Demographics of Guatemala

The Demographics of Guatemala are diverse, the 16.548.168 million people (June 2016)^[1] consist primarily of mestizos, Amerindians, and people of European descent. The population is divided almost evenly between rural and urban areas. ^[2] About 60% of the population speak Spanish, with nearly all the rest speaking Amerindian languages (there are 23 officially recognized Amerindian languages^[3]).

According to official 2012 national statistics, 39.8% of the population is indigenous.^[2]

Population

Guatemala's population (1950-2010).^[4]

According to the 2012 revision of the World Population Prospects the total population estimate was 14,342,000 in 2010, compared to 3,146,000 in 1950. The proportion of the population below the age of 15 in 2010 was 41.5%, 54.1% were aged between 15 and 65 years of age, and 4.4% were aged 65 years or older.^[4]

Guatemala City, the largest city in Central America, is home to over 3 million inhabitants. In 1900 Guatemala had a population of 885,000.^[5] Over the twentieth century Guatemala's population grew by a factor of fourteen. No other western hemisphere country saw such rapid growth.

Population by departments

Emigration

The Guatemalan civil war from 1960 to 1996 provoked migration of Guatemalans, with a large majority of those leaving for foreign countries living in the United States. According to the International Organization for Migration, the total number of emigrants increased from 6,700 in the 1960s to 558,776 for the period 1995-2000, by 2005 the total number had reached 1.3 million.^[7] In 2013, the MPI estimated that there are around 900,000 people of Guatemalan origin in the United States.^[8]

Country	Count
United States	480,665[9] – 1,489,426[10]
Mexico	23,529[10]
Belize	14,693[10]
Canada	14,256[10] – 34,665[11]
Germany	5,989[10]
Honduras	5,172[10]
El Salvador	4,209[10]
Spain	2,491[10]

Ethnic groups

Indigenous girls in Chichicastenango

Ethnic Groups in Guatemala %^[12][3][2]

  Mestizos (41.0%)

  Amerindians (38.9%)

  Whites (18.5%)

  Blacks (1.0%)

  Asians (0.6%)

Official 2012 statistics indicate that approximately 60% of the population is "non-indigenous",^[13] referring to the mestizo population and the people of European origin. These people are called Ladino in Guatemala.

Approximately 40% of the population is indigenous and consist of 23 Maya groups and one non-Maya group. These are divided as follows: (K'iche 9.1%, 8.4% Kaqchikel, Mam 7.9%, 6.3% Q'eqchi', other Maya peoples 8.6%, 0.2% indigenous non-Maya). They live all over the country, especially in the highlands.

Other racial groups include numbers of Afro-Guatemalans, Afro-Mestizos, and Garifuna of mixed African and indigenous Caribbean origins who live in the country's eastern end. Some Garifunas live mainly in Livingstone, San Vicente and Puerto Barrios. They descend mainly from the Arawaks and Belizean Creoles.^[3]

Asian Guatemalans are primarily of Korean descent and Chinese descent, whose ancestors were farm workers and railroad laborers in the early 20th century.

History

The 1893 Guatemalan Census reported that 481,945 persons, or 35.3% of the population, were Ladinos (defined as both whites and people of European and Indian descent), and 882,733 persons, or 64.7% of the population, were Indios (Natives).^[14]

European Guatemalans

Approximately, 18.5% of the populations is considered White or Caucasian, account more than 3 million of the population. Most are of German and Spanish descent, but there are a considerable number of people of Italian, Belgian, French, British, Swiss, Finnish, Russian and Hungarian descent.

The departments of Zacapa and Chiquimula, is almost exclusively white, where many European immigrants arrived, mainly the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in Guatemala City there are also many descendants of Europeans, and also in Coban, Carlos V and Xelaju.

