Coloureds (Afrikaans: Kleurlinge or Bruinmense) are a multiracial ethnic group native to Southern Africa who have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including Khoisan, Bantu, Afrikaner, Whites, Austronesian, East Asian or South Asian.
Because of the combination of ethnicities, different families and individuals within a family may have a variety of different physical features.

In the Western Cape, a distinctive Cape Coloured and affiliated Cape Malay culture developed.
In other parts of Southern Africa, people classified as Coloured were usually the descendants of individuals from two distinct ethnicities.
Genetic studies suggest the group has the highest levels of mixed ancestry in the world.
Mitochondrial DNA studies have demonstrated that the maternal lines of the Coloured population are descended mostly from African Khoisan women.
This ethnicity shows a gender-biased admixture.
While a plurality of male lines have come from sub-Saharan African populations, 45.2%, Western European lineages contributed 37.3% to paternal components and South Asian/ Southeast Asian lineages 17.5%.

Coloureds are to be mostly found in the western part of South Africa.
In Cape Town, they form 45.4% of the total population, according to the South African National Census of 2011.

The apartheid-era Population Registration Act, 1950, and subsequent amendments, codified the Coloured identity, and defined its subgroups.
Indian South Africans were initially classified under the act as a subgroup of Coloured.
Coloureds (Afrikaans: Kleurlinge or Bruinmense) are a multiracial ethnic group native to Southern Africa who have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including Khoisan, Bantu, Afrikaner, Whites, Austronesian, East Asian or South Asian. Because of the combination of ethnicities, different families and individuals within a family may have a variety of different physical features.
In the Western Cape, a distinctive Cape Coloured and affiliated Cape Malay culture developed. In other parts of Southern Africa, people classified as Coloured were usually the descendants of individuals from two distinct ethnicities. Genetic studies suggest the group has the highest levels of mixed ancestry in the world. Mitochondrial DNA studies have demonstrated that the maternal lines of the Coloured population are descended mostly from African Khoisan women. This ethnicity shows a gender-biased admixture. While a plurality of male lines have come from sub-Saharan African populations, 45.2%, Western European lineages contributed 37.3% to paternal components and South Asian/ Southeast Asian lineages 17.5%.
Coloureds are to be mostly found in the western part of South Africa. In Cape Town, they form 45.4% of the total population, according to the South African National Census of 2011.
The apartheid-era Population Registration Act, 1950, and subsequent amendments, codified the Coloured identity, and defined its subgroups. Indian South Africans were initially classified under the act as a subgroup of Coloured.
Coloureds