Demographics of Peru
Encyclopedia
This article is about the demographic
features of the population
of Peru
, including population density
, ethnicity
, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Peru is a multiethnic
country, which means that it is home to people of many different historical backgrounds. Therefore, it is a multicultural
country as well. Since it is a multiethnic society, Peruvian people usually treat their nationality as a citizenship instead of an ethnicity. The Peruvian census does not contain information about ethnicity so only rough estimates are available. Its population can be composed of Amerindians
: 45%, Mestizos: 37%, European: 15%, Afro-Peruvians: 2%, Asians
and others: 1%. Amerindians are found in the southern Andes
, though a large portion, also to be found in the southern and central coast due to the massive internal labor migration from remote Andean regions to coastal cities,during the past four decades. While the Jungle are the "heart" of the indigenous populations of Peru, White people are mostly found in the northern highlands and are mostly of Spanish
, Italian, British, French, German
, Irish
and Croatian descent.
Amerindians
inhabited the land for several millennia before the Spanish conquest
in the 15th century; their cultures and influence represent the foundation of today’s Peru.
As a result of European contact and conquest, the population of the area now known as Peru decreased from an estimated 9 million in the 1520s to around 600,000 in 1620. This happened mostly because of the unintended spread of germs and infectious diseases. In fact, the spread of smallpox
greatly weakened the Inca empire, even before the Spanish arrival. The Amerindians
did not have as much natural immunity to the disease as did the Europeans who had been exposed to smallpox for roughly two centuries. For this reason, several Amerindian populations were decimated. Furthermore, the disease killed Inca ruler Wayna Capac, triggering a civil war in the Inca empire that preceded the conquest efforts the Spaniards. Thus, the conquest was facilitated by the weakness of the Inca empire which was recovering from both a civil war and epidemics of unknown diseases.
However, other reasons for the decrease of Amerindian population include the battles for domination and survival, followed by the breakdown of the Inca social system, famine, genocide, human exploitation, and forced mine labor to extract the gold and silver to ship back to Europe. Forced labor started after the settlement of the Spanish. The Amerindian population suffered further decrease as the Spanish exploited an Inca communal labor system called mita
for mining purposes, thus annihilating thousands in forced labor.
Spaniards arrived in large numbers under colonial rule. After the independence, there has been a gradual European
immigration from Austria, England, France, Germany, Italy, Croatia and Spain. Polynesians also came to the country lured to work in the Guano islands during the boom years of this commodity around the 1860s. Chinese
arrived in the 1850s as a replacement for slave workers in the sugar plantations of the north coast and have since become a major influence in Peruvian society. Other immigrant groups include Arabs, South Asians, Japanese
and Americans
from the United States
.
Amerindians constitute around 45% of the total population. The two major indigenous
or ethnic groups are the Quechuas
(belonging to various cultural subgroups), followed by the Aymaras, mostly found in the extreme southern Andes. A large proportion of the indigenous population who live in the Andean highlands still speak Quechua
or Aymara
, and have vibrant cultural traditions, some of which were part of the Inca Empire
, arguably the most advanced agricultural civilization in the world. Literally dozens of indigenous cultures are also dispersed throughout the country beyond the Andes Mountains in the Amazon basin
. This region is rapidly becoming urbanized. Important urban centers include Iquitos
, Nauta
, Puerto Maldonado
, Pucallpa
and Yurimaguas
. This region is home to numerous indigenous peoples, though they do not constitute a large proportion of the total population. Examples of indigenous peoples residing in eastern Peru include the Shipibo, Urarina
, Cocama, and Aguaruna
, to name just a few.
Mestizos compose about 37% of the total population. The term traditionally denotes Amerindian and European ancestry (mostly Spaniard
ancestry and to a lesser degree, Italian
). This term, was part of the caste classification during colonial times, whereby people of exclusive Spanish descend but born in the colonies were called criollos, people of mixed Amerindian and Spanish descend were called mestizos, those of African and Spanish descend were called mulatos and those of Amerindian and African descend were called zambos. Nowadays, this terms have racist connotations.
Most Peruvian mestizos are of Amerindian and European descent, but other ethnic backgrounds (such as Asian, Middle Eastern and African) are also present, in varying degrees, in some segments of the mestizo population. Most mestizos are urban dwellers and show stronger European inheritance in regions like Lima Region
, La Libertad Region
, Callao Region, Pasco Region
, Cajamarca Region
, and Arequipa Region
.
