The indigenous populations on Saipan are the Chamorro and Carolinian people. Archeologists are discovering that some of the oldest civilizations on the planet are in this region of the world.

The Chamorros came a thousand or more years ago and they speak a language that is linguistically similar to Tagalog and a modicum of Spanish. The Carolinians came more recently (early 1800's) from islands in the Central Carolines and speak a language similar to Trukese. As the islanders have gone through repeated foreign occupation, much of their original culture is lost. In spite of that they preserve strong traditions, including daily use of the dialect, great respect for elders and a love of traditional food. The local people are friendly and hospitable and are proud of their culture.

As of the 1995 census, about 60,000 people lived in the Northern Mariana Islands. Of these, there are about 17,000 indigenous Chamorros and about 3,000 indigenous Carolinians. There were also nearly 20,000 Filipinos, over 7,000 Chinese, 5,000 Miconesians, 2,000 Koreans and just over 2,000 'Americans' (US Citizens from North America). Many of the Filipinos and most of the other Asians are contract workers in the hospitality, construction and garment industries. There are also contract workers from other Asian nations including Thailand, Bangladesh, Japan, and Sri Lanka.