Demographics of Ecuador

Demographic features of the population of Ecuador include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Demographics of Ecuador
Ecuador population pyramid in 2020
Population	18,213,749 (2023 estimate)(66th)
Growth rate	1.443% (2011 est.)
Birth rate	13.2 births/1,000 population (2023 est.)
Death rate	5.0 deaths/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Fertility rate	2.0 children (2024 est.)
Age structure
0–14 years	28.23%
15–64 years	64.11%
65 and over	7.66%
Nationality
Nationality	Ecuadorian
Major ethnic	Multiracial (86.62%) Mestizo (77.47%) Montubio (7.70%) Mulatto (1.45%)
Minor ethnic	Indigenous (7.69%) African (3.36%) White (2.21%) Others (0.12%)
Language
Spoken	Spanish, other indigenous languages.

Ecuador experienced rapid population growth like most countries, but four decades of an armed conflict pushed millions of Ecuadorians out of the country. However, a rebound economy in the 2000s in urban centres improved the situation of living standards for Ecuadorians in a traditional class stratified economy.

The 2022 census revealed, 77.5% of the population identified as "Mestizos", a mix of Spanish and Indigenous American ancestry, up from 71.9% in 2000. The percentage of the population which identifies as "white" has fallen from 6.1% (2010) to 2.2% in 2022. Amerindians account for 7.7% of the population and 4.8% of the population consists of Afro-Ecuadorians. Other estimations put the Mestizo population at 55% to 65% and the indigenous population at 25%. Genetic research indicates that the ancestry of Ecuadorian Mestizos is predominantly Indigenous.

Population

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1950	3,202,757	—
1962	4,467,007	+39.5%
1974	6,521,710	+46.0%
1982	8,060,712	+23.6%
1990	9,648,189	+19.7%
2001	12,156,608	+26.0%
2010	14,483,499	+19.1%
2022	16,938,986	+17.0%
Source:

Census data

The Ecuadorian census is conducted by the governmental institution known as INEC, Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas y Censos (National Institute of Statistics and Census). The census in Ecuador is conducted every ten years, and its objective is to obtain the number of people residing within its borders. The current census now includes household information.

The most recent census (as of 2011) emphasized reaching rural and remote areas to map the most accurate population count in the country. The 2010 census was conducted in November and December, and its results were published 27 January 2011.

The following table shows the dates the most recent censuses were made, and the total population number.

Recent Ecuadorian censuses

No.	Date	Population	Density	Change since previous census
1	Census 2001	12,156,608	53.8
2	Census 2010	14,306,876	55.8	+14%

Index of growth:

Percentage of population growth (census periods)

No.	Time lapse	Growth percentile
1	1950–1962	2.96%
2	1962–1974	3.10%
3	1974–1982	2.62%
4	1982–1990	2.19%
5	1990–2001	2.05%
6	2001–2010	1.52%

UN estimates

According to the 2022 revision of the World Population Prospects the total population was 17,797,737 in 2021, compared to only 3,470,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2015 was 29.0%, 63.4% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 6.7% was 65 years or older.

	Total population (x 1000)	Proportion aged 0–14 (%)	Proportion aged 15–64 (%)	Proportion aged 65+ (%)
1950	3 470	39.5	55.2	5.3
1955	3 957	41.6	53.5	4.9
1960	4 546	43.3	52.0	4.7
1965	5 250	44.5	51.0	4.5
1970	6 073	44.3	51.5	4.3
1975	6 987	43.7	52.2	4.1
1980	7 976	41.8	54.1	4.1
1985	9 046	40.0	55.9	4.1
1990	10 218	38.2	57.5	4.3
1995	11 441	36.3	59.1	4.6
2000	12 629	34.7	60.3	5.0
2005	13 826	33.1	61.5	5.4
2010	15 011	31.0	63.0	6.0
2015	16 212	29.1	64.3	6.6
2020	17 643	27.4	65.0	7.6

Structure of the population

Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (01.VII.2013) (Excludes nomadic Indian tribes. Data refer to projections based on the 2010 Population Census.):

Age group	Male	Female	Total	%
Total	7 815 935	7 958 814	15 774 749	100
0–4	864 669	826 731	1 691 400	10.72
5–9	854 691	816 503	1 671 194	10.59
10–14	815 838	783 725	1 599 563	10.14
15–19	756 376	737 082	1 493 458	9.47
20–24	685 997	682 849	1 368 846	8.68
25–29	620 881	635 987	1 256 868	7.97
30–34	559 055	593 148	1 152 203	7.30
35–39	495 340	538 054	1 033 394	6.55
40–44	437 744	476 215	913 959	5.79
45–49	387 618	419 090	806 708	5.11
50–54	336 267	360 935	697 202	4.42
55–59	279 746	298 503	578 249	3.67
60–64	223 411	238 973	462 384	2.93
65–69	172 623	187 448	360 071	2.28
70–74	128 033	142 255	270 288	1.71
75–79	89 929	101 191	191 120	1.21
80–84	57 585	64 467	122 052	0.77
85–89	31 289	34 891	66 180	0.42
90–94	13 655	15 370	29 025	0.18
95–99	4 898	5 145	10 043	0.06
100+	290	252	542	0.03
Age group	Male	Female	Total	Percent
0–14	2 535 198	2 426 959	4 962 157	31.46
15–64	4 782 435	4 980 836	9 763 271	61.89
65+	498 302	551 019	1 049 321	6.65

Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group (01.VII.2021) (Excludes nomadic Indian tribes.):

Age Group	Male	Female	Total	%
Total	8 783 789	8 967 488	17 751 277	100
0–4	845 954	808 798	1 654 752	9.32
5–9	853 987	817 229	1 671 216	9.41
10–14	861 741	823 598	1 685 339	9.49
15–19	833 964	798 770	1 632 734	9.20
20–24	778 930	755 659	1 534 589	8.64
25–29	712 218	706 341	1 418 559	7.99
30–34	647 958	658 656	1 306 614	7.36
35–39	590 249	618 416	1 208 665	6.81
40–44	528 482	571 807	1 100 289	6.20
45–49	464 207	509 979	974 186	5.49
50–54	406 015	446 926	852 941	4.80
55–59	350 539	387 801	738 340	4.16
60–64	290 143	324 072	614 215	3.46
65–69	226 290	257 338	483 628	2.72
70–74	165 840	194 960	360 800	2.03
75–79	112 069	138 213	250 282	1.41
80–84	66 621	85 696	152 317	0.86
85–89	32 786	42 792	75 578	0.43
90–94	12 487	16 097	28 584	0.16
95–99	3 192	4 184	7 376	0.04
100+	117	156	273	<0.01
Age group	Male	Female	Total	Percent
0–14	2 561 682	2 449 625	5 011 307	28.23
15–64	5 602 705	5 778 427	11 381 132	64.11
65+	619 402	739 436	1 358 838	7.65

Vital statistics

Registration of vital events is in Ecuador not complete. The Population Department of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.

Period	Live births per year	Deaths per year	Natural change per year	CBR*	CDR*	NC*	TFR*	IMR*	Life expectancy
									total	males	females
1950–1955	169,000	71,000	98,000	45.6	19.2	26.4	6.75	140	48.4	47.1	49.6
1955–1960	190,000	71,000	119,000	44.8	16.7	28.1	6.75	129	51.4	50.1	52.7
1960–1965	214,000	71,000	143,000	43.6	14.5	29.1	6.65	119	54.7	53.4	56.1
1965–1970	239,000	73,000	166,000	42.2	13.0	29.2	6.40	107	56.8	55.4	58.2
1970–1975	258,000	74,000	184,000	39.6	11.4	28.2	5.80	95	58.9	57.4	60.5
1975–1980	270,000	71,000	199,000	36.2	9.5	26.7	5.05	82	61.4	59.7	63.2
1980–1985	285,000	68,000	217,000	33.5	8.0	25.5	4.45	69	64.5	62.5	66.7
1985–1990	302,000	64,000	238,000	31.4	6.7	24.7	4.00	56	67.5	65.3	69.9
1990–1995	311,000	63,000	248,000	28.7	5.8	22.9	3.55	44	70.1	67.6	72.7
1995–2000	316,000	64,000	252,000	26.3	5.4	20.9	3.20	33	72.3	69.7	75.2
2000–2005	313,000	68,000	245,000	24.2	5.1	19.1	2.94	25	74.2	71.3	77.3
2005–2010	323,000	74,000	249,000	22.1	5.0	17.1	2.69	21	75.0	72.1	78.1
2010–2015	329,000	80,000	249,000	21.0	5.1	15.9	2.56	17	76.4	73.6	79.3
2015–2020	330,000	85,000	245,000	19.9	5.1	14.8	2.44	14	77.6	74.9	80.4
2020–2025				18.5	5.2	13.3	2.32
2025–2030				17.0	5.4	11.6	2.22
* 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

