Posts Tagged ‘People of Colombia’

Colombian people

The Colombian people are the multi-ethnic nation from the South American country of Colombia. Colombians are predominantly Roman Catholic and overwhelmingly speakers of Spanish, and that a majority of them are the result of the mixture of Europeans, Africans, and Amerindians.  Around 58 per cent is made up of mestizos, a mixture of European and Native American race, 14 per cent is made up of mulatto, a mixture of black and European race and 20 per cent consists of unmixed European race. The remaining is made up of 4 per cent of Blacks, 3 per cent of mixed black-Native Americans and 1 per cent of unmixed Native Americans.

Demography

With approximately 43.6 million people in 2006, Colombia is the third-most populous country in Latin America, after Brazil and Mexico.

Movement from rural to urban areas was very heavy in the mid-twentieth century, but has since tapered off. The urban population increased from 31% of the total population in 1938, to 57% in 1951 and about 70% by 1990. Currently the figure is about 77%. Thirty cities have a population of 100,000 or more. The nine eastern lowlands departments, constituting about 54% of Colombia’s area, have less than 3% of the population and a density of less than one person per square kilometer (two persons per sq mi.). Colombia’s total population in 2015 is projected to be more than 52 million.

More than two-thirds of all Colombians live in urban areas – a figure significantly higher than the world average. The literacy rate (94 percent) in Colombia is also well above the world average, and the rate of population growth is slightly higher than the world average. Also, a large proportion of Colombians are young, largely because of recent decreases in the infant mortality rate. With 33 percent of the people are 14 years of age or younger, just 4 percent are aged 65 or older.

Ethnic groups

The country has a diverse population that reflects its colorful history and the peoples that have populated here from ancient times to the present. The historic amalgam of the different main groups forms the basics of Colombia’s current demographics: European immigrants, Amerindian peoples, Africans, Asians, Middle Easterners and other recent immigrants.  The cosmopolitan culture of the region has led to rapid phase of urbanization in the last few years. The amalgamation of different races and castes has created a new wave of society which well reflects the unity amidst the great cultural diversity of the country. Also the literacy growth has an average rise of 93% in the last few years.

The predominant racial strain in Colombia is the mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian), constituting about 58% of the total population in the 1998. An estimated 20% of the inhabitants are of unmixed white ancestry; 14% are mulatto (black–white); 4% are black; 3% are  zambo  (black–Indian); and 1% are pure Amerindian. Blacks and mulattoes are concentrated in the coastal regions and tropical valleys. Pure Amerindians are rapidly disappearing; the remaining few live mainly in inaccessible and barren regions. The principal Amerindian culture of Colombia during the pre-Colombian period was that of the Chibcha, whose descendants are today chiefly concentrated in the departments of Cundinamarca, Boyacá, Santander, and Norte de Santander. The Motilones, one of the few surviving Amerindian groups untouched by civilization in South America, inhabit the region west of Lake Maracaibo and the Venezuelan border; they are famous for their lethal weapon, the black palm bow and arrow. Small, diverse Amerindian groups also inhabit the eastern extremities of the Colombian plains region, the south, and the western coastal jungles.

Many of the indigenous peoples were absorbed into the mestizo population, but the remaining 700,000 currently represent over eighty-five distinct cultures. The European immigrants were primarily Spanish colonists, but a number of other Europeans (Dutch, German, Italian, French, Swiss, Belgian, also many North Americans) migrated to the Caribbean region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in smaller numbers Polish, Lithuanian, English and Croatian communities immigrated during the Second World War and the Cold War.

Black Africans were brought as slaves, mostly to the coastal lowlands, beginning early in the 16th century, and continuing into the 19th century. Other immigrant populations include Asians and Middle Easterners, particularly Lebanese, Jordanians, Syrians, Chinese, Japanese and Koreans.

58% of the population is mestizo, or of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry, while 20% is of European ancestry. Another 14% is mulatto, or of mixed black African and European ancestry, while 4% is of black African ancestry and 3% are zambos, of mixed black African and Amerindian ancestry. Pure indigenous Amerindians comprise 1 percent of the population. There are 101 languages listed for Colombia in the Ethnologue database, of which 80 are spoken today as living languages. There are about 500,000 speakers of indigenous languages in Colombia today.

Indigenous peoples

Before the Spanish colonization of the region that would become the country of Colombia, the territory was the home to many different indigenous peoples. Today more than fifty different indigenous ethnic groups inhabit Colombia. Most of them speak languages belonging to the Chibchan and Cariban linguistic families.

Historically there are established 567 reserves (resguardos) for indigenous peoples and they are inhabited by more than 800,000 people; the 1991 constitution established their native languages as official in their territories, most of them have bilingual education (Native and Spanish). Some of the largest indigenous groups are the Wayuu, the Arhuacos, the Muisca, the Kuna people, the Witoto, the Páez, the Tucano and the Guahibo. The departamentos with the biggest Indian population are Cauca, Guajira and Guainia.

Immigrant groups

Because of its strategic location Colombia has received several immigration waves during its history. Most of these immigrants have settled in the Caribbean Coast; Barranquilla (the largest city in the Colombian Caribbean Coast) and other Caribbean cities have the largest population of Arab Lebanese, Jewish, Italian, German, French, Portuguese and Gypsy descendants. There are also important communities of German and Chinese descendants in the Caribbean Coast.

Immigration to Colombia has been historically low when compared to similar countries such as Venezuela, due to economic, social, and security issues linked mainly to the Colombian armed conflict. Colombia inherited from the Spanish Empire harsh rules against immigration, first in the Viceroyalty of New Granada and later in the Colombian Republic. The Constituent Assembly of Colombia and the subsequent reforms to the national constitution were much more open to the immigrants and the economic aperture. However naturalization of foreigners, with the exception of those children of Colombians born abroad, is still very difficult to acquire due to paperwork and bureaucracy. Immigration in Colombia is managed by the “Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad” (DAS).