European
descendants constitute around 15% of the total population. They are descendants of the Spanish
colonizers and other Europeans such as Italians, British, French, Germans
and Croatians (see also Croats
) who arrived in the 19th and 20th centuries. The majority of them live also in the largest cities (like mestizos), usually in the North and Center of Peru: Lima
, Trujillo
, Chiclayo
, Piura
, Cajamarca
and San Martin
. The only southern city with a significant white population is Arequipa
. Recently, Peru has seen a migration of American retirees and businessmen come to settle in the country, due to lower cost of living and economic booms in the 1990s and 2000s, though Peru experiences busts in between.
There is also a large presence of Asian Peruvian
s, primarily Chinese and Japanese
along with recent arrived Koreans and Taiwan
ese immigrants, that constitutes 3% of the population, which in proportion to the overall population is the second largest of any Latin American nation, after Panama
. Peru has the second largest population of people of Japanese descent in Latin America after Brazil
and the largest population of Chinese descent in Latin America
. Historic communities inhabited by people of Chinese descent are found throughout the Peruvian upper Amazon, including cities such as Yurimaguas
, Nauta
, Iquitos
and the north central coast (Lambayeque and Trujillo). In contrast to the Japanese community in Peru, the Chinese
appear to have intermarried much more since they came to work in the rice fields during the Viceroyalty and to replace the African slaves, during the abolition of slavery itself. Despite the presence of Peruvians of Asian heritage being quite recent, in the past decade they have made significant advancements in business and political fields; a past president (Alberto Fujimori
), several past cabinet members, and one member of the Peruvian congress are of Japanese or Chinese origin. Small numbers of Arab
Peruvians, mostly of Lebanese
and Syria
n origin, and Palestinians
also reside, as well a small Hindustani
and Pakistani community.
The remaining is constituted by Afro-Peruvian
s, a legacy of Peru's history as an importer of slaves during the colonial period. Today also mulatto
s (mixed African and European) and zambos (mixed African and Amerindian) constitute an important part of the population as well, especially in Piura
, Tumbes, Lambayeque
, Lima
and Ica
regions. The Afro-Peruvian population is concentrated mostly in coastal cities south of Lima, such as that of those found in the Ica Region, in cities like Cañete
, Chincha
, Ica
, Nazca
and Acarí in the border with the Arequipa Region
. Another large but poorly promoted segment of Afro-Peruvian presence is in the Yunga regions (west and just below the Andean chain of northern Peru), (i.e., Piura
and Lambayeque
), where sugarcane, lemon, and mango production are still of importance. Important communities are found all over the Morropón Province
, such as in the city of Chulucanas
. One of them is Yapatera, a community in the same city, as well as smaller farming communities like Pabur or La Matanza and even in the mountainous region near Canchaque. Further south, the colonial city of Zaña
or farming towns like Capote
and Tuman
in Lambayeque
are also important regions with Afro-Peruvian presence.
Socioeconomic and cultural indicators are increasingly important as identifiers. For example, Peruvians of Amerindian descent who have adopted aspects of Hispanic culture also are beginning to consider themselves "mestizo
". With economic development, access to education, intermarriage, and large-scale migration from rural to urban areas, a more homogeneous national culture is developing, mainly along the relatively more prosperous coast. Peruvians view themselves as a racially mixed people: a "half indigenous, a third European, a sixth African and one part Asiatic" composition as a "melting pot
" recipe for a Peruvian stew.
Most of Peru's population (about 50% percent) lives in the Costa (coastal area), while 36% live in the Sierra (the Andes) and only 12% in the Selva
or Amazon rain forest . Almost one third of the nation's population lives in the Lima and Callao Metropolitan Area . Lima is home to over 8 million Peruvians, one of South America's largest urban areas, it includes the neighboring community of Callao that's grown fast and expanded since the 1960s.
Peru has two official languages--Spanish
and the foremost indigenous language, Quechua
. Spanish is used by the government and the media and in education and commerce. Amerindians who live in the Andean highlands speak Quechua and Aymara
and are ethnically distinct from the diverse indigenous groups who live on the eastern side of the Andes and in the tropical lowlands adjacent to the Amazon basin.
Peru's distinct geographical regions are mirrored in a socioeconomic divide between the coast's mestizo-Hispanic culture and the more diverse, traditional Andean cultures of the mountains and highlands. The indigenous populations east of the Andes speak various languages and dialects. Some of these groups still adhere to traditional customs, while others have been almost completely assimilated into the mestizo-Hispanic culture.
Peru's official languages are Spanish and, according to the Peruvian Constitution of 1993, Amerindian languages such as Quechua, Aymara and other such indigenous languages in areas where they predominate. Today, Spanish is spoken by some 80.3% of the population, and is the language used by government, media, and in education and formal commerce. There has been an increasing and organized effort to teach Quechua in public schools in the areas where Quechua is spoken.