Year	Population	Live births	Deaths	Natural increase	Crude birth rate	Crude death rate	Rate of natural increase	Crude migration rate	TFR
1990	10,149,666	310,233	50,217	260,016	30.6	4.9	25.7
1991	10,355,598	312,007	53,333	258,674	30.1	5.2	24.9	-5.0
1992	10,567,946	319,044	53,430	265,614	30.2	5.1	25.1	-5.0
1993	10,786,984	333,920	52,453	281,467	31.0	4.9	26.1	-5.8
1994	11,012,925	318,063	51,165	266,898	28.9	4.6	24.3	-3.8
1995	11,246,107	322,856	50,867	271,989	28.7	4.5	24.2	-3.0
1996	11,486,884	335,194	52,300	282,894	29.2	4.6	24.6	-3.2
1997	11,735,391	326,174	52,089	274,085	27.8	4.4	23.4	-1.8
1998	11,992,073	316,779	54,357	262,422	26.4	4.5	21.9	0
1999	12,257,190	353,159	55,921	297,238	28.8	4.6	24.2	-2.1
2000	12,531,210	356,065	56,420	299,645	28.4	4.5	23.9	-1.5
2001	12,814,503	341,710	55,214	286,496	26.7	4.3	22.4	0.2
2002	13,093,527	334,601	55,549	279,052	25.6	4.2	21.4	0.4
2003	13,319,575	322,227	53,521	268,706	24.2	4.0	20.2	-2.9
2004	13,551,875	312,210	54,729	257,481	23.0	4.0	19.0	-1.6
2005	13,721,297	305,302	56,825	248,477	22.3	4.1	18.2	-5.7
2006	13,964,606	322,030	57,940	264,090	23.1	4.1	19.0	-1.3
2007	14,214,982	322,494	58,016	264,478	22.7	4.1	18.6	-0.7
2008	14,472,881	325,423	60,023	265,400	22.5	4.1	18.4	-0.3
2009	14,738,472	332,859	59,714	273,145	22.6	4.1	18.5	-0.1
2010	15,012,228	320,997	61,681	259,316	21.4	4.1	17.3	1.3
2011	15,266,431	329,061	62,304	266,757	21.6	4.1	17.5	-0.6	2.737
2012	15,520,973	319,127	63,511	255,616	20.6	4.1	16.5	0.2	2.684
2013	15,774,749	294,441	64,206	230,235	18.8	4.1	14.7	1.7	2.634
2014	16,027,466	289,488	63,788	225,700	18.3	4.1	14.2	1.8	2.587
2015	16,278,844	289,561	65,391	222,158	17.8	4.0	13.8	1.9	2.542
2016	16,528,730	274,643	68,304	203,786	17.0	4.1	12.9	2.5	2.499
2017	16,776,977	291,397	70,144	221,353	17.4	4.2	13.2	1.8
2018	17,023,408	293,139	71,982	221,157	17.3	4.2	13.1	1.6
2019	17,267,986	285,827	74,439	211,388	16.6	4.3	12.3	2.1
2020	17,510,643	266,919	117,200	149,719	15.2	6.7	8.5	5.6
2021	17,684,000	251,978	106,211	145,767	14.2	5.9	8.3	1.6
2022(c)	16,938,986	251,034	91,193	159,841	14.0	5.1	8.9
2023		238,772	87,733	151,039	13.2	4.9	8.3

(c) = Census results.

Vital statistics for 2021 – 2022

Period	Live births	Deaths	Natural increase
January - May 2023		36,912
January - April 2023		32,860
Difference		-4,052 (-10.98%)

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated. Population: 15,007,343 (July 2011 est.)

Median Age

Total: 28.8 years. Country comparison to the world: 153rd

Male: 28.0 years (2020 est.)

Female: 29.6 years (2020 est.)

Population growth rate

1.443% (2011 est.)

Net migration rate

-0.52 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 est.)

-0.81 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)

Sex ratio

at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female

15–64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.93 male(s)/female

total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

HIV/AIDS – adult prevalence rate

0.3% (2007 est.)

HIV/AIDS – people living with HIV/AIDS

26,000 (2007 est.)

HIV/AIDS – deaths

1,400 (2007 est.)

Nationality

noun: Ecuadorian(s)

adjective: Ecuadorian

Religions

Roman Catholic: approximately 95%

Protestant: approximately 4%

Jewish: below 0.002%

Eastern Orthodox: under 0.2%

Muslim: (Suni) approximately 0.001%

Buddhism: under 0.15%

Animism: beliefs under 0.5%

Atheist: and agnostics: 1%

Languages: Spanish (official), Amerindian languages (especially Quechua).

Achuar-Shiwiar – 2,000 Pastaza province. Alternate names: Achuar, Achual, Achuara, Achuale.

Chachi – 3,450 Esmeraldas Province, Cayapas River system. Alternate names: Cayapa, Cha' Palaachi.

Colorado – 2,300 Santo Domingo de los Colorados province. Alternate names: Tsachila, Tsafiki.

Quechua – 9 separate dialects are spoken in as many areas in the country with a combined population of 1,460,000.

Shuar – 46,669 (2000 WCD). Morona-Santiago Province. Alternate names: Jivaro, Xivaro, Jibaro, Chiwaro, Shuara.

Waorani – 1,650 (2004). Napo and Morona-Santiago provinces. Alternate names: Huaorani, Waodani, Wao, Huao, Auca (pejorative).

Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 91%

male: 92.3%

female: 89.7% (2003 est.)

