Peruvian People
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the Peruvians as an ethnic group. For information on residents or nationals of Peru and foreign residents, see Demographics of Peru. Peruvian redirects here. For other uses, see Peruvian (disambiguation)
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Please see the discussion on the talk page. |
| Peruvians | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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30 million (est.) |
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 Peru 28,000,000 (est.)
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"Spanish" |
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| Traditionally Catholic. Many Peruvians have agnostic or atheist beliefs. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Incas, Spaniards, Italians, English, Germans, Blacks, chinese, Nikkei |
The Peruvian people or Peruvians are the ethnic group and nation native to Peru, in the Andes of western South America.
Almost half of all Peruvians are Amerindian, or 45 percent of the total population. The two major indigenous ethnic groups are the Quechuas, followed closely by the Aymaras, as well as several dozen small Amerindian ethnic tribes scattered throughout the country beyond the Andes Mountains and in the Amazon basin. Mestizos, a term that denotes people of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry, constitute around 42% of the people (other demographers stated more than half of the population, including whites may be mestizo). Peruvians of European descent (predominantly of Spanish and sparingly of other European backgrounds, since Peru had fewer immigration than Argentina or compared that to Chile, make up about 10% of the population.
The remaining 3% is constituted by Afro-Peruvians, Chinese Peruvians and persons of Japanese descent. Despite the presence of Peruvians of Asian heritage being quite recent, in the past decade they have made significant advancements in business and political fields; a past president (Alberto Fujimori), several past cabinet members, and several members of the Peruvian congress are of Japanese or Chinese origin. Small numbers of Arab Peruvians, mostly of Lebanese and Syrian origin, also reside.
Most of Peru's population (about 40% percent) lives in the Costa (coastal area), while 36% live in the Sierra (the Andes) and only 12% in the Llanos or Amazon rainforest. Almost one third of the nation's population lives in the Lima and Callao Metropolitan Area. Lima is home to over 8 million Peruvians, one of South America's largest urban areas, includes the neighboring community of Callao that grown fast and expanded since the 1960's.
Socioeconomic and cultural indicators are increasingly important as identifiers. For example, Peruvians of Amerindian descent who have adopted aspects of Hispanic culture also are considered "mestizo". With economic development, access to education, intermarriage, and largescale migration from rural to urban areas, a more homogeneous national culture is developing, mainly along the relatively more prosperous coast. Peru has shared cultural traits with neighboring countries of Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile.
Peru had a long history of emigration, millions of Peruvians left the country for employment or political asylum in the US (see Peruvian American) and other countries in South America (Brazil and Argentina), North America (Mexico and Costa Rica), Europe (Spain and France), and Australia. The Japanese immigration policy enacted in 1991 increased the quota of Peruvians among other South American nationalities, including Japanese Peruvians interested in going to live in their ancestral homeland.
[edit] Historical Background
Peruvians are a Western South American population, predominantly Mestizo (Indigenous-Spanish) and Indigenous.