According to official sources, the use of Spanish has increased while the knowledge and use of indigenous languages has decreased considerably during the last four decades (1960–2000). At the beginning of the 1960s some 39% of the total Peruvian population were registered as speakers of indigenous languages, but by the 1990s the figures show a considerable decline in the use of Quechua, Aymara and other indigenous languages, when only 28% is registered as Quechua-speaking (16% of whom are reported to be bilingual in Spanish) and Spanish-speakers increased to 72%.
For 2005, government figures place Spanish as being spoken by 80.3% of the population, but among Amerindian languages another decrease is registered. Of the indigenous languages, Quechua remains the most spoken, and even today is used by some 16.2% of the total Peruvian population, or a third of Peru's total indigenous population. The number of Aymara-speakers and other indigenous languages is placed at 3%, and foreign languages 0.2%.
The drastic decline in use and knowledge of indigenous languages is largely attributed to the recent demographic factors. The urbanization and assimilation of Peru's Amerindian plurality into the Hispanic-mestizo culture, as well as the new socioeconomic factors associated with class structure have given privilege to the use of Spanish at the expense of the Amerindian languages which were spoken by the majority of the population less than a century ago.
The major obstacle to a more widespread use of the Quechua language is the fact that multiple dialects of this language exist. Quechua, along with Aymara and the minor indigenous languages, was originally and remains essentially an oral language. Therefore, there is a lack of modern media which use it: for example books, newspapers, software, magazines, technical journals, etc. However, non-governmental organizations as well as state sponsored groups are involved in projects to edit and translate major works into the Quechua language; for instance, in late 2005 a superb version of Don Quixote was presented in Quechua.
The percentage of native speakers of Quechua who are illiterate has been decreasing lately, as 86.87% of the Peruvian population is literate. More encouraging, nationwide literacy rate of youth aged 15 to 24 years is high, and considered an achievement in Peruvian educational standards.
School enrollment has been rising sharply for years, due to a widening educational effort by the government and a growing school-age population. The illiteracy (2008) rate is estimated at 7.1% (10.6% for women), 19.0% in rural areas and 3.7% in urban areas http://www.andina.com.pe/Espanol/Noticia.aspx?id=NiBnWpBzahw=.
Quechua
is mostly an oral language, so in some cases, in rural areas, people do not speak Spanish and therefore do not know how to read or write. Elementary and secondary school enrollment is about 7.7 million. Peru's 74 universities (1999), 39% public and 61% private institutions, enrolled about 322,000 students in 1999.
Demographics
Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...
features of the population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
of Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, including population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
, ethnicity
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Peru is a multiethnic
Multiethnic society
A multiethnic society is one with members belonging to more than one ethnic group, in contrast to societies which are ethnically homogenous. In practice, virtually all contemporary national societies are multiethnic...
country, which means that it is home to people of many different historical backgrounds. Therefore, it is a multicultural
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
country as well. Since it is a multiethnic society, Peruvian people usually treat their nationality as a citizenship instead of an ethnicity. The Peruvian census does not contain information about ethnicity so only rough estimates are available. Its population can be composed of Amerindians
Indigenous peoples in Peru
Indigenous people in Peru comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country's present territory prior to its discovery by Europeans around 1500...
: 45%, Mestizos: 37%, European: 15%, Afro-Peruvians: 2%, Asians
Asian Peruvian
Asian Peruvians, primarily Chinese and Japanese, constitute some 3-5% of the total population, which in proportion to the overall population is one of the largest of any Latin American nation. Peru has the second largest population of Japanese people in Latin America after Brazil and the largest...
and others: 1%. Amerindians are found in the southern Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
, though a large portion, also to be found in the southern and central coast due to the massive internal labor migration from remote Andean regions to coastal cities,during the past four decades. While the Jungle are the "heart" of the indigenous populations of Peru, White people are mostly found in the northern highlands and are mostly of Spanish
Spanish Peruvian
A Spanish Peruvian is a Peruvian citizen of Spanish descent. Among European Peruvians, the Spanish are the largest group of immigrants to settle in the country.-History:...
, Italian, British, French, German
German Peruvian
A German Peruvian is a Peruvian citizen of German descent. In generally, the term is also applied to descents of other German speaking immigrants, such as Austrians or Swiss...
, Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
and Croatian descent.
Overview
Peru is a multiethnic country formed by the amalgamation of different cultures and ethnicities over thousands of years.Amerindians
Indigenous peoples in Peru
Indigenous people in Peru comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country's present territory prior to its discovery by Europeans around 1500...
inhabited the land for several millennia before the Spanish conquest
Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire
The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. This historic process of military conquest was made by Spanish conquistadores and their native allies....
in the 15th century; their cultures and influence represent the foundation of today’s Peru.