Geography

Due to the prevalence of malaria and yellow fever in the coastal region until the end of the 19th century, the Ecuadorian population was most heavily concentrated in the highlands and valleys of the "Sierra" region. Today's population is distributed more evenly between the "Sierra" and the "Costa" (the coastal lowlands) region. Migration towards the cities—particularly larger cities—in all regions has increased the urban population to about 55 percent.

The "Oriente" region, consisting of Amazonian lowlands to the east of the Andes and covering about half the country's land area, remains sparsely populated and contains only about 3% of the country's population, that for the most are indigenous peoples who maintain a wary distance from the recent Mestizo and white settlers. The territories of the "Oriente" are home to as many as nine indigenous groups: Quichua, Shuar, Achuar, Waorani, Siona, Secoya, Shiwiar, and Cofan, all represented politically by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon, CONFENIAE.

As a result of the oil exploration and the development of the infrastructure required for the exploitation of the oil fields in the eastern jungles during the seventies and early eighties, there was a wave of settlement in the region. The Majority of these wave of internal immigration came from the southern province of Loja as a result of a drought that lasted three years and affected the southern provinces of the country. This boom of the petroleum industry has led to a mushrooming of the town of Lago Agrio (Nueva Loja) as well as substantial deforestation and pollution of wetlands and lakes.

Nationality, ethnicity, and race

Ethnicity in Ecuador (2022)

  Multiracial (86.62%)

  Amerindian (7.69%)

  Sub-Saharan (3.36%)

  Caucasian (2.21%)

  Others (0.12%)

The Ecuadorian constitution recognizes the pluri-nationality of those who want to exercise their affiliation with their native ethnic groups. There are five major ethnic groups in Ecuador: Mestizo, European, Afroecuadorian, Amerindian, and Montubio. Mestizos constitute more than 85% of the population. According to genealogical DNA testing done in 2015, the average Ecuadorian is estimated to be 52.96% Amerindian, 41.77% European, and 5.26% Sub-Saharan African overall. Prior to this, a genetic study done in 2008 by the University of Brasília, estimated that Ecuadorian genetic admixture was 64.6% Amerindian, 31.0% European, and 4.4% African.

Ecuador's population descends from Spanish immigrants and South American Amerindians, admixed with descendants of black slaves who arrived to work on coastal plantations in the sixteenth century. The mix of these groups is described as Mestizo or Cholo. Censuses do not record ethnic affiliation, which in any event remains fluid; thus, estimates of the numbers of each group should be taken only as approximations. In the 1980s, Amerindians and Mestizos represented the bulk of the population, with each group accounting for roughly 40 percent of total population. Whites represented 10 to 15 percent and blacks the remaining 5 percent.

According to Kluck, writing in 1989, ethnic groups in Ecuador have had a traditional hierarchy of white, Mestizo, blacks, and then others. Her review depicts this hierarchy as a consequence of colonial attitudes and of the terminology of colonial legal distinctions. Spanish-born persons residing in the New World (peninsulares) were at the top of the social hierarchy, followed by criollos, born of two Spanish parents in the colonies. The 19th century usage of Mestizo was to denote a person whose parents were an Amerindian and a white; a Cholo had one Amerindian and one Mestizo parent. By the 20th century, Mestizo and Cholo were frequently used interchangeably. Kluck suggested that societal relationships, occupation, manners, and clothing all derived from ethnic affiliation.

Nonetheless, according to Kluck, individuals could potentially switch ethnic affiliation if they had culturally adapted to the recipient group; such switches were made without resort to subterfuge. Moreover, the precise criteria for defining ethnic groups varies considerably. The vocabulary that more prosperous Mestizos and whites used in describing ethnic groups mixes social and biological characteristics. Ethnic affiliation thus is dynamic; Indians often become Mestizos, and prosperous Mestizos seek to improve their status sufficiently to be considered whites. Ethnic identity reflects numerous characteristics, only one of which is physical appearance; others include dress, language, community membership, and self-identification.

A geography of ethnicity remained well-defined until the surge in migration that began in the 1950s. Whites resided primarily in larger cities. Mestizos lived in small towns scattered throughout the countryside. Indians formed the bulk of the Sierra rural populace, although Mestizos filled this role in the areas with few Indians. Most blacks lived in Esmeraldas Province, with small enclaves found in the Carchi and Imbabura provinces. Pressure on Sierra land resources and the dissolution of the traditional hacienda, however, increased the numbers of Indians migrating to the Costa, the Oriente, and the cities. By the 1980s, Sierra Indians—or Indians in the process of switching their ethnic identity to that of Mestizos—lived on Costa plantations, in Quito, Guayaquil, and other cities, and in colonization areas in the Oriente and the Costa. Indeed, Sierra Amerindians residing in the coastal region substantially outnumbered the remaining original Costa inhabitants, the Cayapa and Colorado Indians. In the late 1980s, analysts estimated that there were only about 4,000 Cayapas and Colorados. Some blacks had migrated from the remote region of the Ecuadorian-Colombian border to the towns and cities of Esmeraldas.

