 While the population number is stagnating in recent years, many towns in the surrounding Wanica District are increasing in population.The city is famed for its diverse ethnic makeup, including Creoles (African or mixed African-European descent) 27%, Indian (East Indian descent) 23%, Multiracials 18%, Maroons (descendants of escaped African slaves) 16%, Javanese (Indonesian descent) 10%, Indigenous (descendants of native population) 2%, Chinese (descendants of 19th-century contract workers) 1.5%, and smaller numbers of Europeans (primarily of Dutch and Portuguese descent), Lebanese and Jews.In the past decades a significant number of Brazilians, Guyanese and new Chinese immigrants have settled in Paramaribo.