The main cultures of this island dates back to its pre-Columbian residents who were believed to have been related to the Payan, Mayan, Lencan or Jicaquen Indians. Sometime between 1502 and 1504, on his fourth voyage, Christopher Columbus came to the island as he visited the neighbouring Bay island of Guanaja. Thus after the arrival of Columbus, Spanish people began utilizing the island for slave raiding due to which none of the native American communities survived. During the European colonial era, the entire bay of Honduras was habited or invaded by wide variety of individual settlers, pirates, traders and militarists who carried on different kinds of economic and political activities. The island of Roatan and her sister islands were used as resting points for sea travellers. Between 1550 and 1700, Britain occupied the Bay Islands in a combative attempt to usurp the colonisation of the Caribbean from the Spanish. During this time the buccaneers found this quiet unprotected island a haven for safe harbour and transport. The English, French and Dutch pirates established their settlements on the island and looted the bulky Spanish cargo vessels which were loaded with gold and other treasures from the new world.

In the year 1797, the British defeated the Afro-aboriginal Black Caribs, who had been aided by the French in winning the control of the Windward Caribbean island of St. Vincent. The British gathered the St. Vincent Black Caribs and deported them to Roatan. Majority of Black Caribs migrated to Trujilo on the mainland of Honduras but a group remained and founded the community of Punta Gorda located on the northern coast of Roatan. The Black Carib with an ancestry consisting of Native American (Arawak) cultures and African-Maroons, remained in Punta Gorda comprising the Bay Island's first permanent post-Columbian settlers. A part of them also migrated from Roatan to parts of the northern coast of Central America becoming the base of the present day's Garifuna culture.

The main permanent population of Roatan came from the Cayman Islands near Jamaica. They arrived in the 1830s shortly after the abolishment of slavery in Brititsh provinces dislocated the economic structure that had retained the Caymanian culture. The Caymanian culture was hugely a marine culture and were accustomed to the area of turtle fishing ventures and several other activities. Previous Caymanian slave owners were among the first to settle on the seaside areas all over western Roatan. Former slaves continually arrived between 1830s and 1840s and altogether, former Caymanians comprised the largest cultural group on the island. In the 1850s the British declared the Bay Islands a colony of Britain for a brief period who within a decade ceded the territory back to Honduras. During the latter half of the century the population of the island grew rapidly and new establishments grew all around Roatan and other islands. A fruit trade industry was initiated by the islanders which became a prevalent industry and by the 1870s the trade was taken over by American companies namely The New Orleans and Bay Islands Fruit Company. Gradually companies like Standard Fruit and United Fruit took over the trade and laid the foundation for the present day fruit companies. This industry gave Honduras the nickname of ”banana republic”

The twentieth century witnessed a continous growth in population which resulted in changes in economy which in turn resulted in environmental challenges. The influx of Spanish speaking Mestizo migrants from the Honduran mainland contributed towards a population boom on the islands. In the beginning, the Mestizo migrants settled the urban areas of Coxen Hole and Barrio Los Fuertes located near the French Harbour. Spanish is commonly spoken in these areas with English being spoken amongst the families of original residents and in areas inhabited mostly by islanders than by former mainlanders.

As far as population and economic influences are concerned, the flow of settlers from the mainland was stunted by the engulfing presence of tourists in recent years. This tendency originated through numerous American, Canadian, British, New Zealand and South African settlers and entrepreneures, occupied mainly in the fishing industry and who later went on to become the base of tourist trade. Dramatic and precipitated changes in the demographic field that Roatan has experienced during the twenty-first century has contributed to the intricacy of environmental challenges that this beautiful island now confronts.

Spanish is the language spoken in mainland Honduras, but the main language on the island of Roatan is (Creole) English, since the first modern population came from parts of the British Carribbean. In 1998 Hurricane Mitch racked the island creating a considerable amount of damage, temporarily immobilising most commercial activities on the island.