Mestizo Guatemalans

Guatemalan mestizos are people of mixed European and indigenous ancestry. The mestizo population in Guatemala is concentrated in urban areas of the country (the national capital and departmental capitals).^[15]

Historically, the mestizo population in the Kingdom of Guatemala at the time of Independence amounted to nearly 600,000 Indians, 300,000 castes (mostly mestizos and a lesser number of mulattos), and 45,000 criollos or Spanish, with a very small number of Spaniards.^[16]

Indigenous Guatemalans

The Amerindian populations in Guatemala include the K'iche' 9.1%, Kaqchikel 8.4%, Mam 7.9% and Q'eqchi 6.3%. 8.6% of the population belongs to other Maya groups, 0.4% belong to non-Maya indigenous peoples. The whole indigenous community in Guatemala is about 40.5% of the population.^[17]

Languages

The official language of Guatemala is Spanish. It is spoken by more than 60% of the population and is found mainly in the departments of South region, east region, Guatemala City and Peten.^[3] Though the official language is Spanish, it is often the second language among the indigenous population.

Approximately 23 additional indigenous languages are spoken by more than 30% of the population. The most significant are Quiche, Kaqchikel, Mam, Tz’utujil, Q'eqchi' and Pocomam. A non-Mayan indigenous language, Xinca, is almost extinct, with less than 10,000 speakers remaining. About 50,000 people speak the Garifuna language. There are also significant numbers of German, Chinese, French and English language speakers.

Religion

Catholicism was the official religion during the colonial era. Protestantism has increased in recent decades. More than one third of Guatemalans are Protestant, chiefly Evangelicals and Pentecostals. Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy claim rapid growth, especially among indigenous Mayans.

Traditionally a large proportion of Guatemalans have been Catholics. This has declined, from 90% of the population in 1950, 61% in 1986, 65% in 1991 (after the visit of the Pope John Paul II), 57% in 2006,^[19] and 47% in 2013.^[18] Between 1882 and 1940 2% of the population were Protestants, 17.98% were Protestant in 1978, 30% in 1986, 21% in 1991, 25.27% in 2001, 30.70% in 2006^[19] and 40% Protestant in 2014.^[18]

3% of Guatemalans follow other religions.^[18] 9% are non-religious.^[18] Guatemalans who self-identify themselves as atheists/agnostics were 3.25% of the population in 1982, 12% in 1991, and 14.2% in 2001.^[19] According to the Latinobarómetro, 8% of the population were irreligious in 1996, 15% in 2000, 16% in 2007, 11% in 2008, 13% in 2010, with 10% irreligious in 2014.^[18] The "other religions" were 9% in 1996 to 14% one year later, and 3% in 2013.^[18]

Religious Evolution in Guatemala (by national census)
Year	% Catholic	% Evangelic	% Others	% No religion
1882-1940	97%	2%	0.1%	0.4%
1978	80.1%	17.9%	0.8%	1.2%
1980	77%	19.1%	1.1%	2.8%
1982	73.4%	22.3%	1.1%	3.2%
1986	62.9%	30%	2%	6%
1991	64.6%	21%	2.4%	12%
1992	60.4%	26.4%	2.1%	11.1%
2001	58.1%	25.2%	2.5%	14.2%
2006	57.3%	30.7%	2.1%	9.9%
2010	47.6%	31.7%	2.4%	18.3%
2012	47.9%	38.2%	2.3%	11.6%

Vital statistics

UN estimates

The Population Departement of the United Nations prepared the following estimates. ^[4]

Registered annual data^[20][21]

Fertility and Births (Demographic and Health Surveys)

Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):^[22][23]

Structure of the population ^[24]

Structure of the population (01.07.2005) (Estimates) :

Structure of the population (01.07.2010) (Estimates) (Projections based on the 2002 Population Census) :

References

Ancestry and ethnicity in Guatemala Guatemalan Indians/Mayans K'iche' K'akchiquel Uspantek Mam Mopan Sipakapense Sakapultek Ch'orti' Pocomam Ixil Achi Q’anjob’al Q'eqchi' Itza Poqomchi' Akatek Tektitek Jakaltek Tz'utujil Xinca Awakatek Chuj Guatemalan mestizo Mestizo Descendants of Europeans (whites or Criollos) German Spanish Italian Swiss French Belgian British Scandinavian Russian Descendants of Asians Korean Chinese Japanese Jew Descendants of African slaves Zambo Mulatto Garifuna Americas Salvadorans Mexicans Americans Portal

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