Demographics of Paraguay
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paraguay's population is distributed unevenly throughout the country. The vast majority of the people live in the eastern region, most within 160 kilometres (100 mi.) of Asunción, the capital and largest city faces Argentina to the south and west. The Gran Chaco, which accounts for about 60% of the territory, is home to less than 2% of the population. The Paraguay government encouraged massive settlement of the vast Gran Chaco.
Ethnically, culturally, and socially, Paraguay has one of the most homogeneous populations in South America. About 95% of the people are of mixed Spanish and Guarani Indian descent. Little trace is left of the original Guarani culture except the language, which is spoken by 90% of the population. About 75% of all Paraguayans also speak Spanish. Guarani and Spanish are official languages, even some whites know Guarani.
Not completely homogeneous, Paraguay has a history of other settlement esp. in the 20th century: Germans, the majority are Mennonites with long-reigned dictator Alfredo Stroessner himself of German ancestry, Japanese with Okinawans, Koreans, ethnic Chinese, Arabs, Ukrainians, Southern Europeans, Brazilians and Argentines are among those who have settled in Paraguay.
Paraguay was the site of radical and progressive colonies by political thinkers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A group of radical socialist Australians in the 1890's voluntarily went to create a failed master-planned community, known as Nueva (New) Australia ; and Elizabeth Nietzsche, a German racial ideologist and sister of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche came to Paraguay in her attempt to build a colony, Nueva Germania (Neues Deutschland) devoted to a hypothetical pure white "Nordic" society in the 1890's.
Population:
6,669,086 (July 2007 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 37.2% (male 1,262,408/female 1,220,809)
15-64 years: 57.7% (male 1,933,559/female 1,915,033)
65 years and over: 5.1% (male 155,660/female 181,617) (2007 est.)
Median age:
total: 21.6 years
male: 21.3 years
female: 21.8 years (2007 est.)
Population growth rate:
2.416% (2007 est.)
Birth rate:
28.77 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Death rate:
4.54 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Net migration rate:
-0.08 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.034 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.857 male(s)/female
total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2007 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
total: 26.45 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 30.73 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 21.96 deaths/1,000 live births (2007 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 75.34 years
male: 72.78 years
female: 78.02 years (2007 est.)
Total fertility rate:
3.84 children born/woman (2007 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
0.5% (2003 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
15,000 (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 600 (2003 est.)
Ethnic groups:
mestizo (mixed Spanish and Amerindian) 95%, unmixed white 1%, unmixed Amerindian 1-3%, Asian (Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese Okinawan) 1%.
Religions:
Roman Catholic 89.6%, Protestant 6.2%, other Christian 1.1%, other or unspecified 1.9%, none 1.1% (2002 census)
Languages:
Spanish (official), Guarani (official)
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 94%
male: 94.9%
female: 93% (2003 est.)
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