Demographics of Paraguay

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Paraguay, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Paraguay's population is distributed unevenly throughout the country. The vast majority of the people live in the eastern region, most within 160 kilometres (99 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 mestizo (mixed Spanish and Guaraní Native American descent. Little trace is left of the original Guaraní culture except the language, which is spoken by 90% of the population. About 75% of all Paraguayans also speak Spanish. Guaraní and Spanish are official languages.

Other demographers contend the total "mostly white" percentage has grown in the last century as a result of European immigration and "whites" are now estimated at 20% or one-fifth of the country's population.

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, Poles, Southern Europeans, Jews, Brazilians, and Argentines are among those who have settled in Paraguay. There are also an estimated 234,000 Afro-Paraguayans, or 4% of the population.^[1]

European and Middle Eastern immigrants began making their way to Paraguay in the decades following the Paraguayan War (1870 onward), in which aftermath only 28,000 men and 200,000 women had survived, the reason why Paraguay had since then a high rate of illegitimate births. The government pursued a pro-immigration policy in an effort to increase population. Government records indicated that approximately 12,000 immigrants entered the port of Asunción between 1882 and 1907, of that total, almost 9,000 came from Italy, Germany, France, and Spain. Migrants also arrived from neighboring Spanish American countries, especially Argentina.

The immigrant ethnic groups kept their cultures and languages to some extent, especially Brazilians known as "brancos" which is also the nickname for Brazilians in Bolivia.

In addition, official records gave an imprecise sense of the number of Brazilians who had come to the country. According to the 1982 census, there were 99,000 Brazilians residing in Paraguay. Most analysts discounted this figure, however, and contended that between 300,000 and 350,000 Brazilians lived in the eastern border region.

Analysts also rejected government figures on the number of immigrants from South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The 1982 census reported that there were 2,700 Koreans in Paraguay, along with another 1,100 non-Japanese or non-Korean Asian immigrants. The actual number of Koreans and ethnic Chinese, however, was believed to be between 30,000 and 50,000. Virtually all Koreans and ethnic Chinese lived in Ciudad del Este or Asunción and played a major role in the importation and sale of electronic goods manufactured in Asia.

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 1890s voluntarily went to create a failed master-planned community, known as Nueva (New) Australia; and Elisabeth 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 1890s.

Population

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

Paraguay population density (people per km²)

According to the 2010 revison of the World Population Prospects the total population was 6,455,000 in 2010, compared to only 1,473,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 33.5%, 61.4% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 5.1% was 65 years or older .^[2]

	Total population (x 1000)	Proportion aged 0–14 (%)	Proportion aged 15–64 (%)	Proportion aged 65+ (%)
1950	1 473	47.0	50.1	2.9
1955	1 674	47.5	49.5	3.0
1960	1 906	47.8	49.0	3.2
1965	2 176	47.5	49.2	3.3
1970	2 483	46.1	50.4	3.5
1975	2 802	44.1	52.3	3.6
1980	3 195	42.5	53.8	3.8
1985	3 698	41.6	54.5	3.9
1990	4 244	41.4	54.6	4.0
1995	4 795	40.3	55.4	4.3
2000	5 344	38.2	57.5	4.4
2005	5 898	35.8	59.5	4.7
2010	6 455	33.5	61.4	5.1

Structure of the population^[3]

Structure of the population (01.07.2013) (Projections based on the 2002 Population Census) :

Age Group	Male	Female	Total	%
Total	3 426 508	3 356 867	6 783 374	100
0–4	377 989	363 561	741 550	10,93
5–9	372 142	358 751	730 893	10,77
10–14	364 020	351 350	715 369	10,55
15–19	351 038	339 645	690 683	10,18
20–24	331 748	322 813	654 561	9,65
25–29	303 291	297 128	600 419	8,85
30–34	257 335	252 770	510 104	7,52
35–39	203 351	200 858	404 209	5,96
40–44	173 976	173 202	347 177	5,12
45–49	160 044	158 383	318 427	4,69
50–54	140 818	137 891	278 709	4,11
55–59	120 438	116 493	236 931	3,49
60–64	95 424	92 423	187 848	2,77
65–69	67 623	67 777	135 401	2,00
70–74	47 778	50 653	98 431	1,45
75–79	31 694	36 085	67 779	1,00
80+	27 800	37 082	64 882	0,96

