Demographics of Ecuador
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ecuador's population is ethnically diverse. Mestizos (those of mixed Amerindian and Spanish ancestry) are by far the largest of all the ethnic groups, constituting over 65 per cent of the current population. In second place are the Amerindians, who account for approximately a quarter of the population. The whites/Caucasians are mainly criollos, unmixed descendants of Spanish colonists, and account for 7 percent of the Ecuadorian population. The Afro-Ecuadorian community, including mulattos and zambos, constitutes the remaining 3 percent.
In recent decades, there has been high emigration due to the economic crisis that plagued the country during the 1990s after the war with Peru and the corrupt political machine. Consequently, over 400,000 Ecuadorians each live in Spain and Italy, and around 100,000 in the United Kingdom (Ecuadorian Britons) while several hundred thousand Ecuadorians live in the US, 950,000 by some estimates mostly in the city of New York. Other Ecuadorians have emigrated across Latin America, tens of thousands have gone to Japan, and one thousand to Australia. One famous American of Ecuadorian (see Ecuadorian American) descent is pop music vocalist Christina Aguilera
In recent decades, many people from other South American countries, especially Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia, have moved to Ecuador in search of higher wages. Ecuador has also seen increased immigration from the Middle East, Asia (especially China and Japan), North America and Europe. Ecuador has about 95,000 American expatriates and 30,000 European union expatriates.[citation needed]
There is a large community of Arab-Ecuadorians, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, mostly of Lebanese, Syrian, or Palestinian origin, prominent in commerce and industry, and concentrated in the country's second city, the Pacific port of Guayaquil. Guayaquil is also home to South Asian groups including Indians and Pakistanis. Ecuador contains tiny communities of Jews, Armenians and Greek-Ecuadorians. The Ecuadorian Jews, who number less 1,000, are mostly of German or Italian descent. There are 112,000 German speakers in Ecuador, mainly descendants of immigrants who arrived in the late 1800s. Also a small east Asian-Ecuadorian (see Asian Latino) community estimated at 2500, mainly consists of those having any amount of Japanese and Chinese descent, whose ancestors arrived as miners, farm hands and fishermen in the late 1800s.
Although as recently as a century ago the Ecuadorian population was most heavily concentrated in the Sierra region (the mountains, which run down the center of the country), today's population is distributed about equally between the Sierra and the Costa region (the coastal lowlands). Migration toward cities -- particularly larger cities -- in all regions has increased the urban population to about 55 percent. The majority of Ecuador's small but vibrant upper- to middle-class population segment is distributed between the capital, Quito, and Guayaquil, each home to over one million inhabitants.
The Oriente region, consisting of Amazonian jungle to the east of the mountains and covering about half the country's land area, remains sparsely populated. It includes the headwaters of the Amazon River. It contains only about 3 percent of the population, many of whom are uninfluenced and unassimilated Native Americans who maintain a wary distance from the recent mestizo and white settlers. The Oriente has nine indigenous peoples: Quichua, Shuar, Achuar, Huaorani, Siona, Secoya, Shiwiar, Záparo, and Cofan, all represented politically by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon, CONFENIAE.
The recent settlers are the result of the small wave of immigration (mainly mestizo migrants from the Sierra) which occurred starting in the 1970s, when government sponsored multinationals began to exploit petroleum reserves in the region. The boom in the petroleum industry has led to the mushrooming of the town of Lago Agrio as well as substantial deforestation, indigenous population loss, and the final disappearance of the Tetete people.
Population: 13,212,742 (July 2004 est.)
Urban: 57%
Rural: 43%
Age structure:
0-14 years: 34.9% (male 2,430,303; female 2,351,166)
15-64 years: 60.6% (male 4,116,289; female 4,198,667)
65 years and over: 4.5% (male 284,082; female 329,727) (2003 est.)
Median Age:
Total: 22.5 years
Male: 22 years
Female: 23 years (2002)
Population growth rate: 1.50% (2006 est.)
Birth rate: 24.94 births/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Death rate: 5.29 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Net migration rate: -0.52 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.86 male(s)/female
total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2000 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
Total: 31.97 deaths/1,000 live births
Female: 26.39 deaths/1,000 live births (2003 est.)
Male: 37.28 deaths/1,000 live births
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 71.89 years
male: 69.06 years
female: 74.86 years (2003 est.)
Total fertility rate: 2.99 children born/woman (2003 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.3% (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 20,000 (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 232 (2001)
Nationality:
noun: Ecuadorian(s)
adjective: Ecuadorian
Ethnic groups: Mestizo (mixed Amerindian and Spanish) 65%, Amerindian 25%, white/Spanish and others (Chinese and Japanese) 7%, black/Afro-Ecuadorian 3%.
Religions: Roman Catholic 95%, Protestant 4%, Jewish below 1%, Eastern Orthodox under 1%, Muslim (Islam) and Buddhism below 1%.
Languages: Spanish (official), Amerindian languages (especially Quichua).
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 92.5%
male: 94%
female: 91% (2003 est.)
[edit] See also
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