, food and supplies for the new English colony of Jamestown, in Virginia.[10] Somers had previous experience sailing with both Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh. The fleet was caught in a storm on 24 July, and Sea Venture was separated and began to founder. When the reefs to the East of Bermuda were spotted, the ship was deliberately driven on them to prevent its sinking, thereby saving all aboard, 150 sailors and settlers, and one dog.[11]
Permanent settlement
Bermuda's first capital, St.George's, was established in 1612.[12] The White population at the time made up the entirety of the Bermuda's population, other than a black and an Indian slave brought in for a very short-lived pearl fishery in 1616,[13] from settlement (which began accidentally in 1609 with the wreck of the Sea Venture) until the middle of the 17th century, and the majority until some point in the 18th century.
The majority of the first European settlers arrived from England as indentured servants or tenant farmers, as most of Bermuda's land was owned by absentee landlords who remained in England as shareholders (adventurers) in the Virginia Company and then its offshoot the Somers Isles Company. Later Irish Gaels were sent to Bermuda after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland that followed the English Civil War.[14] Usually described as 'prisoners-of-war', these Irish men and women were removed from Ireland involuntarily, and sold into indentured servitude on arrival in Bermuda. A small number of Scots were sent to Bermuda in the same way after Cromwell's invasion of Scotland. The Irish were ostracised by the English, and were found so troublesome that their further import was banned. By the middle of the 18th century, they, and the Native American slaves also sent to Bermuda after the conquest of their homelands, had largely merged, with the free and enslaved blacks (most of whom came from Spanish, or formerly Spanish, colonies in the West Indies), with Bermuda's population boiled down to two demographic groups: White and Coloured.
Population history
The population of Bermuda on 17 April 1721, was listed as 8,364, composed of: "Totals:—Men on the Muster roll, 1,078; men otherwise, 91; Women, 1,596; boys, 1,072; girls, 1,013. Blacks; Men, 817, women 965; boys 880; girls, 852."[15]
Bermudian Darrell sisters of English descent in 1846.
The Population of Bermuda in 1727 included 4,470 whites (910 men; 1,261 boys; 1,168 women; 1,131 girls) and 3,877 coloured (787 men; 1,158 boys; 945 women; 987 girls).
By 1871 the permanent population (not including the thousands of sailors and soldiers stationed in the colony) included 4,725 whites (2,118 males; 2,607 females) and 7,376 coloured (3,284 males and 4,112 females).[citation needed]
The term coloured was generally used in preference to black as anyone who was of wholly European ancestry (at least Northern European) was defined as white, leaving everyone else as coloured. This included the multi-racial descendants of the previous minority demographic groups (Black, Irish and Native American), as well as the occasional Jew, Persian, South-Asian, East Asian or other non-White and non-Black Bermudian.[17]
It was largely by this method (mixed-race Bermudians being added to the number of Blacks, rather than added to the number of Whites or being defined as a separate demographic group) that coloured (subsequently redefined after the Second World War as black) Bermudians came to outnumber white Bermudians, despite both starting off at a numerical disadvantage and low Black immigration prior to the latter 19th century. Other contributing factors included the scale of white relative to black emigration in the 17th and 18th centuries, the greater mortality of whites from disease in the late 17th century, and large-scale West Indian immigration, which began, like Portuguese immigration, in the 19th century to provide labourers for the new export agriculture industry and expansion of the Royal Naval Dockyard. The Black West Indians, unlike the Portuguese, were British citizens and not obliged to leave Bermuda, as many Portuguese were, at the end of a contracted period.[citation needed]
Officially Bermuda has had population censuses since the period (1629-1939) and 8 (1950-2016) during the modern period.[18]
Modern census
Table shows the population and proportion who identify as white in every census since 1950 to the present.[19][20][21][22][23][24]
White Bermudians 1950 - 2016
N.
Year
Population
Pop. (%)
1
1950
14,724
2
1960
15,892
37.27
3
1970
4
1980
5
1991
21,159
36.4
6
2000
21,134
34.0
7
2010
19,926
31.0
8
2016
19,466
31.0
Demographics
Most White Bermudians are of English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Portuguese descent. White people in Bermuda currently make up 31% of the total population according to the 2016 census. In 1849, the first Portuguese arrived from Madeira.[25]
Geographic distribution
2016 census
Subdivisions of Bermuda.
Below is the official and 2016 census figures for white Bermudians as a percentage of the total population and their distribution in each parish. Results show that the Parish of Paget had the highest proportion at 55.1%, followed by Smith’s at 48.5% and Southampton at 29.8%.[26]
Shows the native and foreign-born status for the white Bermudian population in the 2016 census. From the 19,466 who identified as white, 62.3% (12,121) were Bermudian citizens and 37.7% non-citizens.[28] Most of the population - 52.7% (10,262) were foreign-born and 47.2% were native born in Bermuda. The majority of those Bermuda-born were citizens with 89.8% (8,261) compared with 10.2% that were non-Bermudian citizens.[29]
The 2010 Bermudian census showed that White Bermudians accounted for 31% (10% native Bermudians and 21% foreign-born) of the territory's total population, with a further 7% of Bermuda's population self-identifying as being of mixed African and European descent.[31]
Birthplace
A majority of Bermudians classified as white are foreign-born nationals. The most common place of birth for them are:
United Kingdom: 3,942 (or 6% of Bermuda's total population)
A question on ancestry was first introduced in the 1991 Bermuda census and asked until 2010. It was omitted from the 2016 census.[33][34]
Religion
The religious affiliation for white Bermudians according to the 2010 census. Includes 2,551 persons for which there is no data.[35] There is no data for 2016 on religion.
↑"About". stgeorgesfoundation. Retrieved 22 November 2025.
↑Orr, Tamra (16 December 2017). Bermuda. Marshall Cavendish. ISBN9780761431152. Retrieved 16 December 2017– via Google Books.
↑Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 32, 1720–1721. Pages 281–297. America and West Indies: April 1721. Originally published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1933.
↑EARLY BERMUDA RECORDS, 1619-1826; A Guide to the Parish and Clergy Registers with some Assessment Lists and Petitions. Compiled by A.C. Hollis Hallett. 1991. Juniperhill Press, 4, Juniper Hill Drive, Pembroke HM13, Bermuda.
↑19th Century Church Registers of Bermuda, indexed by A. C. Hollis Hallett. Updated by: C. F. E. Hollis Hallett. Published by Juniperhill Press and Bermuda Maritime Museum Press, 2005. ISBN0-921992-23-8
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Bermuda 19,466 [2] 