Afro-Ecuadorian

Main article: Afro-Ecuadorian people

Afro-Ecuadorians are an ethnic group in Ecuador who are descendants of black African slaves brought by the Spanish during their conquest of Ecuador from the Incas. They make up from 3% to 5% of Ecuador's population.

Ecuador has a population of about 1,120,000 descendants from African people. The Afro-Ecuadorian culture is found primarily in the country's northwest coastal region. Africans form a majority (70%) in the province of Esmeraldas and also have an important concentration in the Valle del Chota in the Imbabura Province. They can be also found in important numbers in Quito and Guayaquil.

Indigenous

Main article: Indigenous peoples in Ecuador

Sierra Indigenous

Otavalo girl from Ecuador

Sierra Indigenous had an estimated population of 1.5 to 2 million in the early 1980s and live in the intermontane valleys of the Andes. Prolonged contact with Hispanic culture, which dates back to the conquest, has had a homogenizing effect, reducing the variation among the indigenous Sierra tribes.

The Indigenous people of the Sierra are separated from whites and Mestizos by a caste-like gulf. They are marked as a disadvantaged group; to be an Indigenous person in Ecuador is to be stigmatized. Poverty rates are higher and literacy rates are lower among Indigenous than the general population. They enjoy limited participation in national institutions and are often excluded from social and economic opportunities available to more privileged groups. However, some groups of Indigenous, such as the Otavalo people, have increased their socioeconomic status to extent that they enjoy a higher standard of living than many other Indigenous groups in Ecuador and many Mestizos of their area.

Visible markers of ethnic affiliation, especially hairstyle, dress, and language, separate Indigenous from the rest of the populace. Indigenous wore more manufactured items by the late 1970s than previously; their clothing, nonetheless, was distinct from that of other rural inhabitants. Indigenous in communities relying extensively on wage labor sometimes assumed Western-style dress while still maintaining their Indigenous identity. Indigenous speak Spanish and, Quichua—a Quechua dialect—although most are bilingual, speaking Spanish as a second language with varying degrees of facility. By the late 1980s, some younger Indigenous no longer learned Quichua.

Oriente Indigenous

Waorani village

Although the Amerindians of the Oriente first came into contact with Europeans in the 16th century, the encounters were more sporadic than those of most of the country's indigenous population. Until the 19th century, most non-Amerindians entering the region were either traders or missionaries. Beginning in the 1950s, however, the government built roads and encouraged settlers from the Sierra to colonize the Amazon River Basin. Virtually all remaining Indians were brought into increasing contact with national society. The interaction between Indians and outsiders had a profound impact on the indigenous way of life.

In the late 1970s, roughly 30,000 Quichua speakers and 15,000 Jívaros lived in Oriente Indigenous communities. Quichua speakers (sometimes referred to as the Yumbos) grew out of the detribalization of members of many different groups after the Spanish conquest. Subject to the influence of Quichua-speaking missionaries and traders, various elements of the Yumbos adopted the tongue as a lingua franca and gradually lost their previous languages and tribal origins. Yumbos were scattered throughout the Oriente, whereas the Jívaros—subdivided into the Shuar and the Achuar—were concentrated in southeastern Ecuador. Some also lived in northeastern Peru. Traditionally, both groups relied on migration to resolve intracommunity conflict and to limit the ecological damage to the tropical forest caused by slash-and-burn agriculture.

Both the Yumbos and the Jívaros depended on agriculture as their primary means of subsistence. Manioc, the main staple, was grown in conjunction with a wide variety of other fruits and vegetables. Yumbo men also resorted to wage labor to obtain cash for the few purchases deemed necessary. By the mid-1970s, increasing numbers of Quichua speakers settled around some of the towns and missions of the Oriente. Indians themselves had begun to make a distinction between Christian and jungle Indians. The former engaged in trade with townspeople. The Jívaros, in contrast to the Christian Quichua speakers, lived in more remote areas. Their mode of horticulture was similar to that of the non-Christian Yumbos, although they supplemented crop production with hunting and some livestock raising.

Shamans (curanderos) played a pivotal role in social relations in both groups. As the main leaders and the focus of local conflicts, shamans were believed to both cure and kill through magical means. In the 1980s group conflicts between rival shamans still erupted into full-scale feuds with loss of life.

The Oriente Indigenous population dropped precipitously during the initial period of intensive contact with outsiders. The destruction of their crops by Mestizos laying claim to indigenous lands, the rapid exposure to diseases to which Indians lacked immunity, and the extreme social disorganization all contributed to increased mortality and decreased birth rates. One study of the Shuar in the 1950s found that the group between ten and nineteen years of age was smaller than expected. This was the group that had been youngest and most vulnerable during the initial contact with national society. Normal population growth rates began to reestablish themselves after approximately the first decade of such contact.

