This article is about the demographic

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 of Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

, 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.

Origins and Ethnicity

Uruguay is a multiethnical society, which means that it is home to people of many different ethnical backgrounds. In that case, Uruguyans usually treat their nationality as a citizenship rather than an ethnicity.

Uruguayan

Uruguayan people

Uruguayan people or Uruguayans are the citizens of Uruguay, or its descendants abroad. Uruguay is a multiethnic society, which means that it is home to people of many different ethnical backgrounds...

s share a Spanish linguistic

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 heavily Spanish cultural

Culture of Spain

The culture of Spain is based on a variety of influences.The Visigothic Kingdom left a sense of a united Christian Hispania that was going to be welded in the Reconquista. Muslim influences were strong during the period of 711 AD to the 15th century, especially linguistically...

 background with its neighbour Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. Most Uruguayans are descended from colonial-era settlers and immigrants from Europe with almost 88% of the population being of European descent

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....

, The majority of these European immigrants were mainly Spaniards, followed closely by Italians, including numbers of French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

, Germans

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

, Portuguese

Portuguese people

The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

, British

British people

The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 (English or Scots), 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...

, Swiss, Russians

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

, Poles

Poles

thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...

, Bulgarians

Bulgarians

The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...

, Hungarians, Ukrainians

Ukrainians

Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...

, Lithuanians

Lithuanians

Lithuanians are the Baltic ethnic group native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,765,600 people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom and Ireland. Their native language...

, Estonians

Estonians

Estonians are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns and inhabiting, primarily, the country of Estonia. They speak a Finnic language known as Estonian...

, Latvians

Latvians

Latvians or Letts are the indigenous Baltic people of Latvia.-History:Latvians occasionally refer to themselves by the ancient name of Latvji, which may have originated from the word Latve which is a name of the river that presumably flowed through what is now eastern Latvia...

, Swedish, Danish, Dutch

Dutch people

The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...

, Belgians

Belgians

Belgians are people originating from the Kingdom of Belgium, a federal state in Western Europe.-Etymology:Belgians are a relatively "new" people...

, Austrians

Austrians

Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....

, 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...

, Greeks

Greeks

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 and Scandinavians

Scandinavians

Scandinavians are a group of Germanic peoples, inhabiting Scandinavia and to a lesser extent countries associated with Scandinavia, and speaking Scandinavian languages. The group includes Danes, Norwegians and Swedes, and additionally the descendants of Scandinavian settlers such as the Icelandic...

. There are also smaller numbers of Turkish

Turkish people

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

, Armenian, Serbs

Serbs

The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...

, Georgian

Georgian people

The Georgians are an ethnic group that have originated in Georgia, where they constitute a majority of the population. Large Georgian communities are also present throughout Russia, European Union, United States, and South America....

 and Lebanese people

Lebanese people

The Lebanese people are a nation and ethnic group of Levantine people originating in what is today the country of Lebanon, including those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state....

.

Almost the entire ethnic-European population has at least partial Spanish and/or Italian roots, with many having ancestry from various other ethnic groups, e.g. Portuguese

Portuguese people

The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

, 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....

, Italian

Italian people

The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

, French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 and English descent.

Many Swiss

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 settlements (colonias or "colonies") such as Colonia Suiza, Colonia Valdense and Nueva Helvecia were founded in the department of Colonia

Colonia Department

Colonia is a departamento in southwestern Uruguay. Its capital is Colonia del Sacramento, the country's second oldest city.-Economy:The region is the main producer of dairy products in Uruguay...

. Also, there are towns founded by early British settlers, such as Conchillas

Conchillas

Conchillas is a small industrial town located within the Colonia Department, in southwestern Uruguay.- Geography :Conchillas is located in southwestern Colonia, near the Arroyo Conchillas. It has coasts over the Río de la Plata. Colonia del Sacramento, the capital city of the department and one of...

 and Barker

Barker, Uruguay

Barker is a small village located in the Colonia Department of southwestern Uruguay.- Location and population :Barker is located along Route 54. Its nearest populated places are Rosario, to the southeast and Tarariras, to the west...

. A Russian colony called San Javier

San Javier, Uruguay

San Javier is a small town situated on the east bank of the river Río Uruguay in the Río Negro Department of Uruguay. It was founded by Russian settlers in 1913. It is located west of Route 24, north of the department capital Fray Bentos, west of Young and south of Paysandú, the capital of...

, is found in the department of Río Negro

Río Negro Department

The Río Negro Department is an administrative division of Uruguay located in the west of the country. It has 53,989 inhabitants and an area of 9,282 km² . Its capital is Fray Bentos.-Geography and climate:...

. Also there are Mennonite

Mennonite

The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...

 colonies in the department of Río Negro and in the department of Canelones

Canelones Department

The Canelones Department , with an area of and 485,240 inhabitants, is located to the south of Uruguay. Its capital is Canelones.-Geography and climate:...

.

Many of the European immigrants arrived in the late 19th century and have heavily influenced the architecture and culture of Montevideo and other major cities. For this reason, Montevideo and life within the city are very reminiscent of Western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

.

The rest of the Uruguayan population is Black/Afro-Uruguayan

Afro-Uruguayan

Afro-Uruguayan refers to Uruguayans of Black African ancestry. Almost a third is found in Montevideo.-History:It is often asserted in the academic literature on Uruguay that the presence and role of Africans in the development of this nation are overlooked. However, Afro-Uruguayans greatly...

 of African descent and about 1 or 2% are of Asian descent, mostly are Lebanese/Syrian Arab, and Chinese or Japanese ancestry (see Bárbara Mori

Bárbara Mori

Bárbara Mori Ochoa is a Mexican actress and model. She became famous for being the female lead in the Bollywood film, Kites....

