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African diaspora
 
African people around the world.svg
Total population
c. 140 million
Regions with significant populations
 Brazil108,200,000, including multiracial
 United States46,300,000 including multiracial
 Haiti9,925,365
 Colombia4,944,400 including multiracial
 FranceApproximately 3.3–5.5 million
 Yemen3,500,000
 Saudi Arabia3,370,000
 Jamaica2,510,000
 United Kingdom1,904,684 
 Mexico1,386,556
 Canada1,198,540
 Spain1,191,378, 79% being North African
 Dominican Republic1,138,471
 Italy1,091,646, 59% being North African
 Venezuela1,087,427
 Ecuador1,080,864
 Cuba1,034,044
 Germanyc. 1,000,000
 Peru828,841
 Trinidad and Tobago452,536
 Australia380,000
 Barbados270,853
 Pakistan250,000
 Guyana225,860
 Suriname200,406
 Argentina149,493
 Grenada108,700
 Russia50,000
 Turkey5,000
Languages
Lingua franca: English, American and Caribbean, French, Canadian, Haitian, Haitian Creole, Spanish, Portuguese, Papiamento and Dutch
Religion
Christianity, Islam, Traditional African religions, Afro-American religions

The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were enslaved and shipped to the Americas via the Atlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries, with their largest populations in Brazil, the United States and Haiti. Some scholars identify "four circulatory phases" of this migration out of Africa. The phrase African diaspora gradually entered common usage at the turn of the 21st century. The term diaspora originates from the Greek διασπορά (diaspora, literally "scattering") which gained popularity in English in reference to the Jewish diaspora before being more broadly applied to other populations.

Less commonly, the term has been used in scholarship to refer to more recent emigration from sub-Saharan Africa. The African Union (AU) defines the African diaspora as consisting: "of people of native African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union". Its constitutive act declares that it shall "invite and encourage the full participation of the African diaspora as an important part of our continent, in the building of the African Union".

History