Culture

A woman in Ecuadorian garment participating in the 2010 Carnaval del Pueblo

Main article: Culture of Ecuador

Ecuador's mainstream culture is defined by its Hispanic Mestizo majority, and like their ancestry, it is traditionally of Spanish heritage, influenced in different degrees by Amerindian traditions, and in some cases by African elements. The first and most substantial wave of modern immigration to Ecuador consisted of Spanish colonists, following the arrival of Europeans in 1499. A lower number of other Europeans and North Americans migrated to the country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in smaller numbers, Poles, Lithuanians, English, Irish, and Croats during and after the Second World War.

Since African slavery was not the workforce of the Spanish colonies in the Andes Mountains of South America, given the subjugation of the indigenous people through evangelism and encomiendas, the minority population of African descent is mostly found in the coastal northern province of Esmeraldas. According to local fables, this is largely owing to the 17th century shipwreck of a slave-trading galleon off the northern coast of Ecuador.

Ecuador's indigenous communities are integrated into the mainstream culture to varying degrees, but some may also practice their own indigenous cultures, particularly the more remote indigenous communities of the Amazon basin. Spanish is spoken as the first language by more than 90% of the population, and as a first or second language by more than 98%. Part of Ecuador's population can speak Amerindian languages, in some cases as a second language. Two percent of the population speak only Amerindian languages.

Language

Most Ecuadorians speak Spanish, though many speak Amerindian languages such as Kichwa. People that identify as Mestizo, in general, speak Spanish as their native language. Other Amerindian languages spoken in Ecuador include Awapit (spoken by the Awá), A'ingae (spoken by the Cofan), Shuar Chicham (spoken by the Shuar), Achuar-Shiwiar (spoken by the Achuar and the Shiwiar), Cha'palaachi (spoken by the Chachi), Tsa'fiki (spoken by the Tsáchila), Paicoca (spoken by the Siona and Secoya), and Wao Tededeo (spoken by the Waorani). Though most features of Ecuadorian Spanish are those universal to the Spanish-speaking world, there are several idiosyncrasies.

Religion

Main article: Religion in Ecuador

According to the Ecuadorian National Institute of Statistics and Census, 91.95% of the country's population have a religion, 7.94% are atheists and 0.11% are agnostics. Among those with a religion, 80.44% are Roman Catholic, 11.30% are Protestants, and 8.26% other (mainly Jewish, Buddhists and Latter-day Saints).

In the rural parts of Ecuador, indigenous beliefs and Catholicism are sometimes syncretized. Most festivals and annual parades are based on religious celebrations, many incorporating a mixture of rites and icons.

There is a small number of Eastern Orthodox Christians, indigenous religions, Muslims (see Islam in Ecuador), Buddhists and Baháʼís. There are about 185,000 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and over 80,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in the country.

The "Jewish Community of Ecuador" (Comunidad Judía del Ecuador) has its seat in Quito and has approximately 300 members. Nevertheless, this number is declining because young people leave the country towards the United States of America or Israel. The Community has a Jewish Center with a synagogue, a country club and a cemetery. It supports the "Albert Einstein School", where Jewish history, religion and Hebrew classes are offered. Since 2004, there has also been a Chabad house in Quito.

There are very small communities in Cuenca and Ambato. The "Comunidad de Culto Israelita" reunites the Jews of Guayaquil. This community works independently from the "Jewish Community of Ecuador". Jewish visitors to Ecuador can also take advantage of Jewish resources as they travel and keep kosher there, even in the Amazon Rainforest. The city has also synagogue of Messianic Judaism.

Music

Main article: Music of Ecuador

Julio Jaramillo is an icon of music.

The music of Ecuador has a long history. Pasillo is a genre of Indigenous Latin music. In Ecuador it is the "national genre of music." Through the years, many cultures have influenced to establish new types of music. There are also different kinds of traditional music like albazo, pasacalle, fox incaico, tonada, capishca, Bomba highly established in afro-Ecuadorian society like Esmeraldas, and so on.

Tecnocumbia and Rockola are clear examples of foreign cultures' influence. One of the most traditional forms of dancing in Ecuador is Sanjuanito. It is originally from the north of Ecuador (Otavalo-Imbabura). Sanjuanito is a danceable music used in the festivities of the Mestizo and Indigenous culture. According to the Ecuadorian musicologist Segundo Luis Moreno, Sanjuanito was danced by Indigenous people during San Juan Bautista's birthday. This important date was established by the Spaniards on 24 June, coincidentally the same date when Indigenous people celebrated their rituals of Inti Raymi.

Cuisine

Ecuadorian ceviche, made of shrimp and lemon, onions and some herbs. Tomato sauce and orange are used at some places, but does not form a part of the basic recipe.