As a result of European contact and conquest, the population of the area now known as Peru decreased from an estimated 9 million in the 1520s to around 600,000 in 1620. This happened mostly because of the unintended spread of germs and infectious diseases. In fact, the spread of smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
greatly weakened the Inca empire, even before the Spanish arrival. The Amerindians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
did not have as much natural immunity to the disease as did the Europeans who had been exposed to smallpox for roughly two centuries. For this reason, several Amerindian populations were decimated. Furthermore, the disease killed Inca ruler Wayna Capac, triggering a civil war in the Inca empire that preceded the conquest efforts the Spaniards. Thus, the conquest was facilitated by the weakness of the Inca empire which was recovering from both a civil war and epidemics of unknown diseases.
However, other reasons for the decrease of Amerindian population include the battles for domination and survival, followed by the breakdown of the Inca social system, famine, genocide, human exploitation, and forced mine labor to extract the gold and silver to ship back to Europe. Forced labor started after the settlement of the Spanish. The Amerindian population suffered further decrease as the Spanish exploited an Inca communal labor system called mita
Mita (Inca)
Mit'a was mandatory public service in the society of the Inca Empire. Historians use the hispanicized term mita to distinguish the system as it was modified by the Spanish, under whom it became a form of legal servitude which in practise bordered slavery.Mit'a was effectively a form of tribute to...
for mining purposes, thus annihilating thousands in forced labor.
Spaniards arrived in large numbers under colonial rule. After the independence, there has been a gradual European
European ethnic groups
The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
immigration from Austria, England, France, Germany, Italy, Croatia and Spain. Polynesians also came to the country lured to work in the Guano islands during the boom years of this commodity around the 1860s. Chinese
Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....
arrived in the 1850s as a replacement for slave workers in the sugar plantations of the north coast and have since become a major influence in Peruvian society. Other immigrant groups include Arabs, South Asians, Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
and Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Amerindians constitute around 45% of the total population. The two major indigenous
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
or ethnic groups are the Quechuas
Quechuas
Quechuas is the collective term for several indigenous ethnic groups in South America who speak a Quechua language , belonging to several ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Argentina.The Quechuas of Ecuador call themselves as well as their...
(belonging to various cultural subgroups), followed by the Aymaras, mostly found in the extreme southern Andes. A large proportion of the indigenous population who live in the Andean highlands still speak Quechua
Quechua languages
Quechua is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably...
or Aymara
Aymara language
Aymara is an Aymaran language spoken by the Aymara people of the Andes. It is one of only a handful of Native American languages with over three million speakers. Aymara, along with Quechua and Spanish, is an official language of Peru and Bolivia...
, and have vibrant cultural traditions, some of which were part of the Inca Empire
Inca Empire
The Inca Empire, or Inka Empire , was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru. The Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century...
, arguably the most advanced agricultural civilization in the world. Literally dozens of indigenous cultures are also dispersed throughout the country beyond the Andes Mountains in the Amazon basin
Amazon Basin
The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries that drains an area of about , or roughly 40 percent of South America. The basin is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela...
. This region is rapidly becoming urbanized. Important urban centers include Iquitos
Iquitos
Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest, with a population of 370,962. It is the capital of Loreto Region and Maynas Province.Located on the Amazon River, it is only above sea level, although it is more than from the mouth of the Amazon at Belém on the Atlantic Ocean...
, Nauta
Nauta
Nauta is a bustling small town situated in the northeastern area of the Peruvian Amazon roughly 100 km south of the Province's capital, Iquitos...
, Puerto Maldonado
Puerto Maldonado
Puerto Maldonado is a city in Southeastern Peru in the Amazon forest west of the Bolivian border on the confluence of the Tambopata and Madre de Dios River, a tributary of the Amazon River. It is the capital of the Madre de Dios Region....
, Pucallpa
Pucallpa
Pucallpa is a city in eastern Peru located on the banks of the Ucayali River, a major tributary of the Amazon River. It is the capital of the Ucayali region, the Coronel Portillo Province and the Calleria District....
and Yurimaguas
Yurimaguas
Yurimaguas is a thriving port-town in the Loreto Region of northeastern Peruvian Amazonia. Historically associated with Maynas Pais de los Maynas, the culturally diverse town is affectionately known as the "Pearl of the Huallaga"...
. This region is home to numerous indigenous peoples, though they do not constitute a large proportion of the total population. Examples of indigenous peoples residing in eastern Peru include the Shipibo, Urarina
Urarina
The Urarina are an indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon Basin who inhabit the Chambira, Urituyacu, and Corrientes Rivers. According to both archaeological and historical sources, they have resided in the Chambira Basin of contemporary northeastern Peru for centuries. The Urarina refer to...
