PERU POPULATION

general information / history / geography / population / economy / main cities of Perú

Estimated at 22 million in 1990, Peru's population has more than tripled over the last 50 years (it was slightly more than 7 million at 1940 census), more than doubled over the last 30 years (10.4 million at the 1961 census). The average annual rate of increase over the last decade has been 2.6 percent.
The ethnic composition of the population is estimated as: indian 45-47 percent, mestizos 32-37 percent, unmixed Europeans 12-15 percent, blacks and mulattos 2 percent, and Asian (Japanese and Chinese) about 1 percent.

In the basins and valleys of the Highlands, the population is predominantely Indian. Spanish is spoken by about two thirds of the population, the majority of Indians still speak Quechua and Aymara too. About 93 percent of the population is Roman Catholic.

Most of Peru is sparsely populated, with large areas in the Andes and eastern lowlands almost inhabited. The average population density for the country as a whole is 17 inhabitants per square kilometer (43 per square mile). Only a comparatively small part of the country - the coastal region and the high level surface of the Andes- has a dense population.

Extensive internal migrations and demographic changes have taken place since the beginning of the twentieth century. Many people migrated from the higher and poorer settled areas of the highlands to the coastal region and the eastern lowlands. Toward the end of the nineteenth century about 70 percent of the Peruvians lived in the highlands, 25 percent in the coastal region, and 5 percent in the eastern lowlands. In early 1990, only about one third of the population lives in the highlands, and more than half dwells in the coastal region.About 71 percent is urban, 25 percent of which lives in the conurbation of Lima, which includes the capital, its port Callao, and a number of satellite towns.