Ecuadorian cuisine is diverse, varying with the altitude and associated agricultural conditions. Most regions in Ecuador follow the traditional three course meal of soup, a second course which includes rice and a protein such as meat or fish, and then dessert and coffee to finish. Supper is usually lighter, and sometimes consists only of coffee or herbal tea with bread.

In the highland region, pork, chicken, beef, and cuy (guinea pig) are popular and are served with a variety of grains (especially rice and corn) or potatoes.

In the coastal region, seafood is very popular, with fish, shrimp and ceviche being key parts of the diet. Generally, ceviches are served with fried plantain (chifles y patacones), popcorn or tostado. Plantain- and peanut-based dishes are the basis of most coastal meals. Encocados (dishes that contain a coconut sauce) are also very popular. Churrasco is a staple food of the coastal region, especially Guayaquil. Arroz con menestra y carne asada (rice with beans and grilled beef) is one of the traditional dishes of Guayaquil, as is fried plantain which is often served with it. This region is a leading producer of bananas, cacao beans (to make chocolate), shrimp, tilapia, mangos and passion fruit, among other products.

In the Amazon region, a dietary staple is the yuca, elsewhere called cassava. Many fruits are available in this region, including bananas, tree grapes, and peach palms.

Literature

Juan Montalvo

Early literature in colonial Ecuador, as in the rest of Spanish America, was influenced by the Spanish Golden Age. One of the earliest examples is Jacinto Collahuazo, an indigenous chief of a northern village in today's Ibarra, born in the late 1600s. Despite the early repression and discrimination of the native people by the Spanish, Collahuazo learned to read and write in Castilian, but his work was written in Quechua. The use of the Quipu was banned by the Spanish, and in order to preserve their work, many Inca poets had to resort to the use of the Latin alphabet to write in their native Quechua language. The history behind the Inca drama "Ollantay", the oldest literary piece in existence for any indigenous language in America, shares some similarities with the work of Collahuazo. Collahuazo was imprisoned, and all of his work burned. The existence of his literary work came to light many centuries later, when a crew of masons was restoring the walls of a colonial church in Quito, and found a hidden manuscript. The salvaged fragment is a Spanish translation from Quechua of the "Elegy to the Dead of Atahualpa", a poem written by Collahuazo, which describes the sadness and impotence of the Inca people of having lost their king Atahualpa.

Other early Ecuadorian writers include the Jesuits Juan Bautista Aguirre, born in Daule in 1725, and Father Juan de Velasco, born in Riobamba in 1727. De Velasco wrote about the nations and chiefdoms that had existed in the Kingdom of Quito (today Ecuador) before the arrival of the Spanish. His historical accounts are nationalistic, featuring a romantic perspective of precolonial history.

Famous authors from the late colonial and early republic period include: Eugenio Espejo a printer and main author of the first newspaper in Ecuadorian colonial times; Jose Joaquin de Olmedo (born in Guayaquil), famous for his ode to Simón Bolívar titled La Victoria de Junin; Juan Montalvo, a prominent essayist and novelist; Juan Leon Mera, famous for his work "Cumanda" or "Tragedy among Savages" and the Ecuadorian National Anthem; Luis A. Martínez with A la Costa, Dolores Veintimilla, and others.

Contemporary Ecuadorian writers include the novelist Jorge Enrique Adoum; the poet Jorge Carrera Andrade; the essayist Benjamín Carrión; the poets Medardo Angel Silva, Jorge Carrera Andrade; the novelist Enrique Gil Gilbert; the novelist Jorge Icaza (author of the novel Huasipungo, translated to many languages); the short story author Pablo Palacio; the novelist Alicia Yanez Cossio; U.S. based Ecuadorian poet Emanuel Xavier.

Art

The best known art styles from Ecuador belonged to the Escuela Quiteña, which developed from the 16th to 18th centuries, examples of which are on display in various old churches in Quito. Ecuadorian painters include: Eduardo Kingman, Oswaldo Guayasamín and Camilo Egas from the Indiginist Movement; Manuel Rendón, Jaime Zapata, Enrique Tábara, Aníbal Villacís, Theo Constante, León Ricaurte and Estuardo Maldonado from the Informalist Movement; and Luis Burgos Flor with his abstract, Futuristic style. The indigenous people of Tigua, Ecuador are also world-renowned for their traditional paintings.