, Cocama, and Aguaruna
Aguaruna
For the Aguaruna people's language, see Aguaruna language.The Aguaruna are an indigenous people of the Peruvian jungle. Historically, they lived primarily on the banks of the Marañón River, a tributary of the Amazon in northern Peru near the border with Ecuador...
, to name just a few.
Mestizos compose about 37% of the total population. The term traditionally denotes Amerindian and European ancestry (mostly Spaniard
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
ancestry and to a lesser degree, Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
). This term, was part of the caste classification during colonial times, whereby people of exclusive Spanish descend but born in the colonies were called criollos, people of mixed Amerindian and Spanish descend were called mestizos, those of African and Spanish descend were called mulatos and those of Amerindian and African descend were called zambos. Nowadays, this terms have racist connotations.
Most Peruvian mestizos are of Amerindian and European descent, but other ethnic backgrounds (such as Asian, Middle Eastern and African) are also present, in varying degrees, in some segments of the mestizo population. Most mestizos are urban dwellers and show stronger European inheritance in regions like Lima Region
Lima Region
Lima Region, also known as Lima Provincias, is one of twenty-five regions of Peru. Located in the central coast of the country, its regional seat is Huacho....
, La Libertad Region
La Libertad Region
La Libertad is a region in northwestern Peru. Formerly it was known as the 'Department of La Libertad" , a political division that generally corresponds to a state in the United States of America...
, Callao Region, Pasco Region
Pasco Region
Pasco is a region in central Peru. Its capital is Cerro de Pasco.-Political division:The region is divided into 3 provinces , which are composed of 28 districts .-Provinces:...
, Cajamarca Region
Cajamarca Region
Cajamarca is a region in Peru. The capital is the city of Cajamarca. It is located in the north part of the country and shares a border with Ecuador...
, and Arequipa Region
Arequipa Region
Arequipa is a region in southwestern Peru. It is bordered by the Ica, Ayacucho, Apurímac and Cusco regions on the north; the Puno Region on the east; the Moquegua Region on the south; and the Pacific Ocean on the west...
.
European
European ethnic groups
The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
descendants constitute around 15% of the total population. They are descendants of the Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
colonizers and other Europeans such as Italians, British, French, Germans
German Peruvian
A German Peruvian is a Peruvian citizen of German descent. In generally, the term is also applied to descents of other German speaking immigrants, such as Austrians or Swiss...
and Croatians (see also Croats
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
) who arrived in the 19th and 20th centuries. The majority of them live also in the largest cities (like mestizos), usually in the North and Center of Peru: Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
, Trujillo
Trujillo, Peru
Trujillo, in northwestern Peru, is the capital of the La Libertad Region, and the third largest city in Peru. The urban area has 811,979 inhabitants and is an economic hub in northern Peru...
, Chiclayo
Chiclayo
Chiclayo is the capital city of the Lambayeque region in northern Peru. It is located 13 kilometers inland from the Pacific coast and 770 kilometers from the nation's capital, Lima...
, Piura
Piura
Piura is a city in northwestern Peru. It is the capital of the Piura Region and the Piura Province. The population is 377,496.It was here that Spanish Conqueror Francisco Pizarro founded the third Spanish city in South America and first in Peru, San Miguel de Piura, in July 1532...
, Cajamarca
Cajamarca (city)
- Education :Cajamarca is home to two universities. is a public university while Universidad Privada Antonio Guillermo Urrelo is a private one, additionally another 4 universities have branches in town , Universidad San Pedro, , Universidad Los Angeles, ....
and San Martin
San Martín
-People:*José de San Martín, national hero of Argentina, an 18th-century general and the main leader of the southern part of South America's struggle for independence from Spain...
. The only southern city with a significant white population is Arequipa
Arequipa
Arequipa is the capital city of the Arequipa Region in southern Peru. With a population of 836,859 it is the second most populous city of the country...
. Recently, Peru has seen a migration of American retirees and businessmen come to settle in the country, due to lower cost of living and economic booms in the 1990s and 2000s, though Peru experiences busts in between.
Asian Peruvian
Asian Peruvians, primarily Chinese and Japanese, constitute some 3-5% of the total population, which in proportion to the overall population is one of the largest of any Latin American nation. Peru has the second largest population of Japanese people in Latin America after Brazil and the largest...
s, primarily Chinese and Japanese
Japanese Peruvian
Japanese Peruvians are people of Japanese ancestry who were born in or immigrated to Peru. The immigrants from Japan are called the Issei generation. Second and third generation Peruvians are referred to as nisei and sansei in Japanese...
along with recent arrived Koreans and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
ese immigrants, that constitutes 3% of the population, which in proportion to the overall population is the second largest of any Latin American nation, after Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
. Peru has the second largest population of people of Japanese descent in Latin America after Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and the largest population of Chinese descent in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. Historic communities inhabited by people of Chinese descent are found throughout the Peruvian upper Amazon, including cities such as Yurimaguas
Yurimaguas
Yurimaguas is a thriving port-town in the Loreto Region of northeastern Peruvian Amazonia. Historically associated with Maynas Pais de los Maynas, the culturally diverse town is affectionately known as the "Pearl of the Huallaga"...