).

Amerindians make up a small population in the Rural North-West region, with 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...

s making up 6% of the Population.

Demographic Distribution

Metropolitan Montevideo

Montevideo

Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...

, with about one and a half million inhabitants, is the capital and largest city. The rest of the urban population lives in about 20 towns. Montevideo is about 200 kilometres (124.3 mi) away from Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

 in neighboring Argentina.

Uruguay is distinguished by its high literacy rate (97.3%) and a large urban middle class. During the 1970s and 1980s, an estimated six-hundred thousand Uruguayans emigrated, principally to Spain, Italy, Argentina and Brazil. Other Uruguayans went to various countries in Europe, Australia and the USA.

As a result of the low birth rate, high life expectancy, and relatively high rate of emigration of younger people, Uruguay's population is quite mature. In 2006, the country had a birth rate of 13.91 births per thousand population, lower than neighboring countries Argentina (16.73 births/1000 population)[3] and Brazil (16.56 births/1,000 population).

Church and state are officially separated

Separation of church and state

The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....

. While the Government keeps no statistics concerning religious affiliation, a 2004 survey published in the daily newspaper El Pais reported that 54% of those interviewed designated themselves as Roman Catholics, 11% as Protestants, 9% as believers without a religious affiliation, and 26% as nonbelievers.

Although the majority of Uruguayans do not actively practice a religion, they are nominally members of the Catholic Church and other communities. Political observers consider Uruguay to be the most secular country in South America.

Uruguay has a traditional socialist welfare state program yet in need of improvement since the 1990s. The average Uruguayan and neighbour country Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 can be compared with some of the western countries of Europe, and ranks behind that of North American giants the US and Canada.

During the past two decades, an estimated 500,000 Uruguayans had emigrated, principally to Brazil, Argentina and Europe. (Spain is the main destination for Uruguayans, but they are also drawn to the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Germany). There are 500,000 Uruguayans in Brazil, the largest community of this group and many came there to escape political persecution in the 1970s.

Neighboring ties and short distances between Uruguayan cities and Argentine capital Buenos Aires, have drawn a path of success for very talented Uruguayans who settled in the neighbor country and became famous and locally accepted. Some famous Uruguayans who excelled in Argentina are entrepreneur and financier Juan Navarro

Juan Navarro

Juan Navarro is the name of:* Juan Navarro Hispalensis , composer* Juan Navarro Gaditanus , Franciscan monk and composer* Juan Navarro Reverter , Spanish politician* Juan Gil Navarro , Argentinian TV actor...

, sports journalist Victor Hugo Morales, singer and actress Natalia Oreiro

Natalia Oreiro

Natalia Marisa Oreiro Iglesias is a Latin Grammy-nominated Uruguayan singer, actress and fashion designer of Galician ancestry, who developed most of her career in Argentina. Oreiro began her career in soap operas. Since 2008 she has switched to work primarily in films...

, soccer players Antonio Alzamendi

Antonio Alzamendi

Antonio Alzamendi Casas was a Uruguayan football player who retired in 1991.His official debut was with the Uruguayan team Wanderers de Durazno. Alzamendi played for Uruguay at the 1986 and 1990 FIFA World Cups, scoring against West Germany in 1986...

, Enzo Francescoli

Enzo Francescoli

Enzo Francescoli Uriarte is a former uruguayan football player of Italian and Spanish origin, who retired in 1997. An elegant and highly skillful dribbler, passer, and goal-scorer, Francescoli was nicknamed El Príncipe or Le Prince...

 and Carlos Goyen, actress China Zorrilla

China Zorrilla

China Zorrilla is an award-winning Uruguayan theater, film and television actress....

, entertainer Carlos Perciavalle and former playboy and journalist Luis César Avilés.

Emigration to the United States also rose recently, but remains a small part of the US Hispanic

Hispanic

Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...

 population. The majority of Uruguayans in the US live in New York City, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, Washington, D.C. and urban areas of California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

Demographic Data

Population

3,494,382 (July 2009 est.)

Note: The 2011 Census of the National Statistics Institute of Uruguay has started in September 2011 and the preliminary results are expected in December 2011.

Age structure

• 0–14 years: 22.4% (male 397,942/female 385,253)
• 15–64 years: 64.3% (male 1,115,963/female 1,129,478)
• 65 years and over: 13.3% (male 187,176/female 278,570) (2009 est.)

Median age

• total: 33.4 years
• male: 32 years
• female: 34.8 years (2009 est.)

Urbanization

• urban population: 92% of total population (2008)
• rate of urbanization: 0.4% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)

Sex ratio

• at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
• under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
• 15–64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
• 65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
• total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

Infant mortality rate

• total: 11.32 deaths/1,000 live births
• male: 12.73 deaths/1,000 live births
• female: 9.87 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

• total population: 76.35 years
• male: 73.1 years
• female: 79.72 years (2009 est.)

Ethnic groups

White

White people

White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...

 88%, 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...

 8%, black

Black people

The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...

 4%, Amerindian (practically nonexistent)

Religions

Roman Catholic 47.1%, non-Catholic Christians 11.1%, nondenominational 23.2%, Jewish 0.9%, atheist or agnostic 17.2%, other 1.1% (2006)

Literacy

• definition: age 15 and over can read and write
• total population: 98%
• male: 97.6%
• female: 98.4% (2003 est.)

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)

• total: 15 years
• male: 14 years
• female: 16 years (2006)