The Islanders have their own unique identity and are predominantly people of Pitcairn and English descent and to a lesser extent of Scottish and Irish.

All of the people that claim Pitcairn ancestry are descended from the British HMS Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions.

[1][2] There is a Norfolk Islander diaspora in Australia and New Zealand and other nations due to people having relocated temporarily or migrated permanently.

Finding the island uninhabited, Cook claimed it for Britain and named it after English noblewoman Mary Howard, Duchess of Norfolk.

[8] In 1786 the British government included Norfolk Island as an auxiliary settlement, proposed by Sir John Call.

When the First Fleet arrived at Port Jackson in January 1788, its commander, Captain Arthur Phillip, ordered Lieutenant Philip Gidley King to take control of the island and prepare for its commercial development.

[10] With his parents on aboard HMS Supply in March 1790, his name was recorded as "Norfolk King Inett" in the shipping muster.

On 3 May 1856, the entire population of 193 (plus a baby (Reuben Denison Christian) born en route; making it 194) along with everything they owned began the five-week voyage aboard the Morayshire to Norfolk Island, arriving on 8 June 1856.

[15] These were the descendants of Tahitians and the HMS Bounty mutineers, resettled from the Pitcairn Islands, which had become too small for their growing population.

[16] The Pitcairners occupied many of the buildings remaining from the penal settlements, and gradually established their traditional farming and whaling industries on the island.

An additional 120 people (7 percent of usual residents) chose ‘Norfolk Island’ ancestry with 30 identified as having Pitcairn descent.

[28][29] Recipes from Norfolk Island of Pitcairn origin include mudda (green banana dumplings) and kumara pilhi.

[38] The results below show the total population of the Island in the 1933 census by their place of birth, with a slight majority being Norfolk Island-born.