, Nauta
Nauta
Nauta is a bustling small town situated in the northeastern area of the Peruvian Amazon roughly 100 km south of the Province's capital, Iquitos...
, Iquitos
Iquitos
Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest, with a population of 370,962. It is the capital of Loreto Region and Maynas Province.Located on the Amazon River, it is only above sea level, although it is more than from the mouth of the Amazon at Belém on the Atlantic Ocean...
and the north central coast (Lambayeque and Trujillo). In contrast to the Japanese community in Peru, the Chinese
Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....
appear to have intermarried much more since they came to work in the rice fields during the Viceroyalty and to replace the African slaves, during the abolition of slavery itself. Despite the presence of Peruvians of Asian heritage being quite recent, in the past decade they have made significant advancements in business and political fields; a past president (Alberto Fujimori
Alberto Fujimori
Alberto Fujimori Fujimori served as President of Peru from 28 July 1990 to 17 November 2000. A controversial figure, Fujimori has been credited with the creation of Fujimorism, uprooting terrorism in Peru and restoring its macroeconomic stability, though his methods have drawn charges of...
), several past cabinet members, and one member of the Peruvian congress are of Japanese or Chinese origin. Small numbers of Arab
Arab diaspora
Arab diaspora refers to Arab immigrants, and their descendants who, voluntarily or as refugees, emigrated from their native lands and now reside in non-Arab countries, primarily in Latin America, and Europe, as well as North America and South Asia, parts of Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and West...
Peruvians, mostly of Lebanese
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
and Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n origin, and Palestinians
Palestinian Peruvian
A Palestinian Peruvian is a Peruvian citizen of Palestinian descent. The phrase may refer to someone born in Peru of Palestinian descent or to someone who has immigrated to Peru from Palestine...
also reside, as well a small Hindustani
Non-resident Indian and Person of Indian Origin
A Non-Resident Indian is an Indian citizen who has migrated to another country, a person of Indian origin who is born outside India, or a person of Indian origin who resides permanently outside India. Other terms with the same meaning are overseas Indian and expatriate Indian...
and Pakistani community.
The remaining is constituted by Afro-Peruvian
Afro-Peruvian
Afro Peruvians are citizens of Peru mostly descended from African slaves who were brought to the Western hemisphere with the arrival of the conquistadors towards the end of the slave trade.-Early history:...
s, a legacy of Peru's history as an importer of slaves during the colonial period. Today also mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
s (mixed African and European) and zambos (mixed African and Amerindian) constitute an important part of the population as well, especially in Piura
Piura
Piura is a city in northwestern Peru. It is the capital of the Piura Region and the Piura Province. The population is 377,496.It was here that Spanish Conqueror Francisco Pizarro founded the third Spanish city in South America and first in Peru, San Miguel de Piura, in July 1532...
, Tumbes, Lambayeque
Lambayeque, Peru
Lambayeque is a city in the Lambayeque region of northern Peru. It is notable for its exceptional museums featuring artefacts from local archaeological sites. The Bruning Museum, established in the early 1900s, contains hundreds of gold and silver pieces, as well as textiles and ceramics, from the...
, Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
and Ica
Ica Region
Ica is a region in Peru. It borders the Pacific Ocean on the west; the Lima Region on the north; the Huancavelica and Ayacucho regions on the east; and the Arequipa Region on the south. Its capital is the city of Ica.- Geography :...
regions. The Afro-Peruvian population is concentrated mostly in coastal cities south of Lima, such as that of those found in the Ica Region, in cities like Cañete
Cañete Province
Cañete is a province located in southern Lima Region, Peru. It is bordered by the Lima Province on the north, the Ica Region on the south, the Huarochirí and Yauyos provinces on the east, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Its capital is the town of San Vicente de Cañete District...
, Chincha
Chincha
The Chincha were a Native American people of the Andes. They are discussed by Maria Rostworowski de Diez Canseco in "History of the Inca Realm" and by Justo Caceres Macedo in "Prehispanic Cultures of Peru"...
, Ica
Ica (city)
The city of Ica is the capital of the Ica Region in southern Peru. While the area was long inhabited by varying cultures of indigenous peoples, the Spanish conquistador Gerónimo Luis de Cabrera claimed its founding in 1563. As of 2005, it had an estimated population of over 219,856...