Sport

Main article: Sport in Ecuador

Jefferson Pérez, Olympian gold medalist

Estadio Monumental of Guayaquil

Nicolás Lapentti

The most popular sport in Ecuador, as in most South American countries, is football (soccer). Its best known professional teams include Barcelona and Emelec from Guayaquil; LDU Quito, Deportivo Quito, and El Nacional from Quito; Olmedo from Riobamba; and Deportivo Cuenca from Cuenca. Currently the most successful football club in Ecuador is LDU Quito, and it is the only Ecuadorian club that have won the Copa Libertadores, the Copa Sudamericana and the Recopa Sudamericana; they were also runners-up in the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup. The matches of the Ecuador national team are the most-watched sporting events in the country. Ecuador qualified for the final rounds of the 2002, 2006, and 2014 FIFA World Cups. The 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign was considered a huge success for the country and its inhabitants. Ecuador finished in 2nd place on the qualifiers behind Argentina and above the team that would become World Champion, Brazil. In the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Ecuador finished ahead of Poland and Costa Rica to come in second to Germany in Group A in the 2006 World Cup. Futsal, often referred to as índor, is particularly popular for mass participation.

There is considerable interest in tennis in the middle and upper classes of Ecuadorian society, and several Ecuadorian professional players have attained international fame. Basketball has a high profile, while Ecuador's specialties include Ecuavolley, a three-person variation of volleyball. Bullfighting is practiced at a professional level in Quito, during the annual festivities that commemorate the Spanish founding of the city, and it also features in festivals in many smaller towns. Rugby union is found to some extent in Ecuador, with teams in Guayaquil, Quito and Cuenca.

Ecuador has won three medals in the Olympic Games. 20 km racewalker Jefferson Pérez took gold in the 1996 games, and silver 12 years later. Pérez also set a world best in the 2003 World Championships of 1:17:21 for the 20 km distance. Cyclist Richard Carapaz, the winner of 2019 Giro d'Italia, won a gold medal at the road cycling race of the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Migration trends

See also: 1998–1999 Ecuador economic crisis

In recent decades, there has been a high rate of emigration due to the economic crisis that seriously affected the economy of the country in the 1990s, over 400,000 Ecuadorians left for Spain and Italy, and around 100,000 for the United Kingdom while several hundred thousand Ecuadorians live in the US, (500,000 by some estimates) mostly in the cities of the Northeastern corridor. Many other Ecuadorians have emigrated across Latin America, thousands have gone to Japan and Australia. One famous American of Ecuadorian descent is pop music vocalist Christina Aguilera.

In Ecuador there are about 100,000 Americans and over 30,000 European Union expatriates. They move to Ecuador for business opportunities and as cheaper place for retirement.

As a result of the political conflict in Colombia and of the criminal gangs that had appeared in the areas of power vacuum a constant flow of refugees and asylum seekers as well as economic migrants of Colombian origin had moved into Ecuadorian territory. Over the last decade at least 45,000 displaced people are now residents in Ecuador, the Ecuadorian government and international organizations are assisting them. According to the UNHCR 2009 report as many as 167,189 refugees and asylum seekers are temporary residents in Ecuador.

Following the migratory trend to Europe many of the jobs that those that left held in the country had been taken over by Peruvian economic migrants. Those jobs are mostly in agriculture and unskilled labor. There are no official statistics but some press reports estimate their number into the tens of thousands.

There is a diverse community of Middle Eastern Ecuadorians, numbering in the tens of thousands, mostly from Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian descent; prominent in commerce and industry, and concentrated in the coastal cities of Guayaquil, Quevedo and Machala. They are well assimilated into the local culture and are referred commonly as "turcos" since the early migrants of these communities arrived with passports issued by the Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the century.

Ecuador is also home to communities of Spaniards, Italians, Germans, Portuguese, French, Britons and Greek-Ecuadorians. Ecuadorian Jews, who number around 450 are mostly of German or Italian descent. There are 225,000 English speakers and 112,000 German speakers in Ecuador of which the great majority reside in Quito, mainly all descendants of immigrants who arrived in the late 19th century and of retired emigrees that returned to their terroir. Most of the descendants of European immigrants strive for the preservation of their heritage. Therefore, some groups even have their own schools (e.g. German School Guayaquil and German School Quito), Liceé La Condamine (French Heritage), Alberto Einstein (Jewish Heritage) and The British School of Quito (Anglo-British), cultural and social organizations, churches and country clubs. Their contribution for the social, political and economical development of the country is immense, specially in relation to their percentage in the total population. Most of the families of European heritage belong to the Ecuadorian upper class and had married into the wealthiest families of the country.

There is also a small Asian-Ecuadorian (see Asian Latino) community estimated in a range from 2,500 to 25,000, mainly consists of those having any amount of Chinese Han descent, and possibly 10,000 being Japanese whose ancestors arrived as miners, farm hands and fishermen in the late 19th century. Guayaquil has an East Asian community, mostly Chinese including Taiwanese, and Japanese, as well as a Southeast Asian community, mostly Filipinos.

See also

• Ecuadorian census
• Indigenous peoples in Ecuador
• Afro Ecuadorian
• Lebanese people in Ecuador
• Culture of Ecuador
• Social class in Ecuador
• Family in Ecuador
• Ecuadorian Americans
• Hispanics

External links

• [1]
• Leading ethnicity map in Ecuador by 2010 census