Demographics of Venezuela

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Venezuela | Politics edit

The Demographics of Venezuela are the condition and overview of Venezuela's peoples. Demographic topics include basic education, health, and population statistics as well as identified racial and religious affiliations.

[edit] Background and overview

Venezuela's cultural imprint indicates an amount of Caribbean Spanish, West Indian and "Old world" (colonial European) influences, but Venezuela isn't always classified as an "Euro-Latin American" society like Argentina, Uruguay and to a smaller extent, Chile.

Venezuela's peoples are descended primarily from forebearers of Venezuelan indigenous, African, and Spanish European heritage. Although the Castilian dialect of the Spanish language is the official language, there are spoken numerous indigenous languages. Some 85% of the Venezuelan population currently resides in the urban conglomerations (Caracas, Valencia, Maracaibo, et cetera) that are concentrated in Venezuela's northern coastal mountain strip. Nearly half of Venezuela's geographic area lies south of the Orinoco River; however, this region contains only 5% of the Venezuelan population.

Venezuela's criminality has dramatically risen since 1998. It has one of the highest rates of murders per 100000 inhabitants in all Latin America, as the reports from United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crimes show. Venezuela's Human Development Index for 2005 was 0.772 or rank 75. In 1998, Venezuela had the position 65.

The oil/petroleum industry in Venezuela has placed the country one of the most rapidly-developing kind in the late 20th century, in terms of literacy, living standards and progressive policy. But a growing class disparity of a small rich elite, a middle-class majority and the observation of its' large poor class, and mishandling of financial revenue in the late 1980s and 1990s has affected Venezuelan society.

Venezuela shared a similar condition like Mexico and Costa Rica, as well in Communist Cuba and Brazil, the leading development country in Latin America, Venezuela struggles with the negative socioeconomic traits of a developing country. In the late 20th century, Venezuela had turned to liberal socialism and encouragedindustrialization, but has yet to totally change its' way of life.

[edit] Population

Population data on Venezuela (Year plotted vs. total population (in thousands)). Chart shows the total population between 1961 and 2005; the steady upwards trend is particularly notable. Data is from 2005 FAO reports.

[edit] Overview

The July 2005 CIA estimate puts Venezuela's total population at 25,375,281 inhabitants. It should be noted that many Venezuelan government officials, statisticians, and activists consider this a gross underestimate. Notably, the 2005 INE estimate is 26,577,423 inhabitants. Additionally, over the past five years, Venezuelan society's general age structure has been trending towards the homologous structure found in Cuba, Western Europe, Japan, and other healthy and rapidly aging societies. Notably, there has been a significant increase in the proportion and gross numbers of elderly Venezuelans (aged 65 and up), as well as a corresponding drop in the total fertility rate.

In the late 1990s and 2000s, two trends of immigration (from political disorder and economic instability in neighboring Colombia), and further emigration (upper-class and anti-Chavez dissidents going to the US) are demographic indications of where Venezuela may be heading. In order to restore total prosperity it had before in the oil boom days (1970's), the Venezuelan population needs to remain youthful, educated and more employed in the current political climate.

[edit] Total population

• The 2006 CIA estimate is 25,730,435 inhabitants in Venezuela.

[edit] Life expectancy at birth

[edit] Population growth rate

• 1.38% (2006 estimate).

[edit] Birth and death rates

• 18.71 births per 1,000 population (2006 estimate).
• 4.92 deaths per 1,000 population (2006 estimate).

[edit] Total fertility rate

• 2.23 children born per woman (2006 estimate).

[edit] Infant mortality rate

• 21.54 deaths per 1,000 live births (2006 estimate).

[edit] Age structure

[edit] Sex ratio

[edit] Net emigration rate

Net emigration rate is zero (2006 estimate) according to the CIA world fact book. However, over a million Venezuelans now live in the United States (the Miami, Florida, New York City and Washington, DC metropolitian areas have large Venezeuelan communities since the 1980's), and over 100,000 Venezuelan expatriates, some come as guest workers and others are political refugees live across Latin America.

[edit] Literacy and education

The accepted formal and demographic definition of the literacy rate is that proportion or percentage of the Venezuelan population older than age 15 that can both read and write. The below are 2003 estimates from the 2005 CIA World Factbook.

[edit] Ethnic and religious affiliations

[edit] Ethnic affiliation

According to the 2005 CIA World Factbook, Venezuela's main ethnic affiliations are Spanish, followed by Italian, Portuguese, Arab (esp. Lebanese and Syrian), German, African, indigenous people, and smaller communities of Chinese, Japanese, east Indian and Anglo-American descent.

[edit] Religious affiliation

The overwhelming majority of Venezuelans denote themselves as adherents of Catholicism; this is true nominally if not in practice.

Others include Islam, Judaism and Orthodox Christianity.

[edit] References

• This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain. [1] (2005)
• Acosta, Maruja. "Urbanizacion y clases sociales en Venezuela." Revista Interamericana de Planificacion Bogota , 7, No. 26, June 1973, 22-44.

• The article contains a statistical reference from the Wikipedia public domain [2](2006).

[edit] See also