Age group	Male	Female	Total	Percent
0–14	1 114 151	1 073 662	2 187 813	32,25
15–64	2 312 357	2 091 608	4 403 965	64,92
65+	174 895	191 597	366 492	5,40

Vital statistics

Registration of vital events is in Paraguay not complete. The Population Departement of the United Nations prepared the following estimates. ^[2]

Period	Live births per year	Deaths per year	Natural change per year	CBR*	CDR*	NC*	TFR*	IMR*	Life expectancy total	Life expectancy males	Life expectancy females
1950–1955	70,000	14,000	56,000	44.3	8.9	35.4	6.50	73	62.6	60.5	64.6
1955–1960	76,000	15,000	61,000	42.7	8.6	34.1	6.50	70	63.2	61.1	65.1
1960–1965	84,000	16,000	68,000	41.3	8.0	33.3	6.45	62	64.3	62.3	66.3
1965–1970	92,000	18,000	74,000	39.5	7.6	31.8	6.15	59	65.0	63.0	66.9
1970–1975	94,000	19,000	75,000	35.6	7.1	28.6	5.35	53	65.9	63.7	68.0
1975–1980	108,000	21,000	87,000	36.1	6.9	29.2	5.20	51	66.5	64.3	68.7
1980–1985	129,000	24,000	105,000	37.3	6.8	30.4	5.20	49	67.0	64.9	69.3
1985–1990	139,000	26,000	113,000	34.9	6.6	28.3	4.77	47	67.6	65.4	69.9
1990–1995	145,000	28,000	117,000	32.0	6.2	25.8	4.31	43	68.5	66.3	70.8
1995–2000	148,000	30,000	118,000	29.3	5.9	23.3	3.88	39	69.4	67.2	71.7
2000–2005	151,000	32,000	119,000	26.9	5.6	21.3	3.48	36	70.7	68.7	72.9
2005–2010	153,000	34,000	119,000	24.8	5.5	19.3	3.08	32	71.7	69.7	73.9
2010–2015	161,000	38,000	123,000	23.9	5.7	18.2	2.89	30	72.2	70.0	74.5
2015–2020	165,000	43,000	122,000	22.6	5.8	16.8	2.72	28	72.7	70.4	75.1
* CBR = crude birth rate (per 1000); CDR = crude death rate (per 1000); NC = natural change (per 1000); IMR = infant mortality rate per 1000 births; TFR = total fertility rate (number of children per woman)

Births and deaths ^[4]

Year	Population (x1000)	Live births	Deaths	Natural increase	Crude birth rate	Crude death rate	Rate of natural increase	TFR
2012		118 549	22 807	95 752

Total fertility rate

^[5] Total Fertility Rate (Wanted Fertility Rate):

Year	TFR (Total)
1990	4.6
1995/96	4.3
1998	4.3
2004	2.9
2008	2,5 (2,2)

Ethnic groups

Mestizo (mixed European and Amerindian) 95%, European 3%, unmixed Amerindian 2%.^[6]

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), Guaraní (official)

Speakers as first and second language: Spanish-87 per cent, Guaraní – more than 90 per cent

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.^[7]

Median age

• male: 35.3 years
• female: 32.8 years (2007 est.)

Population growth rate

• 1.284% (2011 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.)

HIV/AIDS – adult prevalence rate

0.3% (2009 est.)

HIV/AIDS – people living with HIV/AIDS

13,000 (2009 est.)

HIV/AIDS – deaths

<500 (2009 est.)

Literacy

• definition: age 15 and over can read and write
• total population: 94%
• male: 94.9%
• female: 93% (2003 est.)

References

1. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/03/01/afro-latino-a-deeply-rooted-identity-among-u-s-hispanics/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
2. Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision
3. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/dyb/dyb2.htm
4. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/vitstats/serATab3.pdf
5. http://www.cepep.org.py/archivos/ENDSSR%202008_1.pdf
6. Paraguay entry at The World Factbook
7. The World Factbook – Paraguay