, Nazca
Nazca
Nazca is a system of valleys on the southern coast of Peru, and the name of the region's largest existing town in the Nazca Province. It is also the name applied to the Nazca culture that flourished in the area between 300 BC and AD 800...
and Acarí in the border with the Arequipa Region
Arequipa Region
Arequipa is a region in southwestern Peru. It is bordered by the Ica, Ayacucho, Apurímac and Cusco regions on the north; the Puno Region on the east; the Moquegua Region on the south; and the Pacific Ocean on the west...
. Another large but poorly promoted segment of Afro-Peruvian presence is in the Yunga regions (west and just below the Andean chain of northern Peru), (i.e., Piura
Piura
Piura is a city in northwestern Peru. It is the capital of the Piura Region and the Piura Province. The population is 377,496.It was here that Spanish Conqueror Francisco Pizarro founded the third Spanish city in South America and first in Peru, San Miguel de Piura, in July 1532...
and Lambayeque
Lambayeque, Peru
Lambayeque is a city in the Lambayeque region of northern Peru. It is notable for its exceptional museums featuring artefacts from local archaeological sites. The Bruning Museum, established in the early 1900s, contains hundreds of gold and silver pieces, as well as textiles and ceramics, from the...
), where sugarcane, lemon, and mango production are still of importance. Important communities are found all over the Morropón Province
Morropón Province
The Morropón Province is one of eight provinces of the Piura Region in Peru.- Boundaries :*North Ayabaca Province*East Huancabamba Province*South Lambayeque Region*West Piura Province- Political Division :...
, such as in the city of Chulucanas
Chulucanas
Chulucanas is a town in Piura Region, Peru. It is located at around .The town is famous for its pottery. Originally dating from pre-Inca times it is today exported all over the world. Designs are varied, but are predominated by black and white. There are several bigger companies but a lot of small...
. One of them is Yapatera, a community in the same city, as well as smaller farming communities like Pabur or La Matanza and even in the mountainous region near Canchaque. Further south, the colonial city of Zaña
Zâna
Zână is the Romanian equivalent of the Greek Charites. They are the opposite of monsters like Muma Padurii. These characters make positive appearances in fairy tales and reside mostly in the woods...
or farming towns like Capote
Capote
-People:* American writer Truman Capote** Capote , a film starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote* Capote Band of Utes, a branch of the Ute people-Other:* Capote , Champion American Thoroughbred racehorse...
and Tuman
Tuman
Tuman may refer to:* Tuman river, a river in China and North Korea* Tuman , a Soviet World War II warship* Tuman bay II, a medieval Egyptian sultan* Tuman , a second-level administrative subdivision in Uzbekistan...
in Lambayeque
Lambayeque, Peru
Lambayeque is a city in the Lambayeque region of northern Peru. It is notable for its exceptional museums featuring artefacts from local archaeological sites. The Bruning Museum, established in the early 1900s, contains hundreds of gold and silver pieces, as well as textiles and ceramics, from the...
are also important regions with Afro-Peruvian presence.
Socioeconomic and cultural indicators are increasingly important as identifiers. For example, Peruvians of Amerindian descent who have adopted aspects of Hispanic culture also are beginning to consider themselves "mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
". With economic development, access to education, intermarriage, and large-scale migration from rural to urban areas, a more homogeneous national culture is developing, mainly along the relatively more prosperous coast. Peruvians view themselves as a racially mixed people: a "half indigenous, a third European, a sixth African and one part Asiatic" composition as a "melting pot
Melting pot
The melting pot is a metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" into a harmonious whole with a common culture...
" recipe for a Peruvian stew.
Most of Peru's population (about 50% percent) lives in the Costa (coastal area), while 36% live in the Sierra (the Andes) and only 12% in the Selva
Selva
Selva is a coastal comarca in Catalonia, Spain, located between the mountain range known as the Serralada Transversal or Puigsacalm and the Costa Brava . Unusually, it is divided between the provinces of Girona and Barcelona, with Fogars de la Selva being part of Barcelona province, and all other...
or Amazon rain forest . Almost one third of the nation's population lives in the Lima and Callao Metropolitan Area . Lima is home to over 8 million Peruvians, one of South America's largest urban areas, it includes the neighboring community of Callao that's grown fast and expanded since the 1960s.
Language
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and the foremost indigenous language, Quechua
Quechua languages
Quechua is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably...
. Spanish is used by the government and the media and in education and commerce. Amerindians who live in the Andean highlands speak Quechua and Aymara
Aymara language
Aymara is an Aymaran language spoken by the Aymara people of the Andes. It is one of only a handful of Native American languages with over three million speakers. Aymara, along with Quechua and Spanish, is an official language of Peru and Bolivia...
and are ethnically distinct from the diverse indigenous groups who live on the eastern side of the Andes and in the tropical lowlands adjacent to the Amazon basin.
