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, Japanese with Okinawans, Koreans, ethnic Chinese, Arabs, 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 socialist Australians in the 1890's at a failed master-planned colony, and Elizabeth Nietzsche, a German racial ideologist and sister of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche came to Paraguay in her attempt to build a colony devoted to a hypothetical pure white "Nordic" society in the 1890's.

Demographics of Paraguay, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.

Population: 5,585,828 (July 2000 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 39% (male 1,109,887; female 1,074,815)
15-64 years: 56% (male 1,574,978; female 1,563,872)
65 years and over: 5% (male 120,662; female 141,614) (2000 est.)

Population growth rate: 2.64% (2000 est.)

Birth rate: 31.27 births/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Death rate: 4.81 deaths/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Net migration rate: -0.09 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.85 male(s)/female
total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2000 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 30.81 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 73.68 years
male: 71.22 years
female: 76.27 years (2000 est.)

Total fertility rate: 4.16 children born/woman (2000 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Paraguayan(s)
adjective: Paraguayan

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 90%, Mennonite 1%, and other Protestant 9%.

Languages: Spanish and Guarani (officials), both widely read and spoken. note: Mennonite German is spoken by 35,000 in the Gran Chaco.

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 92.1%
male: 93.5%
female: 90.6% (1995 est.)

See also : Paraguay