Three major divisions constitute the West Indies: the Greater Antilles, comprising the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and Puerto Rico; the Lesser Antilles, including the Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, and Grenada; and the isolated island groups of the North American continental shelf—The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands—and those of the South American shelf, including Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire.

The West Indies have a tropical maritime climate. Daily maximum temperatures over most of the region range from the mid-80s F (upper 20s C) from December to April to the upper 80s F (low 30s C) from May to November. Annual rainfall totals range from 30 to 80 inches (800 to 2,000 mm) but reach more than 200 inches (5,000 mm) on the highest peaks. As of 2019, the population of the West Indies was 43,163,817.

From the 17th through the 19th century, the European colonial territories of the West Indies were the French West Indies, British West Indies, the Danish West Indies, the Dutch West Indies, and the Spanish West Indies. "West Indies" or "West India" was the namesake of several companies of the 17th and 18th centuries, including the Danish West India Company, the Dutch West India Company, the French West India Company, and the Swedish West India Company.

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