Peru's distinct geographical regions are mirrored in a socioeconomic divide between the coast's mestizo-Hispanic culture and the more diverse, traditional Andean cultures of the mountains and highlands. The indigenous populations east of the Andes speak various languages and dialects. Some of these groups still adhere to traditional customs, while others have been almost completely assimilated into the mestizo-Hispanic culture.
Peru's official languages are Spanish and, according to the Peruvian Constitution of 1993, Amerindian languages such as Quechua, Aymara and other such indigenous languages in areas where they predominate. Today, Spanish is spoken by some 80.3% of the population, and is the language used by government, media, and in education and formal commerce. There has been an increasing and organized effort to teach Quechua in public schools in the areas where Quechua is spoken.
According to official sources, the use of Spanish has increased while the knowledge and use of indigenous languages has decreased considerably during the last four decades (1960–2000). At the beginning of the 1960s some 39% of the total Peruvian population were registered as speakers of indigenous languages, but by the 1990s the figures show a considerable decline in the use of Quechua, Aymara and other indigenous languages, when only 28% is registered as Quechua-speaking (16% of whom are reported to be bilingual in Spanish) and Spanish-speakers increased to 72%.
For 2005, government figures place Spanish as being spoken by 80.3% of the population, but among Amerindian languages another decrease is registered. Of the indigenous languages, Quechua remains the most spoken, and even today is used by some 16.2% of the total Peruvian population, or a third of Peru's total indigenous population. The number of Aymara-speakers and other indigenous languages is placed at 3%, and foreign languages 0.2%.
The drastic decline in use and knowledge of indigenous languages is largely attributed to the recent demographic factors. The urbanization and assimilation of Peru's Amerindian plurality into the Hispanic-mestizo culture, as well as the new socioeconomic factors associated with class structure have given privilege to the use of Spanish at the expense of the Amerindian languages which were spoken by the majority of the population less than a century ago.
The major obstacle to a more widespread use of the Quechua language is the fact that multiple dialects of this language exist. Quechua, along with Aymara and the minor indigenous languages, was originally and remains essentially an oral language. Therefore, there is a lack of modern media which use it: for example books, newspapers, software, magazines, technical journals, etc. However, non-governmental organizations as well as state sponsored groups are involved in projects to edit and translate major works into the Quechua language; for instance, in late 2005 a superb version of Don Quixote was presented in Quechua.
The percentage of native speakers of Quechua who are illiterate has been decreasing lately, as 86.87% of the Peruvian population is literate. More encouraging, nationwide literacy rate of youth aged 15 to 24 years is high, and considered an achievement in Peruvian educational standards.
Education
Under the 1993 constitution, primary education is free and compulsory. The system is highly centralized, with the Ministry of Education appointing all public school teachers. Eighty-three percent of Peru's students attend public schools at all levels, but over 15 percent (usually the upper-classes) attend private schools if their parents can afford to pay for the tuition.School enrollment has been rising sharply for years, due to a widening educational effort by the government and a growing school-age population. The illiteracy (2008) rate is estimated at 7.1% (10.6% for women), 19.0% in rural areas and 3.7% in urban areas http://www.andina.com.pe/Espanol/Noticia.aspx?id=NiBnWpBzahw=.
Quechua
Quechua languages
Quechua is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably...
is mostly an oral language, so in some cases, in rural areas, people do not speak Spanish and therefore do not know how to read or write. Elementary and secondary school enrollment is about 7.7 million. Peru's 74 universities (1999), 39% public and 61% private institutions, enrolled about 322,000 students in 1999.
See also
- Peruvian peoplePeruvian peoplePeru is a multiethnic country formed by the combination of different groups over five centuries, so people in Peru usually treat their nationality as a citizenship rather than an ethnicity. Amerindians inhabited Peruvian territory for several millennia before Spanish Conquest in the 16th century;...
- Indigenous peoples in PeruIndigenous peoples in PeruIndigenous people in Peru comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country's present territory prior to its discovery by Europeans around 1500...
- European Peruvians
- Asian Peruvians
- Afro-Peruvians
- Roman Catholicism by countryRoman Catholicism by countryThe tables below represent statistics with regards to the Catholic Church by country.-Sources used in the table:Most of the figures are taken from the CIA Factbook....
- British PeruvianBritish PeruvianA British Peruvian is a Peruvian person of British descent. The phrase may refer to someone born in Peru of British descent. Among European Peruvians, the British were the fifth largest group of immigrants to settle in the country after the Spanish, Italians, Germans, the Swiss or/and the French...
- 1960's era president Nicolas Lindley